In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
Hey wake it up! Hey shake it out!
Does anything still move you since you're educated now?
And all grown up and traveled so well
Do you still hear the sound of the thunder while you lie up by yourself?
Like you waited on his call and made your plans for great escapes
And there used to be a movement in the way your dress would wave
From your hips on down like electric through the ground
Now do you blow it out come Friday night?
See if you wanna, you can find me on the hood under the moonlight
Radio, oh radio, do you believe there's still some magic left
Somewhere inside our souls?
Like I waited on your call and made my plans to share my name
And I love the country movement in the way your dress would wave
From your hips on down like electric through the ground
Sound of the cars rushing the rain on the boulevard
In this city by the sea that has always haunted me
And belonged to me somehow
Bless your waters and your doubts
Bless your waters
Bless your doubts
Does anything still move you since you're educated now?
And all grown up and traveled so well
Do you still hear the sound of the thunder while you lie up by yourself?
Like you waited on his call and made your plans for great escapes
And there used to be a movement in the way your dress would wave
From your hips on down like electric through the ground
Now do you blow it out come Friday night?
See if you wanna, you can find me on the hood under the moonlight
Radio, oh radio, do you believe there's still some magic left
Somewhere inside our souls?
Like I waited on your call and made my plans to share my name
And I love the country movement in the way your dress would wave
From your hips on down like electric through the ground
Sound of the cars rushing the rain on the boulevard
In this city by the sea that has always haunted me
And belonged to me somehow
Bless your waters and your doubts
Bless your waters
Bless your doubts
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Standing On The Edge Of Summer
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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"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.
No Surprises
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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.
Magical
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
This seems to be an allusion to Springsteen's "Thunder Road". Springsteen's anti-hero made his best pitch to Mary to run away with him, but we never get to know her answer, I guess I always assumed it was "yes". Not Brian Fallon.
Perhaps Mary didn't like being called "you ain't no beauty, but hey you're alright".
In this universe, Fallon picks up the story after Mary turns him down. It seems that Mary becomes educated and travels instead of running away. Now, she is back, and the anti-hero is still there, sorta waiting for her - and maybe a little hurt and jaded as he chides her "does anything move you since you're educated now". He's done chasing - "you can find me, I'm on the hood", yet hopes there is still magic left somewhere, maybe on the radio. He understands why she turned him down, with her doubts and fears, and seems to fondly remembers her and there seems to still be hope there.
Other Allusions: "do you hear the thunder" - Thunder Road "in the way your dress would wave" - "Mary's dress waves" "find me on the hood" - "all th redemption I can offer girl is beneath this dirty hood" "oh radio, oh radio" - "as the radio plays, Roy Orbinson singin' for the lonely" "is there any magic left" - "show a little faith, there's magic in the night"
I love this idea of it being a sequel to Thunder Road. I don't know if that's what Brian's intention was with it, but it certainly works with the lyrics and all the references.
As soon as I heard this song I thought of Thunder Road. I agree 100% to your post! I think you hit it right on the head. And kudos to Brian for making such a cool follow up to the story!
that's genius
@mikehomie probably not intentional, but Fallon can't help himself, I think. Great analysis
It's always about Mary with Brian. I'm pretty much in total agreement with Mike. The graduation gown torn up in the last verst of Thunder Road is what starts this story. Mary has made it through school, and the old mechanic back in Jersey is still stuck out in Atlantic City or something like that riding around listening to the waves and the radio in his old car. I think that Mary and the Mechanic, or anti-hero from Thunder Road are both lonely though. The chorus "like you waited on his call, and made your plans for great escapes" suggests that the girl waited for the mechanics call while she was away, and that she maybe wanted him to come with her. The second chorus is all about how the mechanic never got to ask the question, or never got Mary to stay, or to come back.
In the end though, they're both lying alone. Mary in her bed in silence, the magic maybe gone from her life as she has a 9 to 5, and has to "shake it out" every morning just to get out of bed; and the mechanic on the hood of his car still dreaming big, and still howling about Mary and what could have been if she hadn't doubted him, or he hadn't doubted her.
I think that the last lines are really what matters too. Bless your words, bless your doubts, or waters and doubts, because it shows the speaker isn't angry about the situation, and maybe believes that both he and Mary are in better places now, her or his doubts, saving them from heart break, and maybe allowing him to love her forever even if he cannot have her.
This song comes and goes so fast.
Seems like he's singing to someone he used to be close to (or at least wanted to be). Someone who's changed. "There used to be a movement in the way your dress would wave." I'd imagine she's sort of settled down.
But he's not quite over her. "If you wanna, you can find me..." But in the end, he ends up singing only to the radio. He asks the radio if there's still some magic left. Magic that she seems to have lost.