"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.
Yes, its time for the dr. goebbels
Show!
There's a tower in the heart of london
With a radio station right at the top
They don't make the city beat
They're making all the action stop
A long time ago there were pirates
Beaming waves from the sea
But now all the stations are silenced
'cause they ain't got a government license
Want to tell your problems
Phone in from your bedsit room
Having trouble with your partner
Let us all in on the news
If you want to hear a record
Get the word from aiden day
He picks all the hits to play
To keep you in your place all day
Capital radio
In tune with nothing
Don't touch that dial
Show!
There's a tower in the heart of london
With a radio station right at the top
They don't make the city beat
They're making all the action stop
A long time ago there were pirates
Beaming waves from the sea
But now all the stations are silenced
'cause they ain't got a government license
Want to tell your problems
Phone in from your bedsit room
Having trouble with your partner
Let us all in on the news
If you want to hear a record
Get the word from aiden day
He picks all the hits to play
To keep you in your place all day
Capital radio
In tune with nothing
Don't touch that dial
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
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"
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.
Just A Little Lovin'
Dusty Springfield
Dusty Springfield
I don't think it's necessarily about sex. It's about wanting to start the day with some love and affection. Maybe a warm cuddle. I'm not alone in interpreting it that way! For example:
"'Just a Little Lovin’ is a timeless country song originally recorded by Eddy Arnold in 1954. The song, written by Eddie Miller and Jimmy Campbell, explores the delicate nuances of love and showcases Arnold’s emotive vocals. It delves into the universal theme of love and how even the smallest gesture of affection can have a profound impact on our lives." https://oldtimemusic.com/the-meaning-behind-the-song-just-a-little-lovin-by-eddy-arnold/
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
does anyone know what they're saying at the beginning of this song? there's this big conversation, and i can only make out parts of it.
capital radio wouldnt play the tracks the clash and the rest of the youth were intersted in at the time including the clash's own material and they claimed they were at the heart of london which really pissed off joe strummer and they hated the station for claiming to be what they werent.
"Hey you guys - come on. Jonesie! (Yeah, what?) Hey listen, I been thinking. We'll never got on the radio like this. You know that? Now, I've been studying the charts, using my mind and my imagination, and I can see it all now. The drummer's in the box-office and he's counting all the money! You guys don't get what to do! Are y'all ready? Alright. On the count of four! Four! Hey! Yes, let's count it! Movin' up! Wow! Pure gold! Hey! Yeah, get that DJ home alive! Have you seen me dance? I'm the one that I want! Oh baby! Slow me down! Slow me down!"
Haha, Jonesie!
This song is just another example of how The Clash were so ahead of their time (or at least timeless.) Replace the word Capitol with the word Corporate and doesn't this pretty much describe radio today?
capital radio was a pirate station (now legal), i make the dr. goebbels association with the fascist-like demonisation of the pirate stations. how can anybody party to state sponsored rock'n'roll!
i personally prefer capital radio two to capital one.
"On the count of four . Four!" Fuckin great
Strummer about Radio: 'The only person who played ‘White Riot’ on the radio was John Peel — and he's gone on holiday,' says Joe, his voice a mixture of amused incredulity and frustration. 'You play our record against any of the other stuff and it just knocks spots off them left, right and centre. They must be cunts for not playing it.'
He is holding a can of spray paint (colour: War Dance Orange) and that night he sprayed 'White Riot' in huge letters over the tinted glass façade of Capital Radio's offices.
'I want to slag off all the people in charge of radio stations,' he continues. 'Firstly, Radio One. They outlawed the pirates and then didn’t, as they promised, cater for the market the pirates created. Radio One and Two, most afternoons, run concurrently and the whole thing has slid right back to where it was before the pirates happened. They've totally fucked it. There's no radio station for young people any more. It's all down to housewives and trendies in Islington. They're killing the country by having that play list monopoly.
'No 2: Capital. They're even worse because they had the chance, coming right into the heart of London and sitting in that tower right on top of everything. But they've completely blown it. I'd like to throttle Aiden Day. He thinks he's the self appointed Minister of Public Enlightenment.
'We've just written a new song called Capital Radio and a line in it goes "listen to the tunes of the Dr Goebbels Show."
'They say "Capital Radio in tune with London". Yeah, yeah, yeah! They're in tune with Hampstead. They're not in tune with us at all. I hate them. What they could have done compared to what they have done is abhorrent. They could have made it so good that everywhere you went you took your transistor radio — you know, how it used to be when I was at school. I'd have one in my pocket all the time or by my ear'ole flicking it between stations. If you didn’t like one record you'd flick to another station and then back again. It was amazing. They could have made the whole capital buzz. Instead Capital Radio has just turned their back on the whole youth of the city.'