"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.
walls trapped within
yellow eyes
the cutters drooling face
rips apart
cuts to the heart
disease shown
let it out
movement crosses crimson light
washes darkened corners gently
forces open wide
and lingering awhile
pouring thoughts electric fingers
blinding pressure sockets stream
matter grey the nerve free fall
safely buried out behind a face
let it out
be carefull watching living mask
misshapen tumors ride the pressing
tinted nightmare breeze
let it out
mental shock
disturbed thoughts rotting
long lasting reaction
make it stop
stir up the pot
taking away means nothing
mental shock
mental shock
distorted moodswing smile
altered music shadow covers
melted honey bitter pie
she utters tasting quite lovely
motion on towards a truthful state
mincing with words align
order form to multiply
mental shock
relentless and leaning
compiling the list
mental shock
alone at the top
before before it was not
this way i thought... it did
mental shock
disturbed thoughts rotting
long lasting reaction
make it stop
mental shock
distraught all has got
to be given up
this way i thought
yellow eyes
the cutters drooling face
rips apart
cuts to the heart
disease shown
let it out
movement crosses crimson light
washes darkened corners gently
forces open wide
and lingering awhile
pouring thoughts electric fingers
blinding pressure sockets stream
matter grey the nerve free fall
safely buried out behind a face
let it out
be carefull watching living mask
misshapen tumors ride the pressing
tinted nightmare breeze
let it out
mental shock
disturbed thoughts rotting
long lasting reaction
make it stop
stir up the pot
taking away means nothing
mental shock
mental shock
distorted moodswing smile
altered music shadow covers
melted honey bitter pie
she utters tasting quite lovely
motion on towards a truthful state
mincing with words align
order form to multiply
mental shock
relentless and leaning
compiling the list
mental shock
alone at the top
before before it was not
this way i thought... it did
mental shock
disturbed thoughts rotting
long lasting reaction
make it stop
mental shock
distraught all has got
to be given up
this way i thought
Lyrics submitted by jt
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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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,
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I had a really bad car accident while listening to this song. After the car stopped all I heard was "mental shock".
This is one of my favorite SP songs. To me this song is about a person who witnessed a gruesome event (murder maybe?) and is haunted by it.
after reading this, it kinda sounds like the thoughts of a cutter that suffers from abuse trauma. a panic attack that leads to cutting- "disease shown". the only problem is that this was 1990 and i don't even know if the term "cutter" for self-mutilators existed back then
I always thought it must be about a lab animal who's subject to the type of tests they do where they stick wires in different parts of the brain and stimulate with electricity. But maybe I'm being too literal.
I must admit one line seems to me to be especially puzzling "before before it was not this way i thought... it did" - I think on the sleeve note lyrics "It did" is in brackets - Kinda thought this was maybe the Vivisecter/Tormentor has been affected by his work to the point that he is now thinking like an animal, and this could be either through the trauma of it or through being so desensitised to suffering.
Uh its probably just me :)
This song is obviously from the viewpoint of the lab animal being dissected, cut into and probed - and the horror it feels as it's happening. The lyrics are strange words that a non-human would use to describe the strange things that are being done to it in a lab.
Although there are parallels to animal testing, I think Tormentor is about electro-shock therapy and similar cruel treatments for mental disorders, such as lobotomies. Disturbed thoughts, moodswing smile. These lines suggest a mental disorder. Like Assimilate, those that are identified as being different must be assimilated or destroyed. Society cannot tolerate those that are different. Taking away means nothing. Wiping the mind in order to restore sanity only leaves gibbering vegetables. Yes, the subjects can be controlled, but have they identity? Have they will? Again, doctors over step their bounds. Considering how many lobotomies and other cruel treatments had been performed on unwilling subjects, it is quite disturbing. Testure suggests there is a link between cruelty to animals and cruelty to human beings. Tormentor is the proof. The opening line appears to refer to vivisection. The rest, the repercussions of electro-shock therapy.
It is an awesome song. Best part of Ohgr's lyrics is that it seems to mean different things to different people. A lot of the older stuff is written while under the influence of heavy drugs and looks more like fragments of thoughts, never really expressed fully. To me Tormentor is about insanity itself.
"pouring thoughts electric fingers blinding pressure sockets stream matter grey the nerve free fall safely buried out behind a face"
It kind of hints that behind the "normal" surface there are raging thoughts and urges, maybe the thoughts of a murderer. The different parts of the lyrics seem to portrait a different madness though.