"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.
My mind compliance like a science
Analyze my data, not a fader on the face of the earth
Can blend rhythms like my will, surreal spinnin'
Ever-movin' like evolution it's retribution
For sellin' roots, lessen futures, I'm steppin' to fuse? ya
Sun rises my subconsciousness culminates constant
Live to see various I-de-ologies, angles like isosceles
Read my auto-b-I-ography
So many stars? to me that vibrantly shine
Velocity's properly thick like mahogany dimes
We findin' beauty in this urban-gritty usually overlooked by many
Movin' through the densely populated city
And soon and eventually 'we gotta get ova'
I document culture closer to the edge
Bolder than a print, open to interpretation, gazin deep into the glitz?
To my people, raise you fists
I know it stays intent, whatever pays your rent, but saves your soul
You know the drill, it go
Hotter than most dudes
From left to right, on top and below you
Flow like the coastals, move like smoke do
I'm Diverse- these other cats is just hopefuls
When they ask who put it down, baby, you know who
Tell your whole crew, it's somethin' that you need to know, dude
This is how we go through
Who the poisoned pen?
Mos got the inkwell full of syrum
Prescribed for any emcee claimin' they ill
A small dose'll change the way that they feel
Milligrams in the raw, snow-cut, check how I label the pill
It's MD, the spit-doctor, chant like a witch-doctor
Recite me, and ya whole ailment get proper
I'm the, medicine man, representin' my clan
Mixin' the potion with verse fire and simmer, my man
And stay shoutin' out the home team wherever I am:
It's the B-R-O double akh-K-L-wY-liN out
The cowboys who don't fret to pull they lamas? out
Ironhorse style cab?, hoop-te ville ridin out
No lights, no cam, action, drama'd out
? out, absorb the shit that I'm about
Inner-city Bruno, ghetto folks, holla out
I'm good money, tell the doubters get they wallets out
Hot when the dice is out, they go broke findin' out
Smack ya mojo, caught a half of 'oh no'
Magical vocals, get it down like coastals?
Underground nigga that spoke truth and broke through
Shine bright when I'm far from my close-to
I told you, you know how Mos do
Hotter than most dudes
From left to right, on top and below you
Flow like the coastals, move like smoke do
-I'm Mos Def- them other cats is just hopefuls
When they ask who put it down, baby, you know who
Tell your whole crew, it's somethin' that you need to know, dude
This is how we go through
Exposed to a higher set of variables, as fly as aerial
Definin' stereo components, moments with my master
Remasterin' techniques, havin' some fresh sheets
Damagin' margins with a broader outlook 'we lookin' out, y'all'
Me and Mr. Mighty Mos, we outlaws
Blazin' in the saddle, raisin like the mornin' star, formin majestic
Candescent like the street lamps, I-be-amped to inn-o-vate
Reminiscent of technology, probably just my will to build
To real notions of emotions similar to the seven seas
Steadily sparkin' cables, tables turnin' like the high tide
I'm captive to this music, vastness, into it I skydive
Tumblin' like buildings crumblin' on inner-cities cumbersome
They comin' to run us out, my niggas shout for justice
You wanna link with me, then let me know
This music is like my vessel so we seem to be inseparable
From C-C-town, headed eastbound
You know the rest, it go
Hotter than most dudes
From left to right, on top and below you
Flow like the coastals, move like smoke do
It's D-I- these other cats is just hopefuls
When they ask who put it down, baby, you know who
Tell your whole crew, it's somethin that you need to know, dude
This is how we go through
Analyze my data, not a fader on the face of the earth
Can blend rhythms like my will, surreal spinnin'
Ever-movin' like evolution it's retribution
For sellin' roots, lessen futures, I'm steppin' to fuse? ya
Sun rises my subconsciousness culminates constant
Live to see various I-de-ologies, angles like isosceles
Read my auto-b-I-ography
So many stars? to me that vibrantly shine
Velocity's properly thick like mahogany dimes
We findin' beauty in this urban-gritty usually overlooked by many
Movin' through the densely populated city
And soon and eventually 'we gotta get ova'
I document culture closer to the edge
Bolder than a print, open to interpretation, gazin deep into the glitz?
To my people, raise you fists
I know it stays intent, whatever pays your rent, but saves your soul
You know the drill, it go
Hotter than most dudes
From left to right, on top and below you
Flow like the coastals, move like smoke do
I'm Diverse- these other cats is just hopefuls
When they ask who put it down, baby, you know who
Tell your whole crew, it's somethin' that you need to know, dude
This is how we go through
Who the poisoned pen?
Mos got the inkwell full of syrum
Prescribed for any emcee claimin' they ill
A small dose'll change the way that they feel
Milligrams in the raw, snow-cut, check how I label the pill
It's MD, the spit-doctor, chant like a witch-doctor
Recite me, and ya whole ailment get proper
I'm the, medicine man, representin' my clan
Mixin' the potion with verse fire and simmer, my man
And stay shoutin' out the home team wherever I am:
It's the B-R-O double akh-K-L-wY-liN out
The cowboys who don't fret to pull they lamas? out
Ironhorse style cab?, hoop-te ville ridin out
No lights, no cam, action, drama'd out
? out, absorb the shit that I'm about
Inner-city Bruno, ghetto folks, holla out
I'm good money, tell the doubters get they wallets out
Hot when the dice is out, they go broke findin' out
Smack ya mojo, caught a half of 'oh no'
Magical vocals, get it down like coastals?
Underground nigga that spoke truth and broke through
Shine bright when I'm far from my close-to
I told you, you know how Mos do
Hotter than most dudes
From left to right, on top and below you
Flow like the coastals, move like smoke do
-I'm Mos Def- them other cats is just hopefuls
When they ask who put it down, baby, you know who
Tell your whole crew, it's somethin' that you need to know, dude
This is how we go through
Exposed to a higher set of variables, as fly as aerial
Definin' stereo components, moments with my master
Remasterin' techniques, havin' some fresh sheets
Damagin' margins with a broader outlook 'we lookin' out, y'all'
Me and Mr. Mighty Mos, we outlaws
Blazin' in the saddle, raisin like the mornin' star, formin majestic
Candescent like the street lamps, I-be-amped to inn-o-vate
Reminiscent of technology, probably just my will to build
To real notions of emotions similar to the seven seas
Steadily sparkin' cables, tables turnin' like the high tide
I'm captive to this music, vastness, into it I skydive
Tumblin' like buildings crumblin' on inner-cities cumbersome
They comin' to run us out, my niggas shout for justice
You wanna link with me, then let me know
This music is like my vessel so we seem to be inseparable
From C-C-town, headed eastbound
You know the rest, it go
Hotter than most dudes
From left to right, on top and below you
Flow like the coastals, move like smoke do
It's D-I- these other cats is just hopefuls
When they ask who put it down, baby, you know who
Tell your whole crew, it's somethin that you need to know, dude
This is how we go through
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings
Wylin Out Lyrics as written by Denard Smith
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
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,
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Amazing
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran tells a story of unsuccessfully trying to feel “Amazing.” This track is about the being weighed down by emotional stress despite valiant attempts to find some positivity in the situation. This track was written by Ed Sheeran from the perspective of his friend. From the track, we see this person fall deeper into the negative thoughts and slide further down the path of mental torment with every lyric.
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.