"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 I'm accustomed to the smooth ride
Or maybe I'm a dog who's lost its bite
I don't expect to be treated like a fool no more
I don't expect to sleep through the night
Some people say a lie's a lie's a lie
But I say, "why
Why deny the obvious child?
Why deny the obvious child?"
And in remembering a road sign
I'm remembering a girl when I was young
And we said, "these songs are true
These days are ours
These tears are free"
And hey
The cross is in the ballpark
The cross is in the ballpark
We had a lot of fun
Had a lot of money
We had a little son and we thought we'd call him Sonny
Sonny gets married and moves away
Sonny has a baby and bills to pay
Sonny gets sunnier
Day by day by day by day
Well, I've been waking up at sunrise
I've been following the light across my room
I watch the night receive the room of my day
Some people say the sky is just the sky
But I say
"Why deny the obvious child?
Why deny the obvious child?"
Sonny sits by his window and thinks to himself
How it's strange that some rooms are like cages
Sonny's yearbook from high school
Is down on the shelf
And he idly thumbs through the pages
Some have died
Some have fled from themselves
Or struggled from here to get there
Sonny wanders beyond his interior walls
Runs his hands through his thinning brown hair
Well, I'm accustomed to a smoother ride
Or maybe I'm a dog who's lost its bite
I don't expect to be treated like a fool no more
I don't expect to sleep the night
Some people say a lie is just a lie
But I say
"The cross is in the ballpark
Why deny the obvious child?"
Or maybe I'm a dog who's lost its bite
I don't expect to be treated like a fool no more
I don't expect to sleep through the night
Some people say a lie's a lie's a lie
But I say, "why
Why deny the obvious child?
Why deny the obvious child?"
And in remembering a road sign
I'm remembering a girl when I was young
And we said, "these songs are true
These days are ours
These tears are free"
And hey
The cross is in the ballpark
The cross is in the ballpark
We had a lot of fun
Had a lot of money
We had a little son and we thought we'd call him Sonny
Sonny gets married and moves away
Sonny has a baby and bills to pay
Sonny gets sunnier
Day by day by day by day
Well, I've been waking up at sunrise
I've been following the light across my room
I watch the night receive the room of my day
Some people say the sky is just the sky
But I say
"Why deny the obvious child?
Why deny the obvious child?"
Sonny sits by his window and thinks to himself
How it's strange that some rooms are like cages
Sonny's yearbook from high school
Is down on the shelf
And he idly thumbs through the pages
Some have died
Some have fled from themselves
Or struggled from here to get there
Sonny wanders beyond his interior walls
Runs his hands through his thinning brown hair
Well, I'm accustomed to a smoother ride
Or maybe I'm a dog who's lost its bite
I don't expect to be treated like a fool no more
I don't expect to sleep the night
Some people say a lie is just a lie
But I say
"The cross is in the ballpark
Why deny the obvious child?"
Lyrics submitted by adupont, edited by nyetnyetnyet
The Obvious Child Lyrics as written by Paul Simon
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
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"
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,
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
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.
My interpretation of the song is that it's about confronting the inevitability of dying. Remember, the singer is a grandfather--his son, Sonny, has at least one child. While I can't interpret every line, there are several that could refer to the problems of aging:
"Or maybe I'm a dog who's lost its bite": losing one's teeth, or perhaps (more abstract), becoming ineffectual
"I don't expect to sleep through the night": due to urinary frequency from prostate problems
"I don't expect to be treated like a fool no more": asking not to be patronized because of his age
"some rooms are like cages": Sonny could be thinking about another problem of aging, possibly affecting his father: an illness like a stroke or perhaps a broken hip, limiting his mobility and making him bedridden or otherwise confined to his room (which thus becomes a cage)
The lines about Sonny leafing through his yearbook, with some of his classmates having already died, could indicate that Sonny, who is also getting older (thinning hair), is nostalgically or wistfully looking back at his life, remembering how it was...maybe even thinking about his own mortality.
