"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.
The story is different now, the records are playing in the living room
And you might say you're wounded, and I might say I'm hurt
But we knew the difference then between the fire and the earth
And we may say we're broken, we may say we're weak,
But we knew before we started, oh the secrets we would keep
And it's all okay, cause love will find a way to be what love is
And it's all okay, cause love will find a way to be what love is
I'll move to the country, and live inside the deepest, darkest wood
And I'll write you a letter and tell you all the things
I should say to your face
And I won't send it to you, I'll send it to your mother's place
And she won't give it to you, that's how brave I'll grow here in my cave
And it's all okay, cause love will find a way to be what love is
And it's all okay, cause love will find a way to be what love is
And you'll move to the city, marry a pretty girl
And she will make you smile all the while you'll be
Looking for what you left behind
And she will bring you children and oh how you will
Love them with that heart of yours
I won't visit you, I'll know by then the kinder thing to do
Oh it's all okay, cause love will find a way to be what love is
And it's all okay, cause love will find a way to be what love is
And it's all okay, cause love will find a way to be what love is
And it's all okay, cause love will find a way to be what love is
The story is different now, the records are playing in the living room
And you might say you're wounded, and I might say I'm hurt
But we knew the difference then between the fire and the earth
And we may say we're broken, we may say we're weak,
But we knew before we started, oh the secrets we would keep
And it's all okay, cause love will find a way to be what love is
And it's all okay, cause love will find a way to be what love is
I'll move to the country, and live inside the deepest, darkest wood
And I'll write you a letter and tell you all the things
I should say to your face
And I won't send it to you, I'll send it to your mother's place
And she won't give it to you, that's how brave I'll grow here in my cave
And it's all okay, cause love will find a way to be what love is
And it's all okay, cause love will find a way to be what love is
And you'll move to the city, marry a pretty girl
And she will make you smile all the while you'll be
Looking for what you left behind
And she will bring you children and oh how you will
Love them with that heart of yours
I won't visit you, I'll know by then the kinder thing to do
Oh it's all okay, cause love will find a way to be what love is
And it's all okay, cause love will find a way to be what love is
And it's all okay, cause love will find a way to be what love is
And it's all okay, cause love will find a way to be what love is
The story is different now, the records are playing in the living room
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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"
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
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.
The verses sound like someone confused and frustrated with her emotions about some guy, but then the chorus makes it sound like a one night stand (maybe including a pregnancy) and it's all a natural and healthy part of the human condition, unless that's being ironic (and I don't think it is).
Just finished reading A Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes, this feels like the song of the book
I think the song's about the end of a relationship and her leaving, but despite all the pain that that'll cause it'll be all okay. It feels like a break up song to me that carries the message of move on because in the end everything thing will be alright.
I'll move to the country, and live inside the deepest, darkest forest