"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.
Springfield's looking pretty dusty today
I see their dreams coming undone
The view from inside ward nine affords this much
A town teeming with the unloved
Close the window and lock it so it's good and tight
Turning eighteen and trying not to look too lost
Have a not so nice day
The jacket makes me straight so I can just sit back and bake
You know I think I'm gonna stay
Talking very loud but no one hears a word I say
Come visit me tonight at eight o'clock and then
You'll see how I am not the crazy one
Voices tell me I'm the shit
Twenty days go by and every day looks the same
I'm the shit
I see their dreams coming undone
The view from inside ward nine affords this much
A town teeming with the unloved
Close the window and lock it so it's good and tight
Turning eighteen and trying not to look too lost
Have a not so nice day
The jacket makes me straight so I can just sit back and bake
You know I think I'm gonna stay
Talking very loud but no one hears a word I say
Come visit me tonight at eight o'clock and then
You'll see how I am not the crazy one
Voices tell me I'm the shit
Twenty days go by and every day looks the same
I'm the shit
Lyrics submitted by emokid13, edited by ChipperSpiff, limedog
My Descent Into Madness Lyrics as written by Mark Everett Paul E. Huston
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Reservoir Media Management, Inc., Exploration Group LLC
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Great version of a great song,
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"Come visit me tonight at eight o'clock and then you'll see how I am not the crazy one." I just love that line so much. Not really sure why though
This song's the shit.
I continue to be amazed by the EELS. This song is amazing. I especially love the gentle flow of the music, with the violins complementing, and the bells.. GOD, its Gorgeous!
lol @ bullitt. Damn straight, you're right!
This song sort of gives me an impression of medically induced happiness. She's (I assume this is about Elizabeth, like much of the first half of the album) sitting in a ward, looking out, looking around, talking to herself, and allows herself to be swallowed into the smaller thoughts like locking the window properly and the physical sensation of her jacket, while the bigger questions previously asked in songs like "3 Speed" are numbed away by a sedated "la la la", complimented sublimely by some over-the-top-positive string pieces. To me, this is a shattering critique of medically solving depressions, as everything is merely hidden away. And, as we see later, it of course springs back into the surface, with catastrophic results.
This song is also a very good example of how song structure and arrangement is literally equal to the lyrics in terms of telling the story of the album, and enhances my feeling that there is no single note or word on this album that isn't part of the "big picture".
i have been where this song describes. i have been committed. it's exactly the way this song makes it sound. they dope you up into a cocoon of med induced passiveness. every day seems the same.
Best song on Electro-Shock Blues. That string sample blows my mind each time I hear it...so perfect.
This song is rather amazing.
Anyone know what the quote from the start is from? Sounds like Big Arnie.
I keep thinking it's Arnold Schwarzenegger, but I can't think of a single film that he said that line before this album was made.
Another personal story; I picked up this album years ago, but this song in particular brought to my mind the name of a starship; nothing FANCY, just a cargo hauler, but called the Ward Nine. Eventually, this became an actual ship for a tabletop role-playing game where I was playing the "captain", a former Lieutenant in Star Fleet.
Also, my character in particular hated Federation teleportation, and refused to have a single transporter installed on his ship. After the first DOZEN attempts to transport other people on the Ward Nine, he also looked into getting a Transport Inhibitor.
Does anyone know where the Springfield in the lyrics is? Is it Massachusetts?