All of this is leading up to my interpretation of "the cross is in the ballpark." It means that death--symbolized by the cross, a common grave marker--is coming soon. In this context, "Why deny the obvious, child?" [punctuation added by me] could be telling Sonny to face up to it: his father is going to die soon (and so will Sonny, eventually).
Given the above, it is rather uplifting that the song is not a dirge; the arrangement is in fact very upbeat. Maybe the Dad (the singer) has made his peace with the inevitable and no longer fears it.
.
I heard Paul say in an interview that "The cross is in the ball park" was a line he come up with while the Pope was doing Mass at Yankee Stadium on TV.
I heard that too. Bank it.<br /> I'll always think of any ballpark as a sacred place (especially to a kid), so I love the origin of this line!<br /> To Paul I think it punctuates this string of youthful memories triggered by a road sign, on to the girl when he was young, and then the indelible memory of the Mass in Yankee Stadium.
I think the father in the song is on his deathbed and the road sign is probably a Dead End sign.<br />
i think the song is pretty much a journey through life kinda thing.. the first verse is talking about life at the present, asking 'am i just used to things being easy? or have i just lost my edge?' kinda thing... and the whole 'why deny the obvious... well i guess its kinda obvious what that means... 'some people say a lie is just a lie'... well thats obviously not true so why deny the obvious... and in remembering a road sign i am remembering a girl when i was young... i think thats about how you can remember something and it makes you think of something else.. like seeing this roadsign from his childhood reminds him of a girl that he perhaps was with near it or something... really not sure what the cross is in the ballpark is about.. then the story just moves further through life and becomes about the son, Sonny.. and sonny seems to have some sort of midlife crisis or something... so... yeah thats what i reckon
"I've been following the light across my room I watch the night receive the room of my day"
The night recieving the room of his day is an obvious metaphor the aging process, and a great one at that.
"The cross is in the ball park"
The cross is the burden to bear, and saying it's in the ballpark is like saying it's closer than we'd like to believe, as if to say the "Some people say a lie is just a lie (probably to ourselves)" but burden we bear from it is closer than we like to believe...
""The cross is in the ball park"<br /> <br /> The cross is the burden to bear, and saying it's in the ballpark is like saying it's closer than we'd like to believe, as if to say the "Some people say a lie is just a lie (probably to ourselves)" but burden we bear from it is closer than we like to believe..."<br /> <br /> Truth. Simon acknowledged this in his appearance on that old Bob Costas show (Costas thought it referred to the holiness of baseball obv).
I think your pretty right on this Pat, but the speaker is on his death bed "I don't expect to sleep the night" is a pretty stong statement to support this.
But paul Simon did say the "cross in the ballpark" is the burden we bear, and I'd tend to think that the burden in the song is death(""I don't expect to sleep the night"")/ getting older ("I watch the night receive the room of my day "), the obvious.
But yeah, no question this song doesn't have anything to do with religion, just getting old, death, realization of it.
I think the "I don't expect to sleep the night" isn't meant to be metaphorical in any way, it's quite literal. As you get older, you do stop expecting to sleep the night - waking up to go to the bathroom more frequently (esp. men), or with leg cramps/restless legs, or whatever. It goes along with all the other processes/signs of aging that are mentioned in the song, whether physical or mental (thinning hair, nostalgia for past times).
The cross is in the ballpark is another reference to the inner child. The cross, salvation is in the ballpark, meaning a baseball park of youth, its a way of saying my salvation is in my youth, or finding my inner child.
It goes along the lines of father and son and their view on it.
I like how when I was first interpreting it I thought it was about how different family trees experience different fates but that was my world view then I thought of a different world view or take on it and it made much more sense. I see how everyone's world view including mine's affects our own interpretation. And that's pretty golden.
I will throw my interpretation in the ring.
It seems that "The Obvious Child" chronicles a man who wishes to ponder all the possibilities of the meaning of life. However, from a young age, Christianity is all his parents teach him, and in fact, they discourage exploration into other spiritual thoughts and beliefs. Hence the phrase "Why deny the obvious child?"
