"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.
Laura calls me
In the middle of the night
Passes on her
Fateful information
Then these careless fingers
They get caught in her vise
'Til they're bleeding
On my coffee table
Living alone isn't all that
It's cracked up to be
Oh, oh, oh
I'm on her side
Why does she push the poison on me?
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Laura
Has a very hard time
All her life has
Been one long disaster
Then she tells me
She suddenly believes she's seen a very good sign
She'll be taking
Some aggressive action
I fight her wars
While she's slamming her doors in my face
Oh, oh, oh
Failure to break
Was the only mistake that she made
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Here I am
Feeling like a fucking fool
Do I react the way exactly
She intends me to?
Every time I think I'm off the hook
She makes me lose my cool
I'm her machine
And she can punch all the keys
She can push any button I was programmed through
Laura calls me
When she needs a good fix (ah)
All her questions
Will get sympathetic answers
I should be so immunized
To all of her tricks (ah)
She's surviving
On her second chances
Sometimes I feel like this
Godfather deal is all wrong
Oh, oh, oh
How can she hold an umbilical chord
For so long?
Oh, oh, oh, oh
I've done everything I can
What else am I supposed to do
I'm her machine
And she can punch all the keys
She can push any button I was programmed through
Laura (Laura) loves me (loves me)
Even if I don't care (if I don't care)
That's my problem
That's her sacred absolution
If she had to
She would put herself in my chair (self in my chair)
Even though I
Faced electrocution
She always says
I'm the best friend that she's ever had
Oh, oh, oh
How do you hang up on someone
Who needs you that bad?
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
In the middle of the night
Passes on her
Fateful information
Then these careless fingers
They get caught in her vise
'Til they're bleeding
On my coffee table
Living alone isn't all that
It's cracked up to be
Oh, oh, oh
I'm on her side
Why does she push the poison on me?
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Laura
Has a very hard time
All her life has
Been one long disaster
Then she tells me
She suddenly believes she's seen a very good sign
She'll be taking
Some aggressive action
I fight her wars
While she's slamming her doors in my face
Oh, oh, oh
Failure to break
Was the only mistake that she made
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Here I am
Feeling like a fucking fool
Do I react the way exactly
She intends me to?
Every time I think I'm off the hook
She makes me lose my cool
I'm her machine
And she can punch all the keys
She can push any button I was programmed through
Laura calls me
When she needs a good fix (ah)
All her questions
Will get sympathetic answers
I should be so immunized
To all of her tricks (ah)
She's surviving
On her second chances
Sometimes I feel like this
Godfather deal is all wrong
Oh, oh, oh
How can she hold an umbilical chord
For so long?
Oh, oh, oh, oh
I've done everything I can
What else am I supposed to do
I'm her machine
And she can punch all the keys
She can push any button I was programmed through
Laura (Laura) loves me (loves me)
Even if I don't care (if I don't care)
That's my problem
That's her sacred absolution
If she had to
She would put herself in my chair (self in my chair)
Even though I
Faced electrocution
She always says
I'm the best friend that she's ever had
Oh, oh, oh
How do you hang up on someone
Who needs you that bad?
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
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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"
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.
Magical
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
Head > Heels
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Head > Heels” is a track that aims to capture what it feels like to experience romance that exceeds expectations. Ed Sheeran dedicates his album outro to a lover who has blessed him with a unique experience that he seeks to describe through the song’s nuanced lyrics.
In the 1970s and 80s, a mysterious woman calling herself Miranda called many famous men and established telephone relationships with them. Bryan Burrough chronicled her activities in Vanity Fair. Billy Joel was among the people she called, and he would write songs and leave them on her answering machine. This song is clearly about her. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miranda_Grosvenor
@sanfrandan THANK YOU! Mystery solved!