"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.
shepherd me from pain and the doubt
through the broken streets and the hearts
herd me home through hurt and the past
then leave me alone you have no choice
and now there is a white horse caged in my heart
and it's going to kill me just to get out
now there is a white horse caged in my heart
and it's trying to kill me just to get out
though we're different creeds, wear different masks
If you only could conceive that there's a chance
and hell is bent on showing me the dark
shepherd me to light, make it stop.
through the broken streets and the hearts
herd me home through hurt and the past
then leave me alone you have no choice
and now there is a white horse caged in my heart
and it's going to kill me just to get out
now there is a white horse caged in my heart
and it's trying to kill me just to get out
though we're different creeds, wear different masks
If you only could conceive that there's a chance
and hell is bent on showing me the dark
shepherd me to light, make it stop.
Lyrics submitted by coldchardonnay
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
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"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."
No Surprises
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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.
Punchline
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Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
Amazing
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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.
This is my absolute favourite song :)
It took me long to understand what this is about, it is a song that grew on me, I think. When I heard it first, I did not really like it. I do not even like any other of his songs; maybe I should listen to them some more times. For a few weeks, I listened to this song all day long. Yeah well who cares :D
I'll just say what I think this song means.
Scott Matthews sings about being in such a mess, everything's terrible and you see no end of the pain. I think everyone has to point out for himself what this means, for me it was a horrible end of a relationship. And I wanted to help me to get trough everything, to shepherd me from all the pain and the heartache and the betrayal so bad, I wanted someone who could just explain to me what this all was about and how I could get rid of it. I think everyone knows this feeling, “herd me home through hurt and the past“, if you just think that you can‘t do it alone and you need someone to get you out. But then again you are the only one who can really stop all this, and no one can do this for you. “then leave me alone you have no choice“
And although it hurts so much you have to go trough the hurt, so that the white horse (I think it’s a metaphor for the hope) can get out of its cage which is your heart. Or maybe the white horse is everything good that happened but is unimportant now and you have to let it go before the pain can leave.
But the song is not really about how you got to do that or how you can fix yourself again, it’s just about the endless pain which make you feel so small and helpless. Hell keeps on showing the dark and they keep on bringing you down. And deep down you know everyone has felt this way before, no matter what they tell or what masks they wear. Deep down everyone felt lost before at some point and could not take it anymore.
Oh, I really love this song.