"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 lit a thin green candle
To make you jealous of me
But the room just filled up with mosquitoes
They heard that my body was free
Then I took the dust of a long sleepless night
And I put it in your little shoe
And then I confess that I tortured the dress
That you wore for the world to look through
I showed my heart to the doctor
He said I'd just have to quit
Then he wrote himself a prescription
And your name was mentioned in it
Then he locked himself in a library shelf
With the details of our honeymoon
And I hear from the nurse that he's gotten much worse
And his practice is all in a ruin
I heard of a saint who had loved you
So I studied all night in his school
He taught that the duty of lovers
Is to tarnish the golden rule
And just when I was sure that his teachings were pure
He drowned himself in the pool
His body is gone but back here on the lawn
His spirit continues to drool
An Eskimo showed me a movie
He'd recently taken of you
The poor man could hardly stop shivering
His lips and his fingers were blue
I suppose that he froze when the wind took your clothes
And I guess he just never got warm
But you stand there so nice in your blizzard of ice
Oh please, let me come into the storm
To make you jealous of me
But the room just filled up with mosquitoes
They heard that my body was free
Then I took the dust of a long sleepless night
And I put it in your little shoe
And then I confess that I tortured the dress
That you wore for the world to look through
I showed my heart to the doctor
He said I'd just have to quit
Then he wrote himself a prescription
And your name was mentioned in it
Then he locked himself in a library shelf
With the details of our honeymoon
And I hear from the nurse that he's gotten much worse
And his practice is all in a ruin
I heard of a saint who had loved you
So I studied all night in his school
He taught that the duty of lovers
Is to tarnish the golden rule
And just when I was sure that his teachings were pure
He drowned himself in the pool
His body is gone but back here on the lawn
His spirit continues to drool
An Eskimo showed me a movie
He'd recently taken of you
The poor man could hardly stop shivering
His lips and his fingers were blue
I suppose that he froze when the wind took your clothes
And I guess he just never got warm
But you stand there so nice in your blizzard of ice
Oh please, let me come into the storm
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
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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."
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
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,
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.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
DrewKatsikas has it I believe. I also never thought of the doctor, saint, and eskimo representing himself-- that seems interesting but I don't know about that, could be just three other ex-lovers. This song is so poetic.
"I lit a thin green candle, to make you jealous of me" I think the narrator started dating other people to make her jealous, the green candle represents maybe the money he can spend on women on dates, gifts, etc....
"But the room just filled up with mosquitoes, they heard that my body was free." The 'candlelight' just attracted mosquitoes or just random women that are using him for his money possibly. The important part is that these new women mean nothing to him.
"Then I took the dust of a long sleepless night and I put it in your little shoe." This line always confused me. The 'dust from a long sleepless night' might represent all those thoughts you think of after a break-up that keep you up all night because you're not over it yet. Putting it in her shoe? I don't know, maybe that represents haphazardly telling her all these feelings one night and having her step on them like they are nothing....
"And then I confess that I tortured the dress that you wore for the world to look through." He talked bad about her to others so that they saw her in a negative light. The dress represents her image that people saw of her.
"showed my heart to the doctor...." I thought the doctor represented someone close to the narrator that he confided in to help cope with his broken heart, and then this friend ended up getting together with her in the end and winded up just as broken as the narrator.
"I heard of a saint..." I believe the saint is a past lover that the narrator talks to in order to get a better understanding of the woman. The golden rule, for me, has always been to never cheat. So I think the saint cheated on the woman, somewhat like the narrator 'lighting the thin green candle' in the beginning; and likewise they both completely regret pushing her away in the end.
"An Eskimo showed me a movie he'd recently taken of you:" The Eskimo seems like a current or recent lover of the woman. It is used to emphasize how amazing she is at hurting men when she can figuratively make an Eskimo shiver. Her love is then compared to a freezing storm, and the narrator is willing to get hurt again just to be with her.
God I love this song.
@Beksinski I think your explaination of the song is nice, but the doctor part I disagree on. <br /> <br /> "He shows his hart to the doctor" is representing a person who should know better. He knows that the narrator "has to quit" cause he has already been together with her. But the story of the narrator reminds him of the time he was together with the same girl. He still needs to heal, but can't let go and gets jelaous about the narrator and his time with the woman.<br /> <br /> I guess both ways makes sense tho!
@Beksinski <br /> Thanks Beksinki<br /> Your interpretation makes a lot of sense<br />
The first verse refers to voodoo. Cohen was into candles and spells during the 1960's, and the context suggests that he hopes to force the lover to return to him by lighting a green candle for jealousy. "Green" is always associated with envy, and "jealousy candles" could once be found on Beale Street and probably in Black communities across the South. "The dust of a long sleepless night" is very poetic, but putting it in the lover's shoe further increases the "hexing" imagery, and "torturing the dress" vaguely sounds like sticking pins in a voodoo doll in the hopes that it would cause physical suffering or induce the lover to return. The second verse refers to a "doctor", who as the story unfolds has clearly been in love with the same lover as the narrator, presumably Cohen. The verse shows remarkable points of similarity with Bob Dylan's "Leopard-Skinned Pill-Box Hat" in which a doctor tells the narrator that seeing the lover is bad for his health, analogous to "he said I'd just have to quit." The third verse refers to a saint that had loved you, and studying in his school. Cohen was interested in religious retreats, studies and monastic orders most of his life, and the verse clearly uses imagery from this, imagery that seems drawn more from Zen Buddhism or Hinduism than Catholicism, from which the concept of "saint" arises. All the verses seem to collectively be a roundabout put-down of a woman who has hurt the narrator deeply- he mentions his own hurt that she caused, describes how she ended a physician's career after an affair, how the "saint" killed himself on her account, and how the Eskimo "couldn't get warm" after the "wind took her clothes" (perhaps a reference to infidelity, although couched in terms that remind one of Hiawatha's conception by the west wind). Still, somewhat helplessly, Cohen yearns to be allowed "into the storm." Even knowing what this woman does to men, he wants her.
One of us (the singer, the doctor, the saint, and the Eskimo) cannot be wrong. We hear the tales and love stories of 4 people toward one person. The singer says maybe I am crazy that I'm madly in love with her. But what are you going to say about others: the doctor, the saint and the Eskimo. There's something magical about her and loving her. Which is driving all of us crazy.
Sounds like a more sophisticated version of Hall and Oates' "Maneater." This woman overpowers all men who meet her, they end up frozen to death or killing themselves. It's a metaphor for the pain and suffering she brings. Yet, Cohen still wants to "come into the storm." There's some extremley intriguing elements to her, also.
I suppose that he froze when the wind took your clothes and I guess he just never got warm.
I always took those lines as sarcasm. She cheated on the "eskimo", and cohen is bitterly commenting that the wind took her clothes.
@TheOldRevolutionary <br /> Good TheOldRevolutionary!
Naa, I know why the eskimo froze. Some women do that.
listen to him in the end of this song, when he sings lalala... his voice cracks and he sounds drunk as hell, mourning over this. it's funny the first time, and the second time around the raw emotion of it hits you.
It's funny every time for me.
listen to him in the end of this song, when he sings lalala... his voice cracks and he sounds drunk as hell, mourning over this. it's funny the first time, and the second time around the raw emotion of it hits you.
she dumped him, the doctor, the saint and the eskimo are himself representing the contradictions he feels, and in the end he just gets very very wasted
the woman of this song is just a metaphor for lust.