"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.
What if phones but too much
More like what if I gave a fuck
It's just slow death by 1000 cuts
Tech or not this shit fucking sucks
Rolling start on the race to the bottom
No brakes, windshield, or credit; no problem
Make an offer to the econ goblin
Print more money so the line stops wobbling /down
Drink to postponed foul fortune
Twisted like ball sack torsion
Just got barely enough for a 40 and a Whopper post landlord extortion
No wage, just pay
One more day, depression on the way
It's not hit yet I'm just in pain
More brain cells die every day
Reverse lawnmower
Reverse lawnmower man
Everyday
My faculties just fray
Can't explain
Down the fucking drain
Every day
Even less remain
Can't explain
Live in order profane
Every day wander as if Cain
Can't explain
Alien terrain
Every day
The cerebral stain
Noise of blade in my head ingrained
Try to eat the silica packet
At bottom of the beef jerky bag in my jacket
The world's crumbled and so am i
Get high, get by, I try
To not die, it works on occasion
Unsure when it does no confirmation
Research, catalog card found, pulled it
Apocalypse, fuck the Mad Max bullshit
Feeling like the frog in biology
Given a rock band mic tracheostomy
I spit it like ribbit till I croak
Living in shit still smelling like a rose
That somebody gave me on my birthday deathbed
Everything I say has already been said
Everything I say has already been spat
One large Farva to go make it fast
In a rush to kill all eye floaters
Enough hallucinations sans those Interlopers
Plus boomer shit old people odors
Congress smells like mothballs and foreclosures
Hope they run out of bones and fall apart
Descarte brain fart restart
The guillotine runs on diesel now
Hit the primer, rip the chord, feed the suits to the mouth
Reverse lawnmower
Reverse lawnmower man
Reverse lawnmower
Reverse lawnmower man
Every day wander as if Cain
Can't explain alien terrain
Every day the cerebral stain
Noise of blades in my head ingrained
Every day
Can’t explains
Noise of blades
In my head ingrained
More like what if I gave a fuck
It's just slow death by 1000 cuts
Tech or not this shit fucking sucks
Rolling start on the race to the bottom
No brakes, windshield, or credit; no problem
Make an offer to the econ goblin
Print more money so the line stops wobbling /down
Drink to postponed foul fortune
Twisted like ball sack torsion
Just got barely enough for a 40 and a Whopper post landlord extortion
No wage, just pay
One more day, depression on the way
It's not hit yet I'm just in pain
More brain cells die every day
Reverse lawnmower
Reverse lawnmower man
Everyday
My faculties just fray
Can't explain
Down the fucking drain
Every day
Even less remain
Can't explain
Live in order profane
Every day wander as if Cain
Can't explain
Alien terrain
Every day
The cerebral stain
Noise of blade in my head ingrained
Try to eat the silica packet
At bottom of the beef jerky bag in my jacket
The world's crumbled and so am i
Get high, get by, I try
To not die, it works on occasion
Unsure when it does no confirmation
Research, catalog card found, pulled it
Apocalypse, fuck the Mad Max bullshit
Feeling like the frog in biology
Given a rock band mic tracheostomy
I spit it like ribbit till I croak
Living in shit still smelling like a rose
That somebody gave me on my birthday deathbed
Everything I say has already been said
Everything I say has already been spat
One large Farva to go make it fast
In a rush to kill all eye floaters
Enough hallucinations sans those Interlopers
Plus boomer shit old people odors
Congress smells like mothballs and foreclosures
Hope they run out of bones and fall apart
Descarte brain fart restart
The guillotine runs on diesel now
Hit the primer, rip the chord, feed the suits to the mouth
Reverse lawnmower
Reverse lawnmower man
Reverse lawnmower
Reverse lawnmower man
Every day wander as if Cain
Can't explain alien terrain
Every day the cerebral stain
Noise of blades in my head ingrained
Every day
Can’t explains
Noise of blades
In my head ingrained
Lyrics submitted by katievcj
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
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Wu-Tang Clan
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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.
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
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.
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.