"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.
I am a chimbley, a chimbley sweep
No bed to lie, no shoes to hold my feet
Upon the rooftops in dead of night
You'll hear me cry, I'll shake you from your sleep
To hear me weep
"Your day will come indeed
For I am a poor and a wretched boy
A chimbley, chimbley sweep."
I am an orphan, an orphan boy
I've known no love, I've seen no mother's joy
A dirty doorstep my cradle laid
My fortune's made, I'll shake you from your sleep
To hear me weep
"Your day will come indeed
For I am a poor and a wretched boy
A chimbley, chimbley sweep."
"O lonely urchin!" the widow cried,
"I've not been swept since the day my husband died."
Her cheeks are blushing, her legs laid bare
And shipwrecked there, I'll shake you from your sleep
To hear me weep
"Your day will come indeed
For I am a poor and a wretched boy
A chimbley, chimbley sweep."
For I am a poor and a wretched boy
A chimbley, chimbley sweep
No bed to lie, no shoes to hold my feet
Upon the rooftops in dead of night
You'll hear me cry, I'll shake you from your sleep
To hear me weep
"Your day will come indeed
For I am a poor and a wretched boy
A chimbley, chimbley sweep."
I am an orphan, an orphan boy
I've known no love, I've seen no mother's joy
A dirty doorstep my cradle laid
My fortune's made, I'll shake you from your sleep
To hear me weep
"Your day will come indeed
For I am a poor and a wretched boy
A chimbley, chimbley sweep."
"O lonely urchin!" the widow cried,
"I've not been swept since the day my husband died."
Her cheeks are blushing, her legs laid bare
And shipwrecked there, I'll shake you from your sleep
To hear me weep
"Your day will come indeed
For I am a poor and a wretched boy
A chimbley, chimbley sweep."
For I am a poor and a wretched boy
A chimbley, chimbley sweep
Lyrics submitted by sendthestars
The Chimbley Sweep Lyrics as written by Colin Meloy
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
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"
Mental Istid
Ebba Grön
Ebba Grön
This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
I Can't Go To Sleep
Wu-Tang Clan
Wu-Tang Clan
This song is written as the perspective of the boys in the street, as a whole, and what path they are going to choose as they get older and grow into men. (This is why the music video takes place in an orphanage.) The seen, and unseen collective suffering is imbedded in the boys’ mind, consciously or subconsciously, and is haunting them. Which path will the boys choose? Issac Hayes is the voice of reason, maybe God, the angel on his shoulder, or the voice of his forefathers from beyond the grave who can see the big picture and are pