"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.
Swaying in the cosmic winds, enraptured by arcane visions of endless stargates swathed by the origin of all.
A thousand dimensions, spreading from the ancestral void, harken as I howl unto the splendorous night this call:
"Sirius, mighty sothis of the ancients. Let thy fires be strengthened by the ones inside my skin!
Rekindle flames of the ancient magick fettered beyond my veil of humanity and torch the myriad galaxies that lurk so deep therein!"
(That lurk so deep therein, that lurk so deep therein!)
Shalt ever our voices sing in unison "twixt bewildered stars, to see secrets of all space and time before our eyes unfold?"
Shalt my hands touch a new beginning, rising beyond its end, and soar throughout the multiverse, upon ethereal wings within my soul?
(Within my soul?)
"Sirius, mighty sothis of the ancients. Let thy fires be strengthened by the ones inside my skin!"
Galaxies... they are but dust in our hands. A mighty dragon I behold, whose bosom spawned forth time -
rolled upon his fiery tongue (rolled upon his fiery tongue), his immortal tail does stand.
Close thine eye, oh source of power, close thine eye, and watch everything die.
(Close thine eye, close thine eye, close thine eye, close thine eye)
A thousand dimensions, spreading from the ancestral void, harken as I howl unto the splendorous night this call:
"Sirius, mighty sothis of the ancients. Let thy fires be strengthened by the ones inside my skin!
Rekindle flames of the ancient magick fettered beyond my veil of humanity and torch the myriad galaxies that lurk so deep therein!"
(That lurk so deep therein, that lurk so deep therein!)
Shalt ever our voices sing in unison "twixt bewildered stars, to see secrets of all space and time before our eyes unfold?"
Shalt my hands touch a new beginning, rising beyond its end, and soar throughout the multiverse, upon ethereal wings within my soul?
(Within my soul?)
"Sirius, mighty sothis of the ancients. Let thy fires be strengthened by the ones inside my skin!"
Galaxies... they are but dust in our hands. A mighty dragon I behold, whose bosom spawned forth time -
rolled upon his fiery tongue (rolled upon his fiery tongue), his immortal tail does stand.
Close thine eye, oh source of power, close thine eye, and watch everything die.
(Close thine eye, close thine eye, close thine eye, close thine eye)
Lyrics submitted by user725371
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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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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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,
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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.
Page
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