"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.
Let's find something that can last.
Like cigarette ash,
The world is collapsing around me.
Let's try to do the best we can.
I think I need more than the flowers and letters, man.
It's not that I don't try, it's that you won't again
And it hurts too much to laugh about it
(Yes it hurts too much to laugh about it)
Hey, please think about it, friend.
I know you're lonely, I'm here writing in the dark
Tryin' to get the balls
But it hurts too much to ask
Dear I Need Someone Who's Lost,
Tell me how not to stop all these tears and fears
So nothing else will drop,
So all this pain will stop.
But if it hurts too much ask
If it hurts too much to ask
It's not that I don't cry,
It's that I have to hide,
Yeah it's that I have to hide
So I won't be there to ask.
So I won't be there to ask.
No, I won't be the one to ask.
I won't be there to ask.
It hurts too much to laugh about it.
Yes it hurts too much to laugh about it.
Yes it hurts too much to laugh about it, man.
Like cigarette ash,
The world is collapsing around me.
Let's try to do the best we can.
I think I need more than the flowers and letters, man.
It's not that I don't try, it's that you won't again
And it hurts too much to laugh about it
(Yes it hurts too much to laugh about it)
Hey, please think about it, friend.
I know you're lonely, I'm here writing in the dark
Tryin' to get the balls
But it hurts too much to ask
Dear I Need Someone Who's Lost,
Tell me how not to stop all these tears and fears
So nothing else will drop,
So all this pain will stop.
But if it hurts too much ask
If it hurts too much to ask
It's not that I don't cry,
It's that I have to hide,
Yeah it's that I have to hide
So I won't be there to ask.
So I won't be there to ask.
No, I won't be the one to ask.
I won't be there to ask.
It hurts too much to laugh about it.
Yes it hurts too much to laugh about it.
Yes it hurts too much to laugh about it, man.
Lyrics submitted by TheWrongGirl
Ask Lyrics as written by Sharon Katharine Van Etten Aaron Brooking Dessner
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Hipgnosis Songs Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
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@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
Blue
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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.
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.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
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“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“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.
it actually says "Dear I Need Someone's Who Lost," but i'm assuming it's a typo...
man, i'd like to know what other people's thoughts were on this one. it's one of my favorites. i wish there were more SVE fans, hanging around here... at least.
This isn't about asking someone out... or not having the balls to. At least I don't think that seems to ring true.
It seems to be about being in a relationship with someone that doesn't do enough or has stopped doing enough.
"It's not that I don't try, it's that you won't again"
I need more than a flowers and letters man. More than someone who just gives tokens of apology for forgetfulness - someone with whom you share a connection, enough that you no longer have to 'ask'. Someone who 'does' something rather than someone who is all words.
It's about bitter dissapointment in a significant other that you thought loved and a breakdown in that relationship. That's why it 'hurts too much to ask' (that person) to try harder or to do specific things. It's also why it's hard to laugh about, as it's a pretty sobering and depressing scenario.
At the end she says she has to hide it, I assume because the shame that one feels as well as the absurdity of that situation. So she's going to run away (or worse commit suicide) - 'I won't be there to ask' and it hurts too much to laugh about it for obvious reasons.
I really love this artist. I've only heard about her lately but since then i've been listening to her songs constantly, there is something amazing about the way she sings. She's unique i should say and the lyrics are just splendid. Hope she'll keep on being this productive!!
I don't necessarily love mellow songs, but this I really like, and I wonder why? If it not hurts too much to ask :)
Also other artists in the same vein, I think: My Brightest Diamond and Susanne Sundfør
Take for example asking a girl out, but not just a girl, a person you really like. Then asking her to be your girlfriend and getting denied, time after time. It hurts too much to ask, but when those happy thoughts of being with someone cross your mind, you cannot resist not to. And you hide, so you won't be there to ask and suffer more.
"Hey, please think about it, friend. I know you're lonely, I'm here writing in the dark Tryin' to get the balls But it hurts too much to ask"
Breaks me up when she sings "friend". Its not just someone, its the type of person that comes from time to time, a girl that can really be your girl-friend.