"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.
Caught in the darkness
The room is getting colder my body is on hold
Lying in bed and unable to move
The darkness in 24
Former guests who live no more
So many hands to hold you down
My mind is awake
I open my eyes but it's so hard to breathe
Something is in here to silence my screams
The darkness in 24
Steal your breath away once more
Oh it's happening again yeah
See the old hag sitting over me
The smell of rotten breath and blasphemy
No way out only darkness here
Feel my eyes filling up with fear
Will someone hear me crying out for help in room 24
In room 24, in room 24
Caught in the darkness
The room is getting colder my body is on hold
Lying in bed and unable to move
Sadness is falling tear
Turning into liquid fear
Who killed who we'll never know
Oh we'll never know
Never tell, never tell, never tell, never tell
See the old hag sitting over me
The smell of rotten breath and blasphemy
No way out only darkness here
Feel my eyes filling up with fear
Will someone hear me crying out for help in room 24
In room 24, in room 24
The room is getting colder my body is on hold
Lying in bed and unable to move
The darkness in 24
Former guests who live no more
So many hands to hold you down
My mind is awake
I open my eyes but it's so hard to breathe
Something is in here to silence my screams
The darkness in 24
Steal your breath away once more
Oh it's happening again yeah
See the old hag sitting over me
The smell of rotten breath and blasphemy
No way out only darkness here
Feel my eyes filling up with fear
Will someone hear me crying out for help in room 24
In room 24, in room 24
Caught in the darkness
The room is getting colder my body is on hold
Lying in bed and unable to move
Sadness is falling tear
Turning into liquid fear
Who killed who we'll never know
Oh we'll never know
Never tell, never tell, never tell, never tell
See the old hag sitting over me
The smell of rotten breath and blasphemy
No way out only darkness here
Feel my eyes filling up with fear
Will someone hear me crying out for help in room 24
In room 24, in room 24
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings
Room 24 Lyrics as written by Michael Poulsen
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Fintage House Publishing
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
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This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
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@[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
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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,
Punchline
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Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
To me it seems quite clear that this involves sleep paralysis, known by some as the "Old Hag Syndrome". But the songs from this album tends to have some sort of historical reference, something which I cannot find in this song.
To build on Runezor's comment above, here's a possible historical reference: concordscolonialinn.com/haunted-inn Basically, it talks about a pair of newlyweds being given Room 24 and the bride seeing a ghost in the room that night. Apparently, there's enough paranormal activity in this place that it's been investigated by Ghost Hunters. I knew I'd heard of room 24 somewhere when I first listened to this song; it took some digging to actually remember where.
Maybe the historical reference is about the Inn during the Revolutionary War. Checkout this link for more info: paranormalstories.blogspot.com/2010/09/colonial-inn.html
According to Robert Caggiano's Twitter (Lead Guitarist), this song is about sleep paralysis, which happend to Michael Poulsen (Lead Singer) when he was staying in the room 24 of a hotel !