"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.
April 29th, 1992
There was a riot on the streets
Tell me where were you?
You were sittin' home watchin' your TV
While I was participating in some anarchy
First spot we hit it was my liquor store
I finally got all that alcohol I can't afford
With red lights flashin' time to retire
And then we turned that liquor store into a structure fire
Next stop we hit it was the music shop
It only took one brick to make that window drop
Finally we got our own P.A.
Where do you think I got this guitar that you're hearing today?
Because as long as I'm alive, I'ma live illegal
When we returned to the pad to unload everything
It dawned on me that I need new home furnishings
So once again we filled the van until it was full
Since that day my livin' room's been more comfortable
'Cause everybody in the hood has had it up to here
It's getting harder and harder and harder each and every year
I go in the store where their mother and kids
And I saw her when she came out she was gettin' some pampers
They said it was for the black man
They said it was for the mexican, but not for the white man
But if you look at the streets, it wasn't about Rodney King
It's bout this fucked up situation and these fucked up police
It's about coming up and staying on top
And screamin' 187 on a mother fuckin' cop
It's ain't in the paper, it's on the wall
So national guard, smoke from all around!
Homicide, never doing no time
Give me my share, my share
Gimme my share, I want it
Gimme my share, I need it now, I need it now
My share, a wicked one who doesn't wanna see me go
Just gimme my share, I want it, gimme my share
But you don't want to give it to me
You don't wanna see me go
Gimme my share, I want it, gimme my share
But there is a wicked one
There was a riot on the streets
Tell me where were you?
You were sittin' home watchin' your TV
While I was participating in some anarchy
First spot we hit it was my liquor store
I finally got all that alcohol I can't afford
With red lights flashin' time to retire
And then we turned that liquor store into a structure fire
Next stop we hit it was the music shop
It only took one brick to make that window drop
Finally we got our own P.A.
Where do you think I got this guitar that you're hearing today?
Because as long as I'm alive, I'ma live illegal
When we returned to the pad to unload everything
It dawned on me that I need new home furnishings
So once again we filled the van until it was full
Since that day my livin' room's been more comfortable
'Cause everybody in the hood has had it up to here
It's getting harder and harder and harder each and every year
I go in the store where their mother and kids
And I saw her when she came out she was gettin' some pampers
They said it was for the black man
They said it was for the mexican, but not for the white man
But if you look at the streets, it wasn't about Rodney King
It's bout this fucked up situation and these fucked up police
It's about coming up and staying on top
And screamin' 187 on a mother fuckin' cop
It's ain't in the paper, it's on the wall
So national guard, smoke from all around!
Homicide, never doing no time
Give me my share, my share
Gimme my share, I want it
Gimme my share, I need it now, I need it now
My share, a wicked one who doesn't wanna see me go
Just gimme my share, I want it, gimme my share
But you don't want to give it to me
You don't wanna see me go
Gimme my share, I want it, gimme my share
But there is a wicked one
Lyrics submitted by The Big Andowski
April 29, 1992 (Leary) Lyrics as written by Bradley Nowell Marshall Goodman
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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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”
Holiday
Bee Gees
Bee Gees
@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
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.
it's about being tired of all the bullshit that society is and he's saying rodney king is justifying the riots but they need no justification