"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.
I will bleed for the one who gave everything for me
Watch and wait
Read up!
Your going to die for that man whose blood is on my hands
So fess up his name
And be bled dry
You can see the new generation of gang signs
Beware of simple flattery
They'll hand you over in chains
Those who serve and protect just protecting their own best interest
As they serve you up to the flames
But I've got one eye to the sky
I see just one man in the distance
So step up and feel my resistance
Even if we all die
Time is on my side
I laugh inside as they fight him
Prepare to run I can't spell it out plainly
Aww, you're befriending the system
And your gonna get paid
And love grows cold as the sick ones hate you
Never realizing they're the ones getting played
Read the signs of the end of this age
As man makes plans
The flood comes quickly
Our history bathed in blood but lets become the copycat culture war
As this Sunday school mind takes the place of the kingdom
And I'm done with this abomination
Desolation
Vultures, vultures circling
And the world will morn as we flee
I see its over
Time is on my side
Watch and wait
Read up!
Your going to die for that man whose blood is on my hands
So fess up his name
And be bled dry
You can see the new generation of gang signs
Beware of simple flattery
They'll hand you over in chains
Those who serve and protect just protecting their own best interest
As they serve you up to the flames
But I've got one eye to the sky
I see just one man in the distance
So step up and feel my resistance
Even if we all die
Time is on my side
I laugh inside as they fight him
Prepare to run I can't spell it out plainly
Aww, you're befriending the system
And your gonna get paid
And love grows cold as the sick ones hate you
Never realizing they're the ones getting played
Read the signs of the end of this age
As man makes plans
The flood comes quickly
Our history bathed in blood but lets become the copycat culture war
As this Sunday school mind takes the place of the kingdom
And I'm done with this abomination
Desolation
Vultures, vultures circling
And the world will morn as we flee
I see its over
Time is on my side
Lyrics submitted by Nacil
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
American Town
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.