"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him.
There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
Turn away I'll pull the fangs out
Spinning room it's getting dark
This is the green lift, this is the archer
You never say that
This is the green lift, this is the archer
This starry night, the blue of seas
Are lifted off the ground
So poised and still, the figures hold
That I will not be found
Turn away the Islet spiders
Gloaming pulse, the Siletzs stole
This is the green lift, this is the archer
This starry night, the blue of seas
Are lifted off the ground
So poised and still, the figures hold
That I will not be found
This is the green lift, this is the archer
This starry night, the blue of seas
Are lifted off the ground
So poised and still, the figures hold
That I will not be found
And on towards the fortress...
Spinning room it's getting dark
This is the green lift, this is the archer
You never say that
This is the green lift, this is the archer
This starry night, the blue of seas
Are lifted off the ground
So poised and still, the figures hold
That I will not be found
Turn away the Islet spiders
Gloaming pulse, the Siletzs stole
This is the green lift, this is the archer
This starry night, the blue of seas
Are lifted off the ground
So poised and still, the figures hold
That I will not be found
This is the green lift, this is the archer
This starry night, the blue of seas
Are lifted off the ground
So poised and still, the figures hold
That I will not be found
And on towards the fortress...
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
Holiday
Bee Gees
Bee Gees
@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Magical
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
I'm not really sure, but this song sort of reminds me of the story of Enoch, especially the part that says "I will not be found" :Hebrews 11:5 By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.
All I can really contribute is that I read on wikipedia that "the green lift" refers to poison being drawn (from the infected children). Their first CD Crashings was straight up Christian and pretty much all of the songs were very obviously about the struggles and trials we face in our faith and our need for Christ. I love all of their music, but each album has gone more and more abstract; I'm not sure what to make of most of it. And Fangs is certainly a huge step away from all of it, into the strange sci-fi fantasies of Jessy Ribordy.
i know better than to say something like "This song means...." to a song like this, written by a man with such intricate thought processes. And we definitely need to tie Jessy Ribordy to a chair and make him talk. That man has a mind that is full enough of legend, classical literature and trivial knowledge to burst the skull of any average human, and the world is such a better place with him in it.
But i will admit when i hear this song, i feel like i hear it talking about enduring suffering by holding on to what is true and lovely (Philippians 4:8) . In Dante's book Inferno, Acheron is a river around Hell, and in Greek mythology, the river Acheron symbolizes pain. "The green lift" (drawing poison), the archer (poison darts, "flaming arrows" or "fiery darts", Ephesians 6:16), "I'll pull the fangs out" (venom) suggest injury by poison. "Spinning room it's getting dark" (the speaker is suffering--succumbing to the effects of the injury). An islet is a remarkably tiny island; any number of venomous spiders on it would be dangerous because one could not get away from them.
In the chorus, though, it sounds to me as though he is watching the twilight descend, and the sky is turning dark as the Siletz -- an indescribably beautiful but dark, beguiling river on the Northwest coast. For a while, perhaps, he is removed from the attacks he endures day by day as life goes on. He is "poised and still", putting his trust in God to heal, care and fight for him, rather than thrashing about in the attacks and trying to fight them on his own. (Psalm 37:7, Psalm 46:10, Exodus 14:14)
At the end he is still pursuing his way to "the fortress" -- he continues to fight against the discouragement of daily suffering he feels and sees, fights the good fight, continues to where the King he fights for is waiting for him. As i believe Mr. Ribordy and his band are passionate Christ-followers, that King would likely be Jesus.
My two cents...and maybe a little bit more :) . i love this song. It's one of those songs that leaves you feeling as though you don't know how you made it through the day without it, before you found this one..