"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.
Four o'clock in the afternoon
And I didn't feel like very much.
I said to myself, "Where are you golden boy,
Where is your famous golden touch?"
I thought you knew where
All of the elephants lie down,
I thought you were the crown prince
Of all the wheels in Ivory Town.
Just take a look at your body now,
There's nothing much to save
And a bitter voice in the mirror cries,
"Hey, Prince, you need a shave."
Now if you can manage to get
Your trembling fingers to behave,
Why don't you try unwrapping
A stainless steel razor blade?
That's right, it's come to this,
Yes it's come to this,
And wasn't it a long way down,
Wasn't it a strange way down?
There's no hot water
And the cold is running thin.
Well, what do you expect from
The kind of places you've been living in?
Don't drink from that cup,
It's all caked and cracked along the rim.
That's not the electric light, my friend,
That is your vision growing dim.
Cover up your face with soap, there,
Now you're Santa Claus.
And you've got a gift for anyone
Who will give you his applause.
I thought you were a racing man,
Ah, but you couldn't take the pace.
That's a funeral in the mirror
And it's stopping at your face.
That's right, it's come to this,
Yes it's come to this,
And wasn't it a long way down,
Ah wasn't it a strange way down?
Once there was a path
And a girl with chestnut hair,
And you passed the summers
Picking all of the berries that grew there
There were times she was a woman,
Oh, there were times she was just a child,
And you held her in the shadows
Where the raspberries grow wild.
And you climbed the twilight mountains
And you sang about the view,
And everywhere that you wandered
Love seemed to go along with you.
That's a hard one to remember,
Yes it makes you clench your fist.
And then the veins stand out like highways,
All along your wrist.
And yes it's come to this,
It's come to this,
And wasn't it a long way down,
Wasn't it a strange way down?
You can still find a job,
Go out and talk to a friend.
On the back of every magazine
There are those coupons you can send.
Why don't you join the Rosicrucians,
They can give you back your hope,
You can find your love with diagrams
On a plain brown envelope.
But you've used up all your coupons
Except the one that seems
To be written on your wrist
Along with several thousand dreams.
Now Santa Claus comes forward,
That's a razor in his mit
And he puts on his dark glasses
And he shows you where to hit
And then the cameras pan,
The stand in stunt man,
Dress rehearsal rag,
It's just the dress rehearsal rag,
You know this dress rehearsal rag,
It's just a dress rehearsal rag.
And I didn't feel like very much.
I said to myself, "Where are you golden boy,
Where is your famous golden touch?"
I thought you knew where
All of the elephants lie down,
I thought you were the crown prince
Of all the wheels in Ivory Town.
Just take a look at your body now,
There's nothing much to save
And a bitter voice in the mirror cries,
"Hey, Prince, you need a shave."
Now if you can manage to get
Your trembling fingers to behave,
Why don't you try unwrapping
A stainless steel razor blade?
That's right, it's come to this,
Yes it's come to this,
And wasn't it a long way down,
Wasn't it a strange way down?
There's no hot water
And the cold is running thin.
Well, what do you expect from
The kind of places you've been living in?
Don't drink from that cup,
It's all caked and cracked along the rim.
That's not the electric light, my friend,
That is your vision growing dim.
Cover up your face with soap, there,
Now you're Santa Claus.
And you've got a gift for anyone
Who will give you his applause.
I thought you were a racing man,
Ah, but you couldn't take the pace.
That's a funeral in the mirror
And it's stopping at your face.
That's right, it's come to this,
Yes it's come to this,
And wasn't it a long way down,
Ah wasn't it a strange way down?
Once there was a path
And a girl with chestnut hair,
And you passed the summers
Picking all of the berries that grew there
There were times she was a woman,
Oh, there were times she was just a child,
And you held her in the shadows
Where the raspberries grow wild.
And you climbed the twilight mountains
And you sang about the view,
And everywhere that you wandered
Love seemed to go along with you.
That's a hard one to remember,
Yes it makes you clench your fist.
And then the veins stand out like highways,
All along your wrist.
And yes it's come to this,
It's come to this,
And wasn't it a long way down,
Wasn't it a strange way down?
You can still find a job,
Go out and talk to a friend.
