"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.
We burnt all the skin
From the palm of my hands
With an old zippo lighter
And deodorant can
I went to the palmist
And asked her to read
No heart line,
No sun line
No life line,
No need.
Said all that I wanted was a quiet life
Not one predetermined by minuscule slices
Into my flesh and the broad she agreed
One look in my sad eyes
She had to concede
"Baby... the girdle of venus got me
Got me down on my knees.
And baby... baby I got the death rattle and
You're six months old s-shakin' me."
Traced my right index finger
'long the roof of every car
On the walk back to your house
In the cold from City Arms
In the frost I drew a dick
For every girl that wouldn't fuck me
Woke early the next morning to see
The frost had bitten me
My blisters black and touch cold
Like a cute stuffed toy bear's nose
The kind of gift I'd give you
Like a less committed Van Gogh
And you, you are an angel
That's why you pray
And I am an ass
And that's why I bray
Your halo slipped to frame you
Like a photo, a porthole window
I see blood spill in the pure snow
You see sweet sauce on ice-cream cones
And you, you are an angel
That's why you pray
And I am an ass
And that's why I bray
If you were tomorrow
I'd be today
And this is the end
(I'm serious, so listen)
Baby I got the death rattle
And baby I got it bad
I've been digging my grave
For quite some time
When I'm not digging up the past
And I chewed my only necktie
From the metal frame of my bed
Where I tied your wrists together
Spent all night givin'
(Oh, you get the message)
Not headstone
But headboard
Is where I want to be mourned
From the palm of my hands
With an old zippo lighter
And deodorant can
I went to the palmist
And asked her to read
No heart line,
No sun line
No life line,
No need.
Said all that I wanted was a quiet life
Not one predetermined by minuscule slices
Into my flesh and the broad she agreed
One look in my sad eyes
She had to concede
"Baby... the girdle of venus got me
Got me down on my knees.
And baby... baby I got the death rattle and
You're six months old s-shakin' me."
Traced my right index finger
'long the roof of every car
On the walk back to your house
In the cold from City Arms
In the frost I drew a dick
For every girl that wouldn't fuck me
Woke early the next morning to see
The frost had bitten me
My blisters black and touch cold
Like a cute stuffed toy bear's nose
The kind of gift I'd give you
Like a less committed Van Gogh
And you, you are an angel
That's why you pray
And I am an ass
And that's why I bray
Your halo slipped to frame you
Like a photo, a porthole window
I see blood spill in the pure snow
You see sweet sauce on ice-cream cones
And you, you are an angel
That's why you pray
And I am an ass
And that's why I bray
If you were tomorrow
I'd be today
And this is the end
(I'm serious, so listen)
Baby I got the death rattle
And baby I got it bad
I've been digging my grave
For quite some time
When I'm not digging up the past
And I chewed my only necktie
From the metal frame of my bed
Where I tied your wrists together
Spent all night givin'
(Oh, you get the message)
Not headstone
But headboard
Is where I want to be mourned
Lyrics submitted by spectracide
Baby I Got the Death Rattle Lyrics as written by Thomas Edward Bromley Gareth David Paisey
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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This is probably my favourite song from Hello Sadness. I've been with Los Campesinos! since Sticking Fingers Into Sockets, and it's been great watching them mature from a nauseatingly twee-pop band to stuff like this.
Carrying on with the palmistry imagery, the "girdle of venus" is actually a line on the palm that is a curved line from around the bottom of the middle finger to the fourth finger (next to the pinkie). Apparently it appears on the hands of individuals who tend to be ultra-sensitive. Symbolically it can indicate a need for shielding or creating emotional boundaries. Which i think is quite fitting to the song.
Any thoughts?
I think it's "No headstone Your headboard Is where I want to be mourned"
No, the posted lyrics are correct as written by Gareth in the album's booklet.
Alright, my bad then
Anybody know what he's saying in the very beginning where you can hear the "headstone" part? He mumbles something.
R U really?
Before the mumbling, you can hear a faint recording of them playing the end of the song, singing the "headboard" lines.<br /> <br /> After that is the start of the mumbling, where all I can decipher is: "And so this one ... sure enough ... he just threw them (?)". Not sure about that last bit either.<br /> Would be very interested if anyone's discovered what he's actually saying here.
i could be like 100% wrong, but i feel like it\'s about being in a bad mental state and using sex as a coping mechanism or being hypersexual as a result.
i think this song is about gareth sucking off strangers.
"Baby I got the death rattle" - Gareth is describing the sound of him choking as the semen accumulates in his throat. ("A death rattle is a medical term that describes the sound produced by someone who is near death when saliva accumulates in the throat",)
"the girdle of venus got me got me down on my knees." His "fate" (the whole palm-reading thing, girdle of venus) is to get "down on his knees" (and suck off other men)
And of course; "And I chewed my only necktie, From the metal frame of my bed, Where I tied your wrists together, Spent all night givin', oh, you get the message"
So he's obviously been tying Men to his bed and spent all night giving them head
As disgusting as this is, it's probably pretty close to what Gareth was thinking about when he wrote the lyrics. He does make rather heavy hints in other songs to him giving head, so it certainly wouldn't surprise me if that's what this song's all about.
I don't think this is the case, to be honest. He seems to be addressing his ex when he says 'your wrists.' <br /> <br /> The giving head bit in general, I think, is just what he seems to be most proud of in the relationship. <br /> <br /> Other than that, it's just about the final stages of a relationship that has came to an end, which leads onto (on the album) Light Leaves Dark Sees pt.II
On top of that, Gareth has made it quite clear that he's heterosexual. There's an interview with The New Gay that confirms this. So it seems unlikely he'd be giving head to another man.
Yeah, I think it's pretty clearly about the end of a relationship<br /> <br /> I think the Baby I got the death rattle line is more in reference to generally him feeling like he's dying then what's causing him to die. <br /> The following line of "Your 6 months old, sh-shakin me" is a play on words and could just mean she's responsible for it or could refer to how she toys with him or messes him about. <br /> <br /> but with lines like <br /> I've been digging my grave<br /> For quite some time<br /> When I'm not digging up the past<br /> And I chewed my only necktie<br /> From the metal frame of my bed<br /> Where I tied your wrists together<br /> Spent all night givin' <br /> (Oh, you get the message)<br /> <br /> it clearly indicates there's history there. I think more or less the bit about him giving head has less signifigance to the overall song as much as it is a memory. I think the song works at times like a scrapbook of memories from a failed relationship. The mentions of the stuffed bear, the red in the snow just an example of their regular difference in perspective.
The first time I saw LC! this year, Gareth introduced the song saying, "This is a song a lot of people think is about fellatio." <br /> <br /> Which kinda seems to me like he's saying, no, it's not.
You know, one can give a girl head too...