"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.
I heard what I said to you
And it was so out of sync
With the way I wanted to
Make myself out to seem
I don't like this air
But that doesn't mean I'll stop breathing it
Who doesn't think they're at the center of the universe and being it
Don't look now
Just keep watching the TV
Hating what's to see
Waiting for someone to say something that's right
I heard what I said to you
Thought it was all understood
But I wasn't getting through
I'd go on if I could
I don't like this air
But that doesn't mean I'll stop breathing it
Who doesn't think they're at the center of the universe and being it
Don't look now
Just keep watching the TV
Hating what's to see
Waiting for someone to say something that's right
And it was so out of sync
With the way I wanted to
Make myself out to seem
I don't like this air
But that doesn't mean I'll stop breathing it
Who doesn't think they're at the center of the universe and being it
Don't look now
Just keep watching the TV
Hating what's to see
Waiting for someone to say something that's right
I heard what I said to you
Thought it was all understood
But I wasn't getting through
I'd go on if I could
I don't like this air
But that doesn't mean I'll stop breathing it
Who doesn't think they're at the center of the universe and being it
Don't look now
Just keep watching the TV
Hating what's to see
Waiting for someone to say something that's right
Lyrics submitted by Lilsteier
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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"
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.
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.
My take on this song is pretty much what narsil said, but in a bit of a different context. It's (the songs, that is) kind of a half-apologetic attempt to explain himself and his words/actions to someone (maybe a girl, maybe a friend or family member, who knows).
"I heard what I said to you / and it was so out of sync / with the way I wanted to / make myself out to seem" (and the corresponding second verse) : 'Hey, I know I said these things, and I know how it must have sounded to you, but what you got from it was not the same thing I was trying to convey to you.' Trying to express oneself, trying to relate to someone so that they really understand you and where you're coming from is the hardest thing in the world.
"I don't like this air / but that doesn't mean I'll stop breathing it" : Here he's drawing a very simple parallel - 'I don't like being misunderstood, I don't like how tough it is to interact with people if they don't have as much knowledge of and access to all the things I think and feel as I do. But that doesn't mean I'm going to stop living with people, it doesn't mean I'm going to become a hermit and avoid social contact.'
"Who doesn't think they're at / the center of the universe and being it?" : We all experience life/the universe/everything only through ourselves. There's no way around this fact - I see with my own eyes, hear with my own ears, speak with my own mouth, and think with my own mind. In this sense, we are, by nature, alone.
"Don't look now / just keep watching your t.v. / hating what's to see (what you see?) / waiting for someone / to say something that's right" : Again, don't give up. Keep struggling along, because even though the majority of your experiences with people may not be positive or you may not be truly understood by (or truly understand) everyone you meet, there's always that chance that you'll find someone who says something that you would say, someone who thinks like you do, a kindred spirit. And maybe they won't agree with you on everything, but to connect with someone on even a small level, even if only some of the time, is what's really important.
To me, it's about struggling with my own fear that nothing outside myself is real (how can you ever know?) and the desire that creates within me to find someone who can truly know me.