"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.
In a world so complicated
Sometimes I wonder how I make it
(With all the hate and all the fame)
How do I keep a smiling face?
See all I wanna do is sing
Without compromising me
So hard to stay true to me in a lying industry
And I just wanna be able to wear my own hair and nails
(And not be judged for)
How much money I make how many records I sale
(Cause that don?t define me)
How can I teach my son to be a leader if I?m always following?
(That?s right)
Too much stress to be someone else
It?s hard enough just being me
I just wanna be me (All the time seven days a week)
I just wanna be me (Summer, Fall, and Winter, Spring)
I just wanna be me (Best qualified for the job)
No one can be any better than me
I just wanna be me (In the shower when I fall overseas)
I just wanna be me (With my friends and my family)
I just wanna be me (Best qualified for the job)
No one can be any better than me
Threw all my cards upon the table
Started my own record label
(Decided it was time for me)
To do this by myself
I?m tryna do real big things
Tryna be all I can be
(But I gotta still do me)
No matter what ? step
And I just wanna be able to wear my own hair and nails
(And not be judged for)
How much money I make how many records I sale
(Cause that don?t define me)
How can I teach my son to be a leader if I?m always following
(That?s right)
Too much stress to be someone else
It?s hard enough just being me
I just wanna be me (All the time seven days a week)
I just wanna be me (Summer, Fall, and Winter, Spring)
I just wanna be me (Best qualified for the job)
No one can?t be any better than me
I just wanna be me (In the shower when I fall overseas)
I just wanna be me (With my friends and my family)
I just wanna be me (Best qualified for the job)
No one can?t be any better than me
And I keep telling myself to believe
It?s what I keep on telling myself everyday
No matter what the world may think
I?m gonna be me
I just wanna be me (All the time seven days a week)
I just wanna be me (Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring)
I just wanna be me (Best qualified for the job)
No one can?t be any better than me
I just wanna be me (In the shower when I fall overseas)
I just wanna be me (With my friends and my family)
I just wanna be me (Best qualified for the job)
No one can?t be any better than me
I just wanna be me
I just wanna be me
I just wanna be me yeah, yeah, uh-hu
Sometimes I wonder how I make it
(With all the hate and all the fame)
How do I keep a smiling face?
See all I wanna do is sing
Without compromising me
So hard to stay true to me in a lying industry
And I just wanna be able to wear my own hair and nails
(And not be judged for)
How much money I make how many records I sale
(Cause that don?t define me)
How can I teach my son to be a leader if I?m always following?
(That?s right)
Too much stress to be someone else
It?s hard enough just being me
I just wanna be me (All the time seven days a week)
I just wanna be me (Summer, Fall, and Winter, Spring)
I just wanna be me (Best qualified for the job)
No one can be any better than me
I just wanna be me (In the shower when I fall overseas)
I just wanna be me (With my friends and my family)
I just wanna be me (Best qualified for the job)
No one can be any better than me
Threw all my cards upon the table
Started my own record label
(Decided it was time for me)
To do this by myself
I?m tryna do real big things
Tryna be all I can be
(But I gotta still do me)
No matter what ? step
And I just wanna be able to wear my own hair and nails
(And not be judged for)
How much money I make how many records I sale
(Cause that don?t define me)
How can I teach my son to be a leader if I?m always following
(That?s right)
Too much stress to be someone else
It?s hard enough just being me
I just wanna be me (All the time seven days a week)
I just wanna be me (Summer, Fall, and Winter, Spring)
I just wanna be me (Best qualified for the job)
No one can?t be any better than me
I just wanna be me (In the shower when I fall overseas)
I just wanna be me (With my friends and my family)
I just wanna be me (Best qualified for the job)
No one can?t be any better than me
And I keep telling myself to believe
It?s what I keep on telling myself everyday
No matter what the world may think
I?m gonna be me
I just wanna be me (All the time seven days a week)
I just wanna be me (Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring)
I just wanna be me (Best qualified for the job)
No one can?t be any better than me
I just wanna be me (In the shower when I fall overseas)
I just wanna be me (With my friends and my family)
I just wanna be me (Best qualified for the job)
No one can?t be any better than me
I just wanna be me
I just wanna be me
I just wanna be me yeah, yeah, uh-hu
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings
Be Me Lyrics as written by Frederick Taylor Donald L. Alford
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Royalty Network
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"
Holiday
Bee Gees
Bee Gees
@[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.
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,
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.