"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 know which ring she wears on which finger each day of the week
And I know why she holds me as gently as a priceless antique
I know why she reminds me of poems built from leftover rhymes
Why she puts on her socks and her shoes one foot at a time
But I don't know how she wears a floor length coat without dragging it along
And I don't know how she can love the singer
And I don't know how she can love the singer
And I don't know how she can love the singer but not the songs
I know exactly how long she likes her tea bag to steep
And just what she wants to hear most before she falls asleep
I know what it means when she adds one more name to her list
And she doesn't think I do, but I know just whatÂ’s clenched in her fist
But I don't know why she laughs at my jokes when the punchlines are wrong
And I don't know how she can love the singer
And I don't know how she can love the singer
And I don't know how she can love the singer but not the songs
In my craft and sullen art I sit and labor all day
The phony rubies in her necklace brush the table as she sways
And her eyes are like burned out wheatfields with smoke rising up through the snow
The music that she loves the best gets inside me and follows wherever I go
I know why she drives like she's trying to get us both killed
What she does with the porcelain angels she buys at Goodwill
Why she clings to the city like she holds her pillow so tight
And I know why she sneaks out of bed and sits on the roof late at night
But I don't know if she thinks that I should go when it gets close to dawn
And I don't know how she can love the singer
And I don't know how she can love the singer
And I don't know how she can love the singer but not the songs
And I know why she holds me as gently as a priceless antique
I know why she reminds me of poems built from leftover rhymes
Why she puts on her socks and her shoes one foot at a time
But I don't know how she wears a floor length coat without dragging it along
And I don't know how she can love the singer
And I don't know how she can love the singer
And I don't know how she can love the singer but not the songs
I know exactly how long she likes her tea bag to steep
And just what she wants to hear most before she falls asleep
I know what it means when she adds one more name to her list
And she doesn't think I do, but I know just whatÂ’s clenched in her fist
But I don't know why she laughs at my jokes when the punchlines are wrong
And I don't know how she can love the singer
And I don't know how she can love the singer
And I don't know how she can love the singer but not the songs
In my craft and sullen art I sit and labor all day
The phony rubies in her necklace brush the table as she sways
And her eyes are like burned out wheatfields with smoke rising up through the snow
The music that she loves the best gets inside me and follows wherever I go
I know why she drives like she's trying to get us both killed
What she does with the porcelain angels she buys at Goodwill
Why she clings to the city like she holds her pillow so tight
And I know why she sneaks out of bed and sits on the roof late at night
But I don't know if she thinks that I should go when it gets close to dawn
And I don't know how she can love the singer
And I don't know how she can love the singer
And I don't know how she can love the singer but not the songs
Lyrics submitted by TheIntimindator27
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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Silent Planet
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I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
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Yo La Tengo
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Great version of a great song,
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“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
Plastic Bag
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“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.