"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.
These are the days of the endless summer
These are the days, the time is now
There is no past, there's only future
There's only here, there's only now
Oh your smiling face, your gracious presence
The fires of spring are kindling bright
Oh the radiant heart and the song of glory
Crying freedom into night
These are the days by the sparkling river
His timely grace and our treasured find
This is the love of the one magician
Turned the water into wine
These are days of the endless dancing
And the long walks on the summer night
These are the days of the true romancing
When I'm holding you, oh, so tight
These are the days by the sparkling river
And His timely grace and the treasured find
This is the love of the one great magician
Turned the water into wine
These are the days now that we must savor
And we must enjoy as we can
These are the days that will last forever
You've got to hold them in your heart.
These are the days, the time is now
There is no past, there's only future
There's only here, there's only now
Oh your smiling face, your gracious presence
The fires of spring are kindling bright
Oh the radiant heart and the song of glory
Crying freedom into night
These are the days by the sparkling river
His timely grace and our treasured find
This is the love of the one magician
Turned the water into wine
These are days of the endless dancing
And the long walks on the summer night
These are the days of the true romancing
When I'm holding you, oh, so tight
These are the days by the sparkling river
And His timely grace and the treasured find
This is the love of the one great magician
Turned the water into wine
These are the days now that we must savor
And we must enjoy as we can
These are the days that will last forever
You've got to hold them in your heart.
Lyrics submitted by yuri_sucupira
These Are the Days Lyrics as written by Van Morrison
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
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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"
Dreamwalker
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I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
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Blue
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“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.
I think Van is speaking of finding the kingdom of heaven within…the same one the “great magician” Jesus came to show us. He references the experience of being in the eternal now, reached through meditation or being the state of spiritual enlightenment. In esoteric imagery, the sparkling river is the living water or Truth that Jesus talks about drinking from his mouth. There is an element of grace to finding this kingdom of heaven within and one must be awakened and hear the call in order for it to make sense and for the path to be found. So it is timely grace and our receptivity that enables the “treasured find” of the kingdom of heaven. The divine is often called the “beloved” in esoteric symbolism, so the endless dancing, long walks and romancing are all symbols of delighting in ecstatic union with the divine as mystics throughout the ages have portrayed it.
@Philos It has been a few years since you posted your interpretation of the song, and I absolutely agree with it in every way, except that I would have clarified "The kingdom of heaven" more clearly. However, I appreciate you may not agree with my understanding of what "heaven" is. So the one and only line I would change, simply <br /> to clarify is: <br /> There is an element of grace to finding this kingdom of heaven WITHIN and one must be awakened and hear the call in order for it to make sense and for the path to be found. So it is timely grace and our receptivity that enables the “treasured find” , the state of being that is "the kingdom of heaven" which lies within us all , our eternal, true selves, our consciousness/soul. (Christ when asked where the Kingdom of God was, replied "Within you", and again Who/what is God? replied God is Love.
@Philos It has been a few years since you posted your interpretation of the song, and I absolutely agree with it in every way, except that I would have clarified "The kingdom of heaven" more clearly. However, I appreciate you may not agree with my understanding of what "heaven" is. So the one and only line I would change, simply <br /> to clarify is: <br /> There is an element of grace to finding this kingdom of heaven WITHIN and one must be awakened and hear the call in order for it to make sense and for the path to be found. So it is timely grace and our receptivity that enables the “treasured find” , the state of being that is "the kingdom of heaven" which lies within us all , our eternal, true selves, our consciousness/soul. (Christ when asked where the Kingdom of God was, replied "Within you", and again Who/what is God? replied God is Love.