"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.
List monitors arrive with petition
Iron-fisted philosophy...
Is your life worth a painting?
Is this 'girl vs. boy' with different symbols?
Being born is power
Scout leader nazi tagged as 'big sin'
Your risk chains me hostage
Me, I'm fighting with my head, I'm not ambiguous
I must look like a dork
Me, naked with textbook poems
Spout fountain against the Nazis
With weird kinds of sex symbols
In speeches that are big dance thumps
If we heard mortar shells
We'd cuss more in our songs
And cut down on guitar solos
(guitar solo)
So dig this big crux
Organizing the boy scouts for murder is wrong
Ten years beyond the big sweat point
Man, it was still there ever without you
Coming back around, look!
Coming together, for just a second
A peek, a guess
At the wholeness it's way too big
At the wholeness it's way too big
Iron-fisted philosophy...
Is your life worth a painting?
Is this 'girl vs. boy' with different symbols?
Being born is power
Scout leader nazi tagged as 'big sin'
Your risk chains me hostage
Me, I'm fighting with my head, I'm not ambiguous
I must look like a dork
Me, naked with textbook poems
Spout fountain against the Nazis
With weird kinds of sex symbols
In speeches that are big dance thumps
If we heard mortar shells
We'd cuss more in our songs
And cut down on guitar solos
(guitar solo)
So dig this big crux
Organizing the boy scouts for murder is wrong
Ten years beyond the big sweat point
Man, it was still there ever without you
Coming back around, look!
Coming together, for just a second
A peek, a guess
At the wholeness it's way too big
At the wholeness it's way too big
Lyrics submitted by OwnPersonalDemon
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
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”
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.
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
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,
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.
It seems to me that it is about balance and conflict between Mike Watt's desire to make music with a message and his desire to make music with artistic value. The "mortar shells" are the urgency of the political situation, but the "guitar solos" are the fragile artistic aspects.
Cut down on guitars solos.
SOLO!
Fucking love the Minutemen.
I don't think it's a conflict between making music with a message and music with artistic value, because they can be done at the same time. It seems to be more specifically about the fine line between the desire for uncovering socio-political injustices/atrocities, and exploiting the victims of these injustices/atrocities through art. It's also criticizing/mocking artists who don't see the irony in their capitalizing on others' suffering.
I read on the Allmusic review of the album that this song is a criticism of leftist punk, which I suppose is supported by lines like "Organizing the boy scouts for murder is wrong".
Man, the lyrics are wrong.
He MUST be saying: "your WRIST chains me hostage" "if we heard MORE OURSELFS"
it makes more sense
ALSO,<br /> <br /> I always thought it went like:<br /> Scout leader, your nazi tag is beign seen
It's 'mortar shells.'
very much like a train of thought. i'm not to sure what to read into it because there's so much going on. it seems like one of those songs where, when you know the theme and the meaning, it all becomes clear.