The phase continues even into his later life as he finds all those beliefs his parents instilled still control his mental/spiritual exploration. In later life, the phrase "why deny the obvious child?" is more of a pondering as to why any person would deny themself that internal spiritual exploration, something so obviously basic (in the beginning of the song, the question seems to be posed more to the parents).
In the very end of the song, there is the line "Sonny wanders beyond his interior walls, runs his hands through his thinning brown hair". These are my favorite lines (in part because I have thinning brown hair). It could be interpretted that Sonny is having a spiritual breakthrough and allowing himself to wander beyond his interior walls. However, I personally think it's more likely that the intent is just that he allows himself to wander for a little while, something which regularly happens, but he never truly escapes the nagging discomfort of fully open soul searching.
The discussion of the parents, Sonny's child, the bills, etc, all could be viewed as distractors from the interpretation I have given. However, I feel these are powerful parts of the song which show that he is living the normal American life. The cross in the ballpark is a perfect example of what I mean. What could be more American? The reason the normal American life is important is that it seems to show that this is a completely internal struggle for Sonny. He doesn't even let anyone ever know he has this urge to explore.
The dicussion of the parents at the beginning is sort of underplayed. This could be intentional so as to show that they are not ill-intentioned in spiritually raising there son. In fact, they are doing it the only way they know how. It could probably be guessed that Sonny has raised his child the same way.
The cross in the ballpark has a myriad of possible meanings, and in fact, it's likely that even Paul Simon didn't fully know where he was going with that phrase. I have so many possible meanings in my head, and I don't really want to enumerate them. In fact, many of them are compatible, so I like to just believe they are all good. Once, I did read an interview where Paul Simon joked that saying "the cross is in the ballpark" twice in a row was too much.
I would love to read any other interpretations or comments on mine. Half of me wishes I could sit down and pick Paul Simon's brain on this one. The other half of me is worried that the true meaning might mean significantly less to me that mine does.
I have interpreted it quite different and find it needs this key to be fully understood:<br /> Matthew 19:14 Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."<br /> <br /> He's accustomed to a smooth ride, or maybe he's a dog who's lost it's bite. He is approaching the reality of adulthood like all do with the transition of having more ability/privilage but also more responsiblity/throuble. <br /> <br /> He doesn't expect to be treated like a fool no more, He doesn't expect to sleep through the night. (a repeating of the last line's similar meaning) He wan't respect in the world for now being an adult, but also expects his troubles to keep him up and night (or his night life to keep him up at night)<br /> <br /> Some people say a lie is a lie is a lie, but he says why. Why deny the OBVIOUS child? Why deny the obvious CHILD? The general ignorance that childhood affords us is often seen as being only something that should be overcome and avoided. So childishness in any sense is seen as negative. Yet, the simplicity of life, and the clarity of reasoning that childhood affords us can be greater than the "adult" way of thinking in some cases. With stark contrasts of right and wrong being clear as day instead of being muddled and complicated. <br /> <br /> The "Why deny the obvious child" is said twice to convey two separate meanings. the first is said to someone labeled for namesake "child" (think Jamaican) and thus just asking "Why deny the obvious?" The second time is inquiring to the motive of denying, (ore in the sense of rejection) someone who is obviously a child (in the sense described above).<br /> <br /> And in remembering a road sign,- a particular moment in his life he recalls setting him on a different path or way of thinking indefinitely- I am remembering a girl when I was young- (literally)<br /> And she said these songs are true, these days are ours, these tears are free <br /> thusly reinforcing the simplicity and power of childhood.<br /> <br /> The Cross is in the ballpark,- the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. So it is in a place like a ball park where children are. Relative to them.<br /> <br /> the next stanza a is... well yeah, and I just love the way he says "sunny get sunnier" to say he gets older...