"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.
Move aside,
and let the man go through.
Let the man go through.
If I stole
Somebody else's wave
To fly up.
If I rose
Up with the avenue
Behind me.
Some kind of verb.
Some kind of moving thing.
Something unseen.
Some hand is motioning
to rise, to rise, to rise.
Too fat, fat you must cut lean.
You got to take the elevator to the mezzanine,
Chump, change, and it's on, super bon bon
Super bon bon, Super bon bon.
And by
The phone
I live
In fear
Sheer Chance
Will draw
You in
To here.
and let the man go through.
Let the man go through.
If I stole
Somebody else's wave
To fly up.
If I rose
Up with the avenue
Behind me.
Some kind of verb.
Some kind of moving thing.
Something unseen.
Some hand is motioning
to rise, to rise, to rise.
Too fat, fat you must cut lean.
You got to take the elevator to the mezzanine,
Chump, change, and it's on, super bon bon
Super bon bon, Super bon bon.
And by
The phone
I live
In fear
Sheer Chance
Will draw
You in
To here.
Lyrics submitted by Primus_boy
Super Bon Bon Lyrics as written by Michael Doughty Mark Degliantoni
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
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,
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.
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.
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.
"The Super Bon Bon bit was this Italian candy bar that I saw at a truckstop on a European tour. I was a little high at the time. I just kept repeating Super Bon Bon, Super Bon Bon, amazed at the number of possible variations in a candy bar name. Super Bon Bon became a pet name for a woman I was seeing at the time, and thus the gap between the terrified-of-the-phone verse and the seemingly light chorus."
Dude this song is about fat rich people. You're so fat you can't walk half a flight of stairs to the mezzanine. But it's alright because liposuction is chump change. You don't have to move aside and let a skinny feller through, do you?
If the bands Cake and Cypress Hill got together to do a song, this would be the result.
"I was listening to Craig Mack a lot and had managed to approximate his mushmouthed, offbeat kind of lyrical flow, and basically I spent a whole day walking around, like for instance if I went to the Thai Food place in my neighborhood, I'd be going "I'm gonna get Pad Thai! I'm...gonna...GET...Pad Thai! I'm gonna! Get Pad Thai!" and so on. I took the C train into Manhattan, got off at the Chambers St. station, and there was a sign reading "Take Elevator to Mezzanine." "
with Soul Coughing, does it really matter what it's about? it still sound sweet.
a perfectly furious marriage of rock and jazz.
Mike Doughty is Jesus.
I think it would be funnier if it was "move aside and let the mango through".
For a while I was actually half-convinced he was switching between "let the man go through" and "let the mango through".
Every time I see a sign on the subway that says "Elevator To Mezzanine", I think of this song.
How official are these lyrics?
Because it also works as:
Will draw You in To hear.
I was just looking at scug.net (Soul Coughing Underground) and the lyrics there say "here". It also says lyrics were received directly from the band. However, it doesn't say whether the lyrics were received written or orally. If orally, the transcriber could have assumed it was "here". If written, the band could have misspelled it. I'll just assume it's "here".