"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.
"Yeah, once again, (that's right)
We about to attack this
(Harlem Inc, Murder Inc) yeah
(Nicky Bond)
Jimmy Cagney type shit, Nicky Santoro
All my little short niggas
Joe Pesci and all that shit like this yo"
Filling out the cards to your eulogy
Murder that ass, send my regards to your family, fuck it
That's what niggas get for fucking with this maniac depressive nigga
With aggression, Smith and Wesson, in his possession
Harlem got me like that, too many grimy, slimy niggas on the take
For short cake, we won't hesitate
I miss inhabitants who politic in residence for presidents
Across 110th, to 55th
My covenant is protected, I'm doministic
Survival principles my ethics, eastern philosophy's my method
Good Samaritans need paramedics, so what's your premise
I hope you fucking with Glocks and fo' fifths
Wrath's Napolean, so teach your origin, slash wrists
Shatter chins, and bust clips
Check it, "here is something you can't understand"
Steel Magnolia
I got the steel magnum, bragging, leaving my toe tagged
As I get raggamuffin, no bluffing, the body bagged
Breaks all your bad habits, bad blood fanatics
Clean up the magic, chrome startin' up static
Greed means that you die quick, click the vision
Greed lies ambition, five slugs for the mission
Seven cause you go to the heaven or hell and dwell
To meet your maker, but you met the shotgun shell
Buckshots sting like bees, I smoke trees
On the hilltops, clubshops and chilling overseas
Take in the breeze, Mr. Freeze squeeze the trigger
Killa G's got you week in the knees, yo take it easy!
Steel Magnolia
Magnificent guns bust when 'Uzi Weighs a Ton'
And yo' Glock spits, consecutive rounds shot from clips
Spells murder, sound synonymous to burner
Leave niggas ass up, gasping for air, front seats of truck
So who the fuck want me to press on they luck, bastard they son
When gats start to hum and whole crowds begin to run
Annihilation, destroying all expectations
Have relatives embrace your Harlem hospital, we all patient
5 foot 6, concealed steel, pop more grip
With fixed sights that drifted to right, triggers light
So relinquish son, I'm to the finish, and you acknowledge
Couldn't pop a clutch or light a skyrocket, nigga stop it!
Steel Magnolia
Steel Magnolia, bury ya, six niggas carry ya
To your final rest area
What you worried though, you ain't above that with a slug
And your chest beats, blowing out your back, take it easy
To your eulogy, open heart surgery
Emergency, 911, come in a hurry
From the Hills to the Polo realms, stacking the bills
I put you under my lo-lo, hit my switch, then kill
A bitch nigga stepping on my toes, fuck foes and hoes
Get stuck in the ass like Pete Rose
I suppose you want to get wild and throw blows, you chose
To get you nose your broke, in a thick cloud of smoke
You're like a fat joint, I'm taking a toke, I'm like coke
But you ain't smiling, feeling erratic, a fucking addict
To the dope shit, you better hope the shit stop
Smooth, holding the Glock, rocking the hot shit
Steel Magnolia
Steel Magnolia
Steel Magnolia
Steel Magnolia
We about to attack this
(Harlem Inc, Murder Inc) yeah
(Nicky Bond)
Jimmy Cagney type shit, Nicky Santoro
All my little short niggas
Joe Pesci and all that shit like this yo"
Filling out the cards to your eulogy
Murder that ass, send my regards to your family, fuck it
That's what niggas get for fucking with this maniac depressive nigga
With aggression, Smith and Wesson, in his possession
Harlem got me like that, too many grimy, slimy niggas on the take
For short cake, we won't hesitate
I miss inhabitants who politic in residence for presidents
Across 110th, to 55th
My covenant is protected, I'm doministic
Survival principles my ethics, eastern philosophy's my method
Good Samaritans need paramedics, so what's your premise
I hope you fucking with Glocks and fo' fifths
Wrath's Napolean, so teach your origin, slash wrists
Shatter chins, and bust clips
Check it, "here is something you can't understand"
Steel Magnolia
I got the steel magnum, bragging, leaving my toe tagged
As I get raggamuffin, no bluffing, the body bagged
Breaks all your bad habits, bad blood fanatics
Clean up the magic, chrome startin' up static
Greed means that you die quick, click the vision
Greed lies ambition, five slugs for the mission
Seven cause you go to the heaven or hell and dwell
To meet your maker, but you met the shotgun shell
Buckshots sting like bees, I smoke trees
On the hilltops, clubshops and chilling overseas
Take in the breeze, Mr. Freeze squeeze the trigger
Killa G's got you week in the knees, yo take it easy!
Steel Magnolia
Magnificent guns bust when 'Uzi Weighs a Ton'
And yo' Glock spits, consecutive rounds shot from clips
Spells murder, sound synonymous to burner
Leave niggas ass up, gasping for air, front seats of truck
So who the fuck want me to press on they luck, bastard they son
When gats start to hum and whole crowds begin to run
Annihilation, destroying all expectations
Have relatives embrace your Harlem hospital, we all patient
5 foot 6, concealed steel, pop more grip
With fixed sights that drifted to right, triggers light
So relinquish son, I'm to the finish, and you acknowledge
Couldn't pop a clutch or light a skyrocket, nigga stop it!
Steel Magnolia
Steel Magnolia, bury ya, six niggas carry ya
To your final rest area
What you worried though, you ain't above that with a slug
And your chest beats, blowing out your back, take it easy
To your eulogy, open heart surgery
Emergency, 911, come in a hurry
From the Hills to the Polo realms, stacking the bills
I put you under my lo-lo, hit my switch, then kill
A bitch nigga stepping on my toes, fuck foes and hoes
Get stuck in the ass like Pete Rose
I suppose you want to get wild and throw blows, you chose
To get you nose your broke, in a thick cloud of smoke
You're like a fat joint, I'm taking a toke, I'm like coke
But you ain't smiling, feeling erratic, a fucking addict
To the dope shit, you better hope the shit stop
Smooth, holding the Glock, rocking the hot shit
Steel Magnolia
Steel Magnolia
Steel Magnolia
Steel Magnolia
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings
Steel Magnolia Lyrics as written by Larry Muggerud B. Ricks
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Missing Link Music
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
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"
I Can't Go To Sleep
Wu-Tang Clan
Wu-Tang Clan
This song is written as the perspective of the boys in the street, as a whole, and what path they are going to choose as they get older and grow into men. (This is why the music video takes place in an orphanage.) The seen, and unseen collective suffering is imbedded in the boys’ mind, consciously or subconsciously, and is haunting them. Which path will the boys choose? Issac Hayes is the voice of reason, maybe God, the angel on his shoulder, or the voice of his forefathers from beyond the grave who can see the big picture and are pleading with the boys not to continue the violence and pattern of killing their brothers, but to rise above. The most beautiful song and has so many levels. Racism towards African Americans in America would not exist if everyone sat down and listened to this song and understood the history behind the words. The power, fear, pleading in RZA and Ghostface voices are genuine and powerful. Issac Hayes’ strong voice makes the perfect strong father figure, who is possibly from beyond the grave.
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“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
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“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.