On the back of every magazine
There are those coupons you can send.
Why don't you join the Rosicrucians,
They can give you back your hope,
You can find your love with diagrams
On a plain brown envelope.
But you've used up all your coupons
Except the one that seems
To be written on your wrist
Along with several thousand dreams.
Now Santa Claus comes forward,
That's a razor in his mit
And he puts on his dark glasses
And he shows you where to hit
And then the cameras pan,
The stand in stunt man,
Dress rehearsal rag,
It's just the dress rehearsal rag,
You know this dress rehearsal rag,
It's just a dress rehearsal rag.
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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"
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”
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
American Town
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.
I definitely agree with the above posts on suicide attempts and rehearsing for the real thing. All thought I don't entirely disagree with the heroin addiction theory I think the song is referring more to a different kind of coping mechanism/self harm, cutting. There's obviously many references made to razor blades and wrists throughout the song. The one that really sells it for me is: "But you've used up all your coupons except the one that seems to be written on your wrist along with several thousand dreams. Now Santa Claus comes forward, that's a razor in his mit..."
Giving up on hopes and dreams, and going to the last resource, cutting (or shooting up if you prefer that theory).
So these 'rehearsals' are cutting with suicide in mind but then retracting and not cutting enough to die from. Or shooting up instead of trying suicide at all, until the next time.
Also, Rag = to soak up blood? Rag = To tie around arm for shooting up?
Also the allusions to heroin addiction could just be for the purpose of showing cutting as an addiction and a quick fix in a similar manner. But I'm beginning to agree more with heroin addiction. what do you think?...
A Rag is an improvised piece of music. This song is ambiguous as to whether the dress rehersal rag is the main characters suicide, or his life itself. He leaves that up to the listener to figure out.
Brilliant song.
until now i also believed the last lines to be an optimistic twist, a technically constructed by-the-book metaphor for the word 'attempt' or simply 'rehearsal' alone. i think it is not. it is in the same note as the rest of the song, and the dress rehearsal rag (as in rags) is the character's body, his final conclusion. like it was all not for real anyway.
I love the imagery of the dim vision and face covered up in soap -- it so well describes the distortion and blur of thoughts one goes through during a period of dissociation, which often precedes an act of self-harm or suicide. The idea of Santa in the mirror depersonalizes the action from his self, as though he is dissociated, out of his body, watching himself through the looking glass (or in this case, mirror, which is backwards and distorted from reality).
Just as a musician...great powerful song from Leonard Cohen and sung by Judy Collins first time I heard it. It uses the 3# interval, also called the augmented fourth, throughout, which was called 'the devil's chord' and forbidden to be used by the catholic church, as you can hear for obvious reasons.
It's probably the darkest of Cohen's songs, and he is a master of depth. I wish we had such masters of music now, it's pretty much all trash these days unfortunately....
The 'rag' part I think has many levels of meaning. To tease or taunt, to play a joke on, also, a scrap or a fragment, or a newspaper or other journal esp one considered as worthless or sensational. I think it is primarily the first one, that he is taunted by thoughts of suicide, but also like Neptune235 says, it is his life that is the dress rehearsal rag, a worthless sensational fragment as indicated by the line, "I thought you were the king of ivory town?"<br /> <br /> What does he mean when he says "you can find your love with diagrams<br /> on a plain brown envelope."?
In the times there were as mentioned in the song advertisement on the back of magazines, that promoted various religious groups, the Rosicrucians being on of them, obviously promoting solutions, love, happiness etc which they would send you in unmarked envelopes to not risk exposure once you'd sent them the coupon with your name and presumably bank account details to join.
Going off your comment about rags, the title/line "dress rehearsal rag" is a contradiction. I think that's important to the song. It's a practiced improvisation. It's not an actual suicide... it's the waking up/lying in bed contemplating suicide feeling, but never acting.
dress rehearsal rags is a metaphor for a suicide attempt,the santa claus in the mirror is the shaving foam,and the razor!!!!well you guessed!the rehearsal is the thought of suicide,which even the sanist of have from time to time,but most of us dont go thru with,pure genius
3rd verse is amazing
A rag isn't an improvised piece of music.
I think that it the song is showing that it doesn't make a difference whether or not any of this is happening for real or not.