"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.
Someone told me long ago
There's a calm before the storm
I know, it's been comin' for some time
When it's over so they say
It'll rain a sunny day
I know, shinin' down like water
I wanna know
Have you ever seen the rain?
I wanna know
Have you ever seen the rain
Comin' down a sunny day?
Yesterday and days before
Sun is cold and rain is hard
I know, been that way for all my time
'Til forever, up on it goes
Through the circle, fast and slow
I know it can't stop, I wonder
I wanna know
Have you ever seen the rain?
I wanna know
Have you ever seen the rain
Comin' down a sunny day?
Yeah
I wanna know
Have you ever seen the rain?
I wanna know
Have you ever seen the rain
Comin' down a sunny day?
There's a calm before the storm
I know, it's been comin' for some time
When it's over so they say
It'll rain a sunny day
I know, shinin' down like water
I wanna know
Have you ever seen the rain?
I wanna know
Have you ever seen the rain
Comin' down a sunny day?
Yesterday and days before
Sun is cold and rain is hard
I know, been that way for all my time
'Til forever, up on it goes
Through the circle, fast and slow
I know it can't stop, I wonder
I wanna know
Have you ever seen the rain?
I wanna know
Have you ever seen the rain
Comin' down a sunny day?
Yeah
I wanna know
Have you ever seen the rain?
I wanna know
Have you ever seen the rain
Comin' down a sunny day?
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“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.
Basically it means you go through some tough times, but you get back on your feet and everything is all good, you're happy, the outlook is great, it's a beautiful day, then something bad happens again, you just deal with it. He's asking have you ever seen the rain? yeah, it's depressing but it goes away. Don't think it doesn't.
Perfect for where we at now.
Life will throw at us rains.... for some the rain can last longer than for some, just like some countries have longer months of rain than others. We don't wait for the rain to go away, we raise above and when the sun comes back, great, but we don't just depend on the sun, we fly above the rain!
i remember when my father used to play this song when we'd go on car trips. i was very young at the time and i hated it because it seemed so depressing, like one of those "i pity myself" songs. but now that i'm older it's taken on a new meaning and that is what's so great about songs like these - there's so much room for interpretation.
...with every rainy day will come another sunny day. but the part that really gets me is when he asks "i want to know, have you ever seen the rain?" - it's a common human experience to feel the ups and downs he describes in the song, and to say "no" to this question would be to deny that you are human, that you do cry, you can laugh and that life isn't always pleasant. it isn't a "pity myself" song; it's more of a "can you connect to your fellow human being?" kind of song. i hope i make sense.
i think this is how i feel
Mark Deming of AllMusic.com suggests that this song is about the shifting focus on idealism that started around 1970. In the wake of events like Altamont and Kent State, the idealistic energy of the youth turned into the "self-centered decadence of the '70s." Fogerty suggests that the issues worth fighting for in the '60s are still present in the '70s, "but that we had lost the courage and the vision to face up to them." It's an interesting point he raises. (Quotes belong to Deming, not Fogerty)
To me, this song epitomizes the monotony of depression and just living a hard life, in general. Its also a slap in the face to those people who either have everything go OK all the time and wonder why you're so depressed, or those same people who fall on a small bit of hard time - "I want to know, have you ever seen the rain - coming down on a sunny day?" and "Been that way for all my time..". Also, that uncanny ability some of us have to predict crappy things and prepare. It just means a lot. it's the perfect song.
@orbitn Excellent interpretation...it's the best one for this song, in my opinion. :)
@orbitn O=Absolutely, Have you ever seen the rain? Reminds me of Viet Nam and other terrible things that happened in my life, I am too old to get as angry with people who realize how lucky they are.
@orbitn O=Absolutely, Have you ever seen the rain? Reminds me of Viet Nam and other terrible things that happened in my life, I am too old to get as angry with people who realize how lucky they are.
Ebowtheletter the full band never recorded an other album after this. Tom left before the tour following this album. In addition, the last CCR album was in fact different then any other, with Stu Cook and Doug “Cosmo” Clifford writing and sings on some songs. The band was dead before that last album, and the member are the first to admit it today. John did in fact write this song about the band falling apart. They where still playing hits (ie the sunny day) but he could still feel the rain.
Me too. Reminds me of this cycle I go through, emotional pain and times of feeling better, only to end up back here again...Wow, I sound like a nut. It's true, though.
i really think the meaning to this song is how everybody thinks after the war, everything and everyone will be good again.. "When it's over, so they say, It'll rain a sunny day...".... but hes asking if you have seen the rain, meaning "have you seen the soldiers die?".. and hes saying that everything and everyone is NOT going to be well again... someone told me that CCR was playing during the vietnam war so ya thats the meaning.. Do you think so???
@mangotree20 This song does remind me of Viet Nam "Have you ever seen the rain"
I always love how everyone trys to label this song...it about Vietnam...its about this or that. It's about whatever you want it to be I guess. That's what makes it a great song in that the meanings are whatever touches you. I remember hearing this song when it first came out so the meanings have changed over the years as I changed. It's about the bands demise but it's also about asking if things ever get better.
I have seen the rain on a sunny day! i saw beautiful colours, I saw the rainbow. the song is about the rainbow. its about harmony, luck, beauty, life and luck and makes me feel i am alive and want to live like i lived like when i was a child!