"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.
In New York freedom looks like
Too many choices
In New York I found a friend
To drown out the other voices
Voices on a cell phone
Voices from home
Voices of the hard sell
Voices down a stairwell
In New York
Just got a place in New York
In New York summers get hot
Well into the hundreds
You can't walk around the block
Without a change of clothing
Hot as a hair dryer in your face
Hot as a handbag and a can of mace
New York
I just got a place in New York
New York New York
In New York you can forget
Forget how to sit still
Tell yourself you will stay in
But it's down to Alphaville
New York
New York, New York
New York, New York
New York
The Irish been coming here for years
Feel like they own the place
They got the airport, city hall
Asphalt, asphalt
They even got the police
Irish, Italians, Jews and Hispanics
Religious nuts, political fanatics in the stew
Happily not like me and you
That's where I lost you
New York
New York, New York
New York
New York, New York
New York
New York
In New York I lost it all
To you and your vices
Still I'm staying on to figure out
Midlife crisis
I hit an iceberg in my life
You know I'm still afloat
You lose your balance, lose your wife
In the queue for the lifeboat
You got to put the women and children first
But you've got an unquenchable thirst for New York
New York
New York
New York, New York
In the stillness of the evening
When the sun has had its day
I heard your voice whispering
Come away now
New, New York
New
New York
Oh
New York
Too many choices
In New York I found a friend
To drown out the other voices
Voices on a cell phone
Voices from home
Voices of the hard sell
Voices down a stairwell
In New York
Just got a place in New York
In New York summers get hot
Well into the hundreds
You can't walk around the block
Without a change of clothing
Hot as a hair dryer in your face
Hot as a handbag and a can of mace
New York
I just got a place in New York
New York New York
In New York you can forget
Forget how to sit still
Tell yourself you will stay in
But it's down to Alphaville
New York
New York, New York
New York, New York
New York
The Irish been coming here for years
Feel like they own the place
They got the airport, city hall
Asphalt, asphalt
They even got the police
Irish, Italians, Jews and Hispanics
Religious nuts, political fanatics in the stew
Happily not like me and you
That's where I lost you
New York
New York, New York
New York
New York, New York
New York
New York
In New York I lost it all
To you and your vices
Still I'm staying on to figure out
Midlife crisis
I hit an iceberg in my life
You know I'm still afloat
You lose your balance, lose your wife
In the queue for the lifeboat
You got to put the women and children first
But you've got an unquenchable thirst for New York
New York
New York
New York, New York
In the stillness of the evening
When the sun has had its day
I heard your voice whispering
Come away now
New, New York
New
New York
Oh
New York
Lyrics submitted by yuri_sucupira
New York Lyrics as written by Dave Evans Adam Clayton
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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Ebba Grön
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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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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Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
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,
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.
Thanks Boa for admitting it was just your interpretation...cause I don't see where you got that....but it's ACTUALLY about life...and not New York. He just used New York as a metaphor for how life is.
@Eyecon You seem awfully confident that your interpretation's the correct one...