"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.
Well, she followed him from Phoenix out to California
And then she passed out on the bed
And all the little things he never even asked her for
She simply smiled and shook her head
Why can't we smile just like we used to?
Why don't you figure anymore?
Why has my sympathy now turned to malice?
It doesn't matter anymore
And now I realize I'm livin' like a trucker does
Although I haven't got the belly
And though she followed me to California all the way
I only wanna watch the telly
Why can't we smile just like we used to?
Why don't you figure anymore?
Why has my sympathy now turned to malice?
It doesn't matter anymore
He asked her please stop quotin' Rod McKuen in your postcards, can't understand it anymore
And if your gonna read your poetry aloud to me
I'll have to show you to the door
Why can't we smile just like we used to?
Why don't you figure anymore?
Why has my sympathy now turned to malice?
It doesn't matter anymore
And then she passed out on the bed
And all the little things he never even asked her for
She simply smiled and shook her head
Why can't we smile just like we used to?
Why don't you figure anymore?
Why has my sympathy now turned to malice?
It doesn't matter anymore
And now I realize I'm livin' like a trucker does
Although I haven't got the belly
And though she followed me to California all the way
I only wanna watch the telly
Why can't we smile just like we used to?
Why don't you figure anymore?
Why has my sympathy now turned to malice?
It doesn't matter anymore
He asked her please stop quotin' Rod McKuen in your postcards, can't understand it anymore
And if your gonna read your poetry aloud to me
I'll have to show you to the door
Why can't we smile just like we used to?
Why don't you figure anymore?
Why has my sympathy now turned to malice?
It doesn't matter anymore
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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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,
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
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.
While reading through Nathaniel West's 1939 novel "The Day of the Locust," I came across the following line: "He wondered why all his sympathy had turned to malice." When i read it, it resonated with a musical lilt. Immediately I knew that I had heard this very same sentence in a song before. I stopped reading and hummed the sentence in my head, trying to recall the tune it belonged to. I knew it was a band i liked and whose CD i owned, but it wasn't until I googled the keywords "lyrics," "sympathy," and "malice" that I learned it was this Luna song. I first heard this song 7 years ago, after buying a used copy of "Bewitched" (Luna's best album, alongside "Chinatown") for 6.95 at a Blockbuster music. I purchased the album because I recognized the band from an Uncut Magazine compilation CD where their song "Super Freaky Memories," in a small way, blew my mind. I am a southern Californian, Nathaniel West's novel takes place in Hollywood and this song is, to this day, one of my all time favorite Luna songs. Both the book and the album were purchased second-hand and I think I have hit on an interesting connection between the two, although aside from this linguistic similarity the song and the novel have little in common. And, in case you're wondering, the novel is excellent. It is considered the premiere novel about Hollywood, specifically pre-WWII Hollywood, and I strongly recommend it to anyone who likes to read fiction.
Why has my sympathy now turned to malice? This song reminds me of a girl I was hanging around with so I wouldn't be lonely. Eventually she drove me nuts and I decided it was preferable to be lonely.
This song actually is pretty sad.. the melody and the lyrics.... really great
So, Dean Wareham actually talks about this song in the docmentary. It's about a chick who was really into Sean Eden and she would follow him from show to show. "Well, she followed him from phoenix out to California" that's about Sean and this chick.
"He asked her please stop quoting Rod McKuen in your postcards..."
Rod McKuen wrote a bunch of songs and translated the songs of Jacques Brel, but he is probably most well-known for his schlocky books of romance poetry, very popular (especially with women) in the 1970s.