"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.
Rise! Love is here
Oh don't make me wonder
Life's never clear where choice is a gift
To use and abuse
To build on proof
Oh don't make me suffer
Birds find the wind and wing
Rest in the shells I've designed
Run through the fields I've denied
And stroll upon the years I'm alive
There's a sun that shines in
There's a world that stares out at me
And all I refuse to please
Breathe! Love is air
Oh don't make me suffer
To dash debonair where chaste is the wish
To bust with pain
A heart goes blank
Oh don't make me wonder
To ask on behalf of you
Of you, where are you?
Where are you in you?
There's a sun that shines in
There's a world that stares out at me
And all I refuse to please
There's a sun that shines in
There's a world that stares out at me
And all I refuse
And all I'd ever use in me
There's a sun that shines in me
There's a sun that shines
There's a sun that shines in me
Oh don't make me wonder
Life's never clear where choice is a gift
To use and abuse
To build on proof
Oh don't make me suffer
Birds find the wind and wing
Rest in the shells I've designed
Run through the fields I've denied
And stroll upon the years I'm alive
There's a sun that shines in
There's a world that stares out at me
And all I refuse to please
Breathe! Love is air
Oh don't make me suffer
To dash debonair where chaste is the wish
To bust with pain
A heart goes blank
Oh don't make me wonder
To ask on behalf of you
Of you, where are you?
Where are you in you?
There's a sun that shines in
There's a world that stares out at me
And all I refuse to please
There's a sun that shines in
There's a world that stares out at me
And all I refuse
And all I'd ever use in me
There's a sun that shines in me
There's a sun that shines
There's a sun that shines in me
Lyrics submitted by elevatorface, edited by ElizHannah
Panopticon Lyrics as written by William Patrick Corgan
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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(these lyrics are incorrect, Btw. i would correct them, but i lent my copy of the album out to a friend.) Panopticon was my favorite song before the album was released. when i heard them play it live, i got really pumped for the album's release. it kind of connects to the ending of Quasar, too. a Panopticon is a kind of prison, so i think the song is about being trapped, in a way, symbolically. there are alot of terms thrown around the album. one being seasons, like Summer and Winter. i think Summer represents now, and Winter represents the near-future, but kind of a negative outlook on it, being distant and cold. but in a way, kind of desiring it. the Sun, and Light are some more terms thrown around, but that'll come in more later. i think Quasar and Panopticon are kind of the intro to Oceania, and The Celestials is the REAL beginning, and maybe even the climax of the whole album. I LOVE PANOPTICON. the guitar just makes you THINK of the ocean. it's perfect.
A panopticon is a type of prison where the watchman (guards) can view the prisoners without being seen.
I think that Billy is saying that we are basically all prisoners of ourselves, as well as the watchmen of the prisons we build with our decisions. In even the darkest times, there are lights that shine in and those lights are what we should focus on in order to build our surroundings.
If I had to pick a few lines to illustrate this, they would be:
Use the views To build don’t prove
(Panopticons offer many views of all areas of a prison... focus on the constructive ones to improve the prison, rather than proving it has faults)
as well as
There’s a sun that shines in There’s a world that stares out of me
(the whole notion that we are kind of our own prison... an entire world is contained within us and it's up to us to view that world as a creator would view a creation)
i didn't notice your name until now, 420 ;) thanks for going over the album like me! it help kind of cement down what i already thought.
It's "I'm alive," not "of your life."
What a gorgeous song.
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