"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.
light up a cigarette she said
and calm the fuck down
you got a serious side to you
that could give the whole world a frown
now nothin' really matters to me you see
check out these holes in my gown
let your eyes lose their focus a little
let your guard come down
i was thirsty for everything
but water wasn't my style
guess we might have to teach me
somethin'
guess we might have to show me how
now put out that cigarette she said
somethin' ain't right in here
it's tied to the both of us, I ain't sure now,
it isn't clear
we could have been born helpless children
beggin' for our next meal
I could be a voodoo lady, just a classy
hooker
playin' the field
classy holy hooker!!!
hey! I've made up my mind, yeah
I came to see your sign
disappear this mornin' but come back
tonight
light up a cigarette she said
and calm the fuck down
relax and let your ears hear this beautiful
song
that's hidin' underneath the sound
underneath the sound!!!
I made up my mind
I came to see you fly
disappear this mornin' but come back
tonight
voodoo lady
voodoo lady
voodoo lady
voodoo lady
I was thirsty for everything but blood,
wasn't my style!
voodoo lady
did I dream you up or are you for real?
are you for real?
are you for real?
Lyrics submitted by Caverna[RR]
Voodoo Lady Lyrics as written by Chad David Taylor Chad Alan Gracey
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
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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"
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
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.
Alright, the way I've always interpreted the Distance to Here is it's an album about a guy's quest to find the truth about religions. Basically, a search for God, songs like the Distance and Face and Ghost make me think this. Here's what I think about Voodoo Lady:
On his quest for God the narrator has stopped on a sidequest to be with a voodoo lady. He discovers she is a hooker and considers sleeping with her, the first verse is him retelling what she first said to him. He gets suspicious and suspects that she may be wanting to drug him then slit his throat (hey they do it sometimes). The chorus is when he doesn't accept a drink from her and tells her he's never done anything like that before, she tells him that she'll show him how.
The second verse is her getting the idea that he's caught on to her game, maybe she accidentally flashes her blades to him, but with her being a hooker/voodoo lady that he's never met before tonight, she could be dangerous and would want to kill him right there. So he starts to realize she's crazy and that he himself could be crazy, he realizes how fortunate he is that he isn't the one in her shoes, hence the line "I could be a voodoo lady, just a classy hooker playing the field".
He tells her he's got to go for some reason, but gives her the idea that he'll come back later that night, so she waits. The beautiful song underneath the sound line could represent him seeing what her intentions really were underneath her offering him sex and a drink.
The final part of the song is him realizing what had just happened, and that if he was going to die he didn't want to do it by choking on his own blood. Then once he's gotten away from this woman he wonders if the whole thing really happened or if he just dreamed it up.
That's just my late night look at another one of Live's songs. If it doesn't make sense I apologize.