"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.
Pulled off the highway in Missouri
And lo, our hearts were heavy laden
Made for the chapel with some spraypaint
For all the things we'd held in secret
Lord, lift up these lifeless bones
Light cascading through the windows
All the rainbow's heavy tones
He has fixed his sign in the sky
He has raised me from the pit and set me high
Left that place in ruin
Drunk on the spirit and high on fumes
Checked into a Red Roof Inn
Stayed up for several hours and then slept like infants
In the burning fuselage of my days
Let my mouth be ever fresh with praise
He has fixed his sign in the sky
He has raised me from the pit and set me high
Each morning new
Each day shot through
With all the sharp, small shards of shrapnel
That seem to burst out of me and you
Head down toward Kansas
We will get there when we get there, don't you worry
Feel bad about the things we do along the way
But not really that bad
We inhaled the frozen air
Lord, send me a mechanic if I'm not beyond repair
He has fixed his sign in the sky
He has raised from the pit and he will set me high
And lo, our hearts were heavy laden
Made for the chapel with some spraypaint
For all the things we'd held in secret
Lord, lift up these lifeless bones
Light cascading through the windows
All the rainbow's heavy tones
He has fixed his sign in the sky
He has raised me from the pit and set me high
Left that place in ruin
Drunk on the spirit and high on fumes
Checked into a Red Roof Inn
Stayed up for several hours and then slept like infants
In the burning fuselage of my days
Let my mouth be ever fresh with praise
He has fixed his sign in the sky
He has raised me from the pit and set me high
Each morning new
Each day shot through
With all the sharp, small shards of shrapnel
That seem to burst out of me and you
Head down toward Kansas
We will get there when we get there, don't you worry
Feel bad about the things we do along the way
But not really that bad
We inhaled the frozen air
Lord, send me a mechanic if I'm not beyond repair
He has fixed his sign in the sky
He has raised from the pit and he will set me high
Lyrics submitted by mdon06, edited by irate13, embassyrow
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Fast Car
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Ed Sheeran tells a story of unsuccessfully trying to feel “Amazing.” This track is about the being weighed down by emotional stress despite valiant attempts to find some positivity in the situation. This track was written by Ed Sheeran from the perspective of his friend. From the track, we see this person fall deeper into the negative thoughts and slide further down the path of mental torment with every lyric.
Plastic Bag
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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.
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I get the sense of a religious fanatic trying to send a message to mainstream worshipers, kind of like a modern day Martin Luther, but instead of nailing his complaints to the church doors, he's using spray paint, "tagging for the Lord," you might say. The music matches so well the sense that the narrator feels that he really has found the answer to things the rest of us don't understand, and that he has a duty (and desperate need) to share it with us.
This is a song about a pair or group of misguided, troubled individuals on a road trip. Along the way they cause all sorts of ruckus and trouble, including but not limited to defacing a church. Despite this, the narrator, either being still religious or used to be and is no longer, is still looking for redemption from God for the state he or she is in.
Much love for "Each morning new, each day shot through!". This song rocks and JD is the one of the few reasons religion intrigues me.
Psalm 40 starts out (and afterward continues likewise):
(1) I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. (2) He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. (3) And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God...
This song is so fucking killer. Maniacal faith, in a good way.
john has said that it's about some teenagers defacing a church.
& subsequently, i'm assuming, about equal parts bitterness and reverence towards religion.
John explained this song at a show I saw this weekend. He told a story about him and Peter Hughes driving from a show in Lawrence, Kansas. He introduced it by saying that "people in my country love all things kitsch." They pulled off the highway to tour a chapel in which children with giant eyes reenact the stations of the cross.<br /> <br /> "The tour of the (? name) chapel with the children with giant eyes by two guys on meth has been tragically underdocumented"<br /> <br /> I think he is expressing his incredulity with some people's interpretation of religion.
That's the Precious Moments Chapel in Carthage, MO. The Roadside America entry:<br /> roadsideamerica.com/tour/94day5.html
The first line should read, "Lo our hearts," echoing biblical diction.
The first line should read, "Lo our hearts," echoing biblical diction.
and the last word in the line should be "laden" --<br /> <br /> Pulled off the highway. . . and lo, our hearts were heavy laden
Intense.
Lord, send me a mechanic if I'm not beyond repair.
That's the Precious Moments Chapel in Carthage, MO. The Roadside America entry: roadsideamerica.com/tour/94day5.html
Minor typos;
"With all the sharp small shards of shrapnel that seem to burst out of me and you"