"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.
Helios, Guide me by the sun
And with east and west geometrics a trance will now be spun
Devils from past hells perceived to be one
But not by man, aman, his clan
Now our fates will suck their tongues
From the east past the herald gates - for months and months their heels would batter and break
As they passed over great lengths seize my spell in the galleries of the utmost evil
And then at last its talons grew straight out from the earth itself
The truth of all forgotten things too horrible for thought or mention
And now the churning death from depths abhorred is found
His fervent duty unleashed with hate forever will resound
In the mind's eye until the end of days - concurrent with what they've found
His spires of power and citadels of wrath
Of hidden poison wrapped in mounds
Like Apollyon's dark path - these harlots of lost dominion
Apart from his kind - now in and amidst the sights of wonder - The bowels within
Of a prison long forgotten that scoured the earth in the hearts and minds of men
As Moses received our will from the tree
This ignorant disciple will to scour the earth for a time and time again
Now go forth - bring hell to all lost souls like Thebes
Decimate and raze the land as you choke off life - foul leech
The human race will do anything to murder itself and to poison life for me
At the cost of my cult
And with east and west geometrics a trance will now be spun
Devils from past hells perceived to be one
But not by man, aman, his clan
Now our fates will suck their tongues
From the east past the herald gates - for months and months their heels would batter and break
As they passed over great lengths seize my spell in the galleries of the utmost evil
And then at last its talons grew straight out from the earth itself
The truth of all forgotten things too horrible for thought or mention
And now the churning death from depths abhorred is found
His fervent duty unleashed with hate forever will resound
In the mind's eye until the end of days - concurrent with what they've found
His spires of power and citadels of wrath
Of hidden poison wrapped in mounds
Like Apollyon's dark path - these harlots of lost dominion
Apart from his kind - now in and amidst the sights of wonder - The bowels within
Of a prison long forgotten that scoured the earth in the hearts and minds of men
As Moses received our will from the tree
This ignorant disciple will to scour the earth for a time and time again
Now go forth - bring hell to all lost souls like Thebes
Decimate and raze the land as you choke off life - foul leech
The human race will do anything to murder itself and to poison life for me
At the cost of my cult
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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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"
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.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
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.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.