"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.
Porcupine razor
Palatine Mill
Garbage on a laser
Monkey on the hill
Dive me through the bottom
Climb me through the chill
Got a gabardine sausage
Platinum pill
Get a new lover
Spiritual lie
Shining on cable
Cussing all the time
Stink brown cupboard
Guinea pig's eye
A skinny old lover
Porcupine pie
It's raining on a Sunday
I've been shooting on the job
I'll be dying on a Monday
See me jumping like a hog
Soft poke Jigger
Dread blue bone
Big jewel dagger
Soft black foam
See me building for the future
See me saving for the dawn
Got another woman
Better all the time
I've been weeping on a sleeper
I'm a skiving on the raise
Skeeting like a cheater
Looking hunger in the face
Mr Ulysses
Tell me where you been
I stole some kisses
From your dark-eyed queen
Been to Philadelphia
Seen you in your gown
Papa was a sailor
Way across town
Your papa was a sailor
Your mama was a tramp
Your sister was Ophelia
Your brother ran a bank
I've got another woman
Way across town
I see her in the evenings
When I'm down
Calling on a woman
Calling on the Lord
Saying it's been a long time
Open your door
Take off your clothes, Lord
Lay down on the bed
Answer all my prayers
Like the Bible said
I've been riding on a tiger
Only go the way
Old pale fire
Never fade
Soft poke Jigger
Dread blue bone
Big jewel dagger
Soft black throne
Raining on a Sunday
Shooting on the job
Dying on a Monday
Squealing like a hog
Stink brown cupboard
Guinea pig's eye
Skinny old lover
Porcupine pie
Get a new lover
Palatine Mill
Garbage on a laser
Monkey on the hill
Dive me through the bottom
Climb me through the chill
Got a gabardine sausage
Platinum pill
Get a new lover
Spiritual lie
Shining on cable
Cussing all the time
Stink brown cupboard
Guinea pig's eye
A skinny old lover
Porcupine pie
It's raining on a Sunday
I've been shooting on the job
I'll be dying on a Monday
See me jumping like a hog
Soft poke Jigger
Dread blue bone
Big jewel dagger
Soft black foam
See me building for the future
See me saving for the dawn
Got another woman
Better all the time
I've been weeping on a sleeper
I'm a skiving on the raise
Skeeting like a cheater
Looking hunger in the face
Mr Ulysses
Tell me where you been
I stole some kisses
From your dark-eyed queen
Been to Philadelphia
Seen you in your gown
Papa was a sailor
Way across town
Your papa was a sailor
Your mama was a tramp
Your sister was Ophelia
Your brother ran a bank
I've got another woman
Way across town
I see her in the evenings
When I'm down
Calling on a woman
Calling on the Lord
Saying it's been a long time
Open your door
Take off your clothes, Lord
Lay down on the bed
Answer all my prayers
Like the Bible said
I've been riding on a tiger
Only go the way
Old pale fire
Never fade
Soft poke Jigger
Dread blue bone
Big jewel dagger
Soft black throne
Raining on a Sunday
Shooting on the job
Dying on a Monday
Squealing like a hog
Stink brown cupboard
Guinea pig's eye
Skinny old lover
Porcupine pie
Get a new lover
Lyrics submitted by Mellow_Harsher
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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"
I Can't Go To Sleep
Wu-Tang Clan
Wu-Tang Clan
This song is written as the perspective of the boys in the street, as a whole, and what path they are going to choose as they get older and grow into men. (This is why the music video takes place in an orphanage.) The seen, and unseen collective suffering is imbedded in the boys’ mind, consciously or subconsciously, and is haunting them. Which path will the boys choose? Issac Hayes is the voice of reason, maybe God, the angel on his shoulder, or the voice of his forefathers from beyond the grave who can see the big picture and are pleading with the boys not to continue the violence and pattern of killing their brothers, but to rise above. The most beautiful song and has so many levels. Racism towards African Americans in America would not exist if everyone sat down and listened to this song and understood the history behind the words. The power, fear, pleading in RZA and Ghostface voices are genuine and powerful. Issac Hayes’ strong voice makes the perfect strong father figure, who is possibly from beyond the grave.
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.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.