"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'm trained for pain
Immenseful strain
Excruciation is my game
Slice through your flesh
Defy me now
Feel the pain, knife driven down
Drill through your teeth
No Novocaine
The open nerves will drive you insane
Remove fingernails
Needles impale
Acetylene torch, it never fails
Regret the day
That you were born
Don't cry to me 'cause you were warned
If you were caught
Cease to exist
The torturer, he adds you to his list
Cold shrieking laugh
Rips through your ears
Watch as he gets his kicks from fears
Destruction source
Ruthless and vain
Once more, it's time for you to
Feel the pain, open nerves deliver
Tortured again, scream out for death
You can never leave my hell-like chamber
You never will breathe the outside air
Bring in the kids
Your boys and girls
Your daughters and sons, it's them we'll kill
Killed whether or not
You start to talk
Bonus body killed to rot
Pendulum swings
Swings right through you
When I return, you will be in two
"C", clamp your head
Pressure force fed
Look in my eyes you will see blood red
Break kneecaps
Left then the right
Next your eyeballs lose your sight
Now do you want
to lose your face
Scalpel in hand I pick the place
One simple slice
Your skin removed
Slow breathing skull, the blood starts to drool
You understand
This is no game
When withholding the truth you must always
Feel the pain, open nerves deliver
Tortured again, scream out for death
You can never leave my hell-like chamber
You never will breathe the outside air
A crushing blow to your head, it begins to bleed
You tell us now the information that we need
Your little girl, hey, we got her just down the hall
You hear her scream, hey fucker, do you hear her call you daddy (x2)
Haunting terror controlling mind, easily
You're watching torture tactics grind relentlessly on you
Pressure constantly applied, tragically
So painful, fear pours from your eyes, pathetically you will die
Immenseful strain
Excruciation is my game
Slice through your flesh
Defy me now
Feel the pain, knife driven down
Drill through your teeth
No Novocaine
The open nerves will drive you insane
Remove fingernails
Needles impale
Acetylene torch, it never fails
Regret the day
That you were born
Don't cry to me 'cause you were warned
If you were caught
Cease to exist
The torturer, he adds you to his list
Cold shrieking laugh
Rips through your ears
Watch as he gets his kicks from fears
Destruction source
Ruthless and vain
Once more, it's time for you to
Feel the pain, open nerves deliver
Tortured again, scream out for death
You can never leave my hell-like chamber
You never will breathe the outside air
Bring in the kids
Your boys and girls
Your daughters and sons, it's them we'll kill
Killed whether or not
You start to talk
Bonus body killed to rot
Pendulum swings
Swings right through you
When I return, you will be in two
"C", clamp your head
Pressure force fed
Look in my eyes you will see blood red
Break kneecaps
Left then the right
Next your eyeballs lose your sight
Now do you want
to lose your face
Scalpel in hand I pick the place
One simple slice
Your skin removed
Slow breathing skull, the blood starts to drool
You understand
This is no game
When withholding the truth you must always
Feel the pain, open nerves deliver
Tortured again, scream out for death
You can never leave my hell-like chamber
You never will breathe the outside air
A crushing blow to your head, it begins to bleed
You tell us now the information that we need
Your little girl, hey, we got her just down the hall
You hear her scream, hey fucker, do you hear her call you daddy (x2)
Haunting terror controlling mind, easily
You're watching torture tactics grind relentlessly on you
Pressure constantly applied, tragically
So painful, fear pours from your eyes, pathetically you will die
Lyrics submitted by BleedorBreathe
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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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,
When We Were Young
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This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
Page
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There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
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“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.