"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.
So, it was to be a colony for cunts.
Singing toorali-oorali-addity
Singing toorali-oorali-ay
Singing toorali-oorali-addity
And we're bound for Botany Bay.
Oh, what a tale I tell
They thought that they had me for raising Hell
I never raised no Hell
Nor did I rebel
They told me they knew me well
I said "you've made a mistake, you've got the wrong man",
and screamed as they cuffed my hands,
but they pushed me, hooded me into the back of a plane
deprived of my senses and locked in chains.
They asked me again and again
until I could barely remember my name
what part I played
but its hard to play
To seem less dangerous, I admit,
I named some total strangers.
I'm ashamed to say it, but I think I'll say what they want me to say.
And I know there's a freedom that's still in me,
but they've taken all I have away.
And the torture they do,
well it's killing me,
And we're doomed but there'll be no escape.
Oh, somewhere my name was put on a list,
that's left me feeling the weight of your fists.
Apparently I'm the risk,
Worst of the worst.
Where is the lawyer in this,
let alone trial.
Just give me some sleep.
Night the same ones
weep and dream of home across the seas
away from wherever this may be.
And I know there's a freedom that's still in me,
but they've taken all I have away.
And the torture they do,
well it's killing me,
And we're doomed but there'll be no escape.
Singing toorali-oorali-addity
Singing toorali-oorali-ay
Singing toorali-oorali-addity
And we're bound for Botany Bay.
Swept up in your net,
I didn't forget
I never knew
I wasn't there,
Months turned to years,
and I turned to despair.
Man, I'm sorry I blinked.
It could've been me that put you in the drink.
I did'nt have time to think what they're doing,
divide and ruin
Maybe I spoke too soon,
a lapse in judgement,
but what they're doing to me is beyond repugnant.
At least i know I could never do that,
so let's not talk of judgement.
And I know there's a freedom that's still in me,
but they've taken all I have away.
And the torture they do,
well it's killing me,
And we're doomed but there'll be no escape.
Singing toorali-oorali-addity
Singing toorali-oorali-ay
Singing toorali-oorali-addity
And we're bound for Botany Bay.
Singing toorali-oorali-addity
Singing toorali-oorali-ay
Singing toorali-oorali-addity
Conditions in Botany Bay.
Singing toorali-oorali-addity
Singing toorali-oorali-ay
Singing toorali-oorali-addity
And we're bound for Botany Bay.
Oh, what a tale I tell
They thought that they had me for raising Hell
I never raised no Hell
Nor did I rebel
They told me they knew me well
I said "you've made a mistake, you've got the wrong man",
and screamed as they cuffed my hands,
but they pushed me, hooded me into the back of a plane
deprived of my senses and locked in chains.
They asked me again and again
until I could barely remember my name
what part I played
but its hard to play
To seem less dangerous, I admit,
I named some total strangers.
I'm ashamed to say it, but I think I'll say what they want me to say.
And I know there's a freedom that's still in me,
but they've taken all I have away.
And the torture they do,
well it's killing me,
And we're doomed but there'll be no escape.
Oh, somewhere my name was put on a list,
that's left me feeling the weight of your fists.
Apparently I'm the risk,
Worst of the worst.
Where is the lawyer in this,
let alone trial.
Just give me some sleep.
Night the same ones
weep and dream of home across the seas
away from wherever this may be.
And I know there's a freedom that's still in me,
but they've taken all I have away.
And the torture they do,
well it's killing me,
And we're doomed but there'll be no escape.
Singing toorali-oorali-addity
Singing toorali-oorali-ay
Singing toorali-oorali-addity
And we're bound for Botany Bay.
Swept up in your net,
I didn't forget
I never knew
I wasn't there,
Months turned to years,
and I turned to despair.
Man, I'm sorry I blinked.
It could've been me that put you in the drink.
I did'nt have time to think what they're doing,
divide and ruin
Maybe I spoke too soon,
a lapse in judgement,
but what they're doing to me is beyond repugnant.
At least i know I could never do that,
so let's not talk of judgement.
And I know there's a freedom that's still in me,
but they've taken all I have away.
And the torture they do,
well it's killing me,
And we're doomed but there'll be no escape.
Singing toorali-oorali-addity
Singing toorali-oorali-ay
Singing toorali-oorali-addity
And we're bound for Botany Bay.
Singing toorali-oorali-addity
Singing toorali-oorali-ay
Singing toorali-oorali-addity
Conditions in Botany Bay.
Lyrics submitted by BanachTarski
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Fast Car
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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"
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
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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
Blink-182
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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
Ed Sheeran
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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.
I transcribed these myself, and I'm not sure about some of the lyrics.
Appreciate your doing this. Tend to think the 1st sentence may be So, it was to be a colony for convicts. But that is interpretive :)