"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.
My lips are shakin', my nails are bit off
Been a month since I heard myself talk
All the advantage this life's got on me
Picture a cup in the middle of the sea
And I fight back in my mind
Never lets me be right, oh
I got memories, I got shit
So much it don't show
I walked the line
When you held me in that night
I walked the line
When you held my hand that night
An empty shell seems so easy to crack
Got all these questions, don't know who I could even ask
So I'll just lie alone and wait for a dream
Where I'm not ugly and you're lookin' at me
And I'll stay in bed
Oh, blue eyes, I've seen him
If just once, I could feel loved
Oh, stare back at me, yeah
But I walked the line
When you held me in that night
Oh, I walked the line
When you held my hand that night
Oh, I walked the line
When you held me close that night
I paid the price
Never held you in real life
My lips are shakin'
Been a month since I heard myself talk
All the advantage this life's got on me
Picture a cup in the middle of the sea
And I fight back in my mind
Never lets me be right, oh
I got memories, I got shit
So much it don't show
I walked the line
When you held me in that night
I walked the line
When you held my hand that night
An empty shell seems so easy to crack
Got all these questions, don't know who I could even ask
So I'll just lie alone and wait for a dream
Where I'm not ugly and you're lookin' at me
And I'll stay in bed
Oh, blue eyes, I've seen him
If just once, I could feel loved
Oh, stare back at me, yeah
But I walked the line
When you held me in that night
Oh, I walked the line
When you held my hand that night
Oh, I walked the line
When you held me close that night
I paid the price
Never held you in real life
My lips are shakin'
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
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.
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.
I read a lot of the comments but not all of them so I'm not sure if this was mentioned or not. Id is the Freudian term for your inner desires. So I think he is saying he has this desire to be loved yet he can't get it for lack of confidence. In turn all day he lays in bed and feels sorry for himself and waits for that dream he has when he has respect for himself and the girl falls in love with him for who he truly is. The title of the song "I got Id (I got shit)" means he has the desire to be loved yet he can't go out and get it so he's got nothing. I love this song because I know exactly what it's like not to be able to get what you want for lack of confidence (You're scared to be yourself). And I have said the same thing to myself if I could just get her to love me than I would walk the line of life. I would work hard to keep her love, not because i like working hard but because I love her so much and would fall apart if I lost her. The only problem is it's like you don't have the love to begin with so how can you work hard enough to get it, your empty, you have no drive. It's a viscous cycle that is very hard to break, self pity is, but it's possible don't stop believing in yourself cause that is the only problem after all.
This song so embodies a specific period of my life it is almost scary. This song ca insantly take me back there and is almost comforting. even tho' the song and that time in my life are so sad.
I remember when this song first came out as a single. I taped it off the radio and listened to it for about two weeks straight on headphones, just walking about. I think I was in about sixth grade. It's the only band that really makes you feel and think. They just have that certain mystique, that pulls you in. Who agrees?
I do veds, with you all the way. That's why they're one of my all-time faves. E-Ved is a born storyteller.
Certainly they are one of the few bands that really makes you feel and think.
I think this song is about my life......Every line describes my situation to a tee....Great song...
i think this song is just about a loser who has no girlfriend or life and he obsesses about being with one girl. He then starts to realize that he'll never be with her that he's been wasting his time and life. I think this song must relate with a lot of ppl.
they both have amazing, depressing lyrics
im going through this right now. it fucking kills. i cant think about anything else but her. ive listened to songs like this [i.e. creep, so,ething i can never have] and it doesnt make me feel better but it numbs the pain
"I don't want to ruin any interpretations of this song that you may have." -Eddie We all have our own interpretations and that's how it should be. Here's mine I agree with the the freudian "ID" theory and the Johnny Cash reference. If youve seen the movie "walk the line" you might agree. Your ID is instinctual and uncontrollable urges. "Shit" is your vice cocaine, heroine, whatever. Her love allowed him to walk the line and kept him clean. but your ID is enevitable and he reverted back to his addiction and ultimately lost her. he now beleives he can't be clean without her love. He's left in a state of addiction and depression dreaming of her. If he felt her love her love again he could overcome it.
hes so sad and lonely
A man dealing dealing with the depression he has amassed having never really gotten the girl of his dreams. He hopes to one day get her; 'hope for the dream' but all for nought. He has realised that dreaming about getting her doesn't amount to anything; in reality 'he's got shit'.