<br /> <br /> Then the focus moves directly off of sunny, and back on..our guy. <br /> He's been waking up at sunrise<br /> He's been following the light across his room<br /> He watches the night receive the room of his day<br /> He has entered a point in his life when the sunrise and sunsets are some of the most precious things he has as he marvels at creation in a way that is so central to childhood's essence. In his older age his is re-discovering the type of wisdom that is found in this idea. HE watches (participates in) as the night gets everything from his day's thoughts and lies there thinking, watching the night sky and getting lost in a well developed peace. and goes to sleep as the night also receives his day's weariness <br /> <br /> Some people say the sky is just the sky<br /> but I say why<br /> The awe of creation is often lost to us as we grow older and understand it more, so the sky is just the sky, but there is an implied earnestness to continue admiring the beauty one sees around oneself and continue in the childhood admiration of things we don't understand.<br /> <br /> Sonny's yearbook from high school<br /> Is down from the shelf<br /> And he idly thumbs through the pages<br /> Some have died<br /> Some have fled from themselves<br /> Or struggled from here to get there <br /> -Sunny is now contemplating the road to adulthood and how many stumble and fall and get into trouble along the way again re-enforcing the fact that adulthood is not all it's cracked up to be, and is not necessarily the main objective.<br /> <br /> Sonny wanders beyond his interior walls<br /> Runs his hand through his thinning brown hair<br /> <br /> Well I'm accustomed to a smoother ride<br /> Maybe I'm a dog that's lost his bite<br /> I don't expect to be treated like a fool no more<br /> I don't expect to sleep the night<br /> Some people say a lie is just a lie<br /> But I say the cross is in the ballpark<br /> Why deny the obvious child?<br /> <br /> This part is rather interesting as sunny "wanders beyond his interior walls" that is thinks beyond himself in a philosophical fashion and runs his hands though his now aging hair he stumbles upon the exact same conclusion as his father before him, (so it is sunny now saying the last stanza) and comes to all the same conclusion about childhood and growing up, and there is only ONE last Why deny the obvious Child at the end for the listener to interpret which of the two it means... this is why two "the cross is in the ballpark"s is unnecessary, when he uses them. That line only had one meaning. <br /> So it is then implied that this is endless cycle of understanding and going from childhood to adulthood and then seemingly back to childhood and pro-creating to create children from adults is in its harmonic and beautiful unending conclusion with all the drums and the rockin out ending.
@twollamalove Paul Simon is Jewish so is he just interpreting someone elses life journey? I did hear that he was watching the papal visit of the USA on TV and the pope was giving mass at Yankees Stadium and thats where the lyric comes from but you know what the best thing about music and lyrics and even poetry is? Its all subjective. Nobodys wrong If it evokes an emotion that differs from someone elses or even that of the composers.
I almost forgot to mention the lines "I'm accustomed to a smooth ride, or maybe I'm a dog who's lost his bite". I love those lines, but I really cannot place them into my interpretation above. In fact, I have a whole other interpretation which is pretty much mutally exclusive with the previous interpretation I posed.
My other interpretation is just that the song chronicles the American dreamer, and the lines I mentioned about are central to that. Sonny maybe fell short of his American dream, or even attained his American dream and it wasn't what he had hoped.
Again, this song to me is distinctly American in all interpretations.
On the internet I found the following quote "...When asked of its meaning, Simon answered, "The cross, the burden that we carry, is in the ballpark, it's doable."...". This makes the song a lot lighter in content I think.
It seems like the intended meaning of "why deny the obvious child" changes throughout the song, as the character's life changes. What's obvious to the man (and sonny, who I interpretted as actually being his son and repeating the cycle of aging and midlife crisis-ing) changes, as does his "cross," the burden he has to carry through life. I think this is true of a lot of Paul Simon's songs - he seems to use a lot of visually descriptive lyrics, and repeats choruses that seem to mean different things along the way but somehow tie together in a way that listeners can feel what he means, yet none of us can really pin it down. Probably what makes his songs so enjoyable - at least for me, personally.