"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.
So I'm the king of all these things
Of this mess I have made
Such a waste, what a shame
My whole life is a fake
Well I'm a bore, and I'm sure
I'm a thorn inside of you
That has torn at you for years
The alcohol, the Demerol
These things never could replace
What a minute with you could do
To put a smile on my face
I'm a bore, and I'm sure
I'm a thorn inside of you
That has torn at me for years
I can't get out of this dead skin
I can't shed my skin
Not sure where to begin
I can't get under my dead skin
I can't shed my skin
Can I sleep 'til then?
Phenobarbital and alcohol
These two surely will do
To knock me out, keep me down
At least a day or two
When I'm awake, I can taste
How bitter I've become
And it's more than I can bear
Some days, I pray
Someone will blow me away
Make it quick, but let it burn
So I can feel my life fade
Well I'm a waste, and I can taste
How bitter I've become
And it's more than I can bear
I can't get out of this dead skin
I can't shed my skin
I'm not sure where to begin
Why can't I begin again?
I can't get under my dead skin
I can't shed my skin
Can I sleep 'til then?
(I can't shed my skin)
(I can't shed my skin)
I can't get out of this dead skin
I'm not sure where to begin
I can't get under my dead skin
Can I sleep 'til then?
I can't get out of this dead skin
I can't shed my skin
Not sure where to begin
I can't get under my dead skin
I can't shed my skin
Can I sleep 'til then?
Of this mess I have made
Such a waste, what a shame
My whole life is a fake
Well I'm a bore, and I'm sure
I'm a thorn inside of you
That has torn at you for years
The alcohol, the Demerol
These things never could replace
What a minute with you could do
To put a smile on my face
I'm a bore, and I'm sure
I'm a thorn inside of you
That has torn at me for years
I can't get out of this dead skin
I can't shed my skin
Not sure where to begin
I can't get under my dead skin
I can't shed my skin
Can I sleep 'til then?
Phenobarbital and alcohol
These two surely will do
To knock me out, keep me down
At least a day or two
When I'm awake, I can taste
How bitter I've become
And it's more than I can bear
Some days, I pray
Someone will blow me away
Make it quick, but let it burn
So I can feel my life fade
Well I'm a waste, and I can taste
How bitter I've become
And it's more than I can bear
I can't get out of this dead skin
I can't shed my skin
I'm not sure where to begin
Why can't I begin again?
I can't get under my dead skin
I can't shed my skin
Can I sleep 'til then?
(I can't shed my skin)
(I can't shed my skin)
I can't get out of this dead skin
I'm not sure where to begin
I can't get under my dead skin
Can I sleep 'til then?
I can't get out of this dead skin
I can't shed my skin
Not sure where to begin
I can't get under my dead skin
I can't shed my skin
Can I sleep 'til then?
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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.
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.
this reminds me of how no matter far u try to get out of ur lifes mess u can't. so never make mistakes to begin with. thats the seceret. thats just my perspective on it.
I think this song is about a guy who fucks up everything, & he feels like a failure & his girlfriend leaves him...so all he does is get drunk while she is gone..and realizes how horrible he was & knows he was like a thorn to her...he wants to change, but he cant shed his old ways, so he keeps on with his habits, he feels his only escape is for soem1 to shoot him...he wants to feel pain..
thats my view on it..This is my favorite song by Crossfade, I's amazing & so powerful.
I love this song...especially the lines "When I'm awake, I can taste how bitter I've become, and it's more than i can bare. Some days I pray someone will blow me away, make it quick, but let it burn, so I can feel my life fade"..I feel I can really relate to that because of the way things go...Crossfade hooked me with these lyrics...
I thought it was "I'm a whore", but I could be wrong.
no, it's "i'm a thorn"
Wow, thanks for the deep, not to mention poetic take on the song people. Nice...lol. I really like this song, more the lyrics than the actual song but it is still really good. I'm not sure what the lyricist means by the lyrics but to me it means that he can't change into the person he wants to be, "I can't shed my skin". Sure, it is a used line but it still works, also I think he says that because he is trying but failing to change it is hurting the person he loves the most, but they stick by him through it all. Great lyrics.
To me I thought it was like if he was talking his loved one, the one that stuck by him, but who finally gave up on him and left. He says
"The alcohol the demerol these things never could replace What a minute with you could do to put a smile on my face"
This seems like he is talking about drinking and things but recalling about his loved one knowing that no matter how much he drinks to drown your trouble he knows that he was so happy when his loved one was around.
He then talks about how bitter he has become. Like since he has lost that person he can't live with himself and has become bitter. He knows he must shed this skin. All the mess he has made of his life but can't get it off and doesn't even know where to begin.
That is my perspective of it.
not thorn..its Bore...I Feel that he is trying to say that he wants to have a new beggining...thats what the song makes me think..but hey we all have opinions on things, huh?
I think this exemplifies how a person feels after a breakup, one they never saw coming. They thought they had everything going good, instead, they realize they were just hurting the other person. They then try to fill the void with anything, drugs, alchohol, whatever it takes to get over it. But no matter what, they can't leave the memories, they can't shed the skin, and they just want peace. That peace won't be found until the person fades from their memory. Hell, I'm going through this now. I feel Crossfade, its the band that speaks to me alot.
he realizes that hes fucked up his life, and he feels l, he keeps drunk to keep the pain away, tries to drown it out.Phenobarbitol and alcohol- these two surely will do to hold me down, knock me out at least a day or two. Phenobarbitol is a barbituate, when taken with alcohol increases the intoxication dangerously, and exponentially. hes talking about being drunk. the whole song. so he doesnt think about what hes done. my take on it. song is the SHIT