"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.
Riding on the city of New Orleans
Illinois Central, Monday morning rail
There are fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders
Three conductors and twenty-five sacks of mail
They're all out on the southbound odyssey
And the train pulls out of Kankakee
Rolls past the houses, farms and fields
Passin' towns that have no name
And freight yards full of old black men
And the graveyards of rusted automobiles
Singin', "Good morning America, how are ya?"
Sayin', "Don't ya know me? I'm your native son"
Yes, I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans
And I'll be gone five hundred miles when day is done
And I was dealing cards with the old men in the club car
And it's penny a point, there ain't no one keeping score
Oh, won't ya past that paper bag that holds that bottle
You can feel the wheels grumblin' through the floor
And the sons of Pullman porters, the sons of engineers
They ride their father's magic carpet made of steel
And mothers with the babes asleep
Go rockin' to the gentle beat
The rhythm of the rails is all they dream
Just a-singin', "Good morning America, how are ya?"
Sayin', "Don't ya know me? I'm your native son"
And I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans
I'll be gone five hundred when day is done
Nighttime on the City of New Orleans
Changing cars in Memphis, Tennessee
It's halfway home and we'll be there by morning
Through the Mississippi darkness rollin' to the sea
And all the towns and people
They seem to fade into a bad dream
The old steel rails, it ain't heard the news
The conductor sings his song again
Its passengers'll please refrain
This train's got the disappearing railroad blues
Just a-singin', "Goodnight America, how are ya?"
Sayin', "Don't ya know me? I'm your native son"
And I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done
Just a-singin', "Goodnight America, how are ya?"
Sayin', "Don't ya know me? I'm your native son"
Well, I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans
And I'll be gone a long, long time when day is done
Illinois Central, Monday morning rail
There are fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders
Three conductors and twenty-five sacks of mail
They're all out on the southbound odyssey
And the train pulls out of Kankakee
Rolls past the houses, farms and fields
Passin' towns that have no name
And freight yards full of old black men
And the graveyards of rusted automobiles
Singin', "Good morning America, how are ya?"
Sayin', "Don't ya know me? I'm your native son"
Yes, I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans
And I'll be gone five hundred miles when day is done
And I was dealing cards with the old men in the club car
And it's penny a point, there ain't no one keeping score
Oh, won't ya past that paper bag that holds that bottle
You can feel the wheels grumblin' through the floor
And the sons of Pullman porters, the sons of engineers
They ride their father's magic carpet made of steel
And mothers with the babes asleep
Go rockin' to the gentle beat
The rhythm of the rails is all they dream
Just a-singin', "Good morning America, how are ya?"
Sayin', "Don't ya know me? I'm your native son"
And I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans
I'll be gone five hundred when day is done
Nighttime on the City of New Orleans
Changing cars in Memphis, Tennessee
It's halfway home and we'll be there by morning
Through the Mississippi darkness rollin' to the sea
And all the towns and people
They seem to fade into a bad dream
The old steel rails, it ain't heard the news
The conductor sings his song again
Its passengers'll please refrain
This train's got the disappearing railroad blues
Just a-singin', "Goodnight America, how are ya?"
Sayin', "Don't ya know me? I'm your native son"
And I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done
Just a-singin', "Goodnight America, how are ya?"
Sayin', "Don't ya know me? I'm your native son"
Well, I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans
And I'll be gone a long, long time when day is done
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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"
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
Not an Arlo Guthrie cover - This is a Steve Goodman original. He thanks Arlo Guthrie for covering this song in one of his live performances.
I salute you, the people who know good music.
I transcribed these lyrics from the album "No Big Surprise: The Steve Goodman Anthology" They differ slightly from other tenditions by Goodman and others
DREAM is correct in the original Steve Goodman version.
'and the rhythm of the rails is all they dream"
an arlo guthrie cover
Just a note--perhaps unneeded, but might as well make sure: Younger listeners may not fully understand the significance of the line "Sons of railway porters and sons of engineers": it is within living memory that all "porters" on railway sleeping cars were black (and employees of the Pullman Company, which also owned the cars), while all engineers were white. The song is a bittersweet look at a changing country and a changing transportation environment, but explicitly does recognize that passengers were no longer segregated by race. FWIW,