"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.
She was lying on the floor and counting stretch marks
She hadn't been a virgin and he hadn't been a god
So she named the baby Elvis
To make up for the royalty he lacked
And from then on it was turpentine and patches
From then on it was cold Campbell's from the can
And they were just two jerks playing with matches
'Cause that's all they knew how to play
And it was raining cats and dogs out side of her window
And she knew they were destined to become
Sacred road kill on the way
And she was listening to the sound of heavens shaking
Thinking about puddles ah, puddles and mistakes
'Cause it's been turpentine and patches
It's been cold, cold Campbell's from the can
And they were just two jerks playing with matches
'Cause that's all they knew how to play
Elvis never could carry a tune
And she thought about this irony as she stared back at the moon
She was tracing her years with her fingers on her skin
Saying well why don't I begin again?
With turpentine and patches
With cold, cold Campbell's from the can
After all I'm still a jerk playing with matches
It's just that he's not around to play along yeah
I'm still an ass hole playing with candles
Blowing out wishes blowing out dreams
Just sitting here and trying to decipher
What's written in Braille upon my skin oh oh ah
All this skin
She was lying on the floor and counting stretch
She was lying on the floor and counting stretch
She was lying on the floor, l-l-lying, l-l-lying
And a-counting stretch
She hadn't been a virgin and he hadn't been a god
So she named the baby Elvis
To make up for the royalty he lacked
And from then on it was turpentine and patches
From then on it was cold Campbell's from the can
And they were just two jerks playing with matches
'Cause that's all they knew how to play
And it was raining cats and dogs out side of her window
And she knew they were destined to become
Sacred road kill on the way
And she was listening to the sound of heavens shaking
Thinking about puddles ah, puddles and mistakes
'Cause it's been turpentine and patches
It's been cold, cold Campbell's from the can
And they were just two jerks playing with matches
'Cause that's all they knew how to play
Elvis never could carry a tune
And she thought about this irony as she stared back at the moon
She was tracing her years with her fingers on her skin
Saying well why don't I begin again?
With turpentine and patches
With cold, cold Campbell's from the can
After all I'm still a jerk playing with matches
It's just that he's not around to play along yeah
I'm still an ass hole playing with candles
Blowing out wishes blowing out dreams
Just sitting here and trying to decipher
What's written in Braille upon my skin oh oh ah
All this skin
She was lying on the floor and counting stretch
She was lying on the floor and counting stretch
She was lying on the floor, l-l-lying, l-l-lying
And a-counting stretch
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Fast Car
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Lord Huron
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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"
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.
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.
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 don't think the son is blind... I think she's just using "braille" as a metaphor for how her stretch marks feel.
I can't believe anyone thinks this song is about having an abortion. She obviously had the baby. You don't say "couldn't carry a tune" about people who died without singing. It means they can't sing. It probably means that baby Elvis sings all the time as a kid - he's got not much else to do. He's just rubbish. And the irony is not simply that baby Elvis can't sing, it's that he's not ever going to be successful like the real Elvis, and he's as poor as his parents, he is not going to be the king of anything, rock'n'roll or otherwise. A name can't "make up for the royalty he lacked".
Playing with fire isn't just teenagers having unprotected sex. It's teenagers having babies, too. It's dangerous, they think they know what they're doing and they don't. I can imagine this teenage mother fretted more about what to name the baby than their future life together, and so on. But that's "all they knew".
If the song's about abortion, it's that she wishes she DID have one, not that she wishes she didn't. "Puddles and mistakes", "why don't I begin again", "blowing out wishes, blowing out dreams". But you can't change the past - you can't begin again - all you can do is examine and reexamine it, lying alone on the floor of your cramped flat, tracing your scars and wrinkles...
I find it interesting in this song the juxtaposition of the small flames reckless teens play with - matches, candles - and the reality of adult life represented by huge amounts of water - raining cats and dogs, the sound of heaven shaking, puddles. Obviously all this water can easily put out those tiny flames. This also ties into the fact that she can't afford to heat her tinned soup - no "fire" left, no hope left. She does light candles for birthday cakes - Elvis', I'm assuming, not hers - but they're blown straight back out.
It's a miserable song but it's beautiful.
Try this...
Braille is scripted through raised bumps forming patterns. I think the fact that Braille is how blind people write and read has nothing to do with this song:
"Just sitting here and trying to decipher what's written in Braille upon my skin"
so as with what the person above me's noted (amandamottram), i think that the lines and bumps and bruises etc on everyones skin marks a memory, or an event.
So by trying to decipher all the 'Braille' that's marked on her skin, is like reflecting, and remembering, seeing what her past is worth etc
♥
what an interesting song! good stuff
This is such an emotional song, and Regina's voice coupeled with the piano makes it even more moving. As for the meaning, I think it's pretty clear that it's about someone's life after they got pregnant by a guy who ran off; the "braille" in her stretch marks is symbolic of the fact that she knows soemthing happened that would be with her forever, but the only for it to be seen anymore is by the language the guy left with her. But that's just my opinion.
Again, this song is sooo incredibly beautiful, it's like...woah. The lyrics compliment everything so well...
"yeah, I'm still an asshole playing with candles Blowing out wishes, blowing out dreams"
The story is sad, but Regina's voice makes it beautiful (as always). I like how the lyrics are from the mothers point of view...."I'm still an asshole playing with matches". Interesting twist!
sad story indeed. i love regina's voice.
This is my go-to crying song. For some reason it makes me bawl every time.
I think that this song is about a woman who has had a baby young, and about how she and the father have a hard life because they were ill prepared, but then I think the last verse is her as an old woman (based on the fact that Elvis seems to be grown) and she realises that the hard parts were the best times of her life, and now she's past it all, and the father has died (I think) she just wants to relive all those apparent hard times.
I really don't think she's at the end of her life. I think she's aged 'too' quickly because of her situations in life. She's counting her stretch marks, which are the result of the childbirth, and she's much older now than she really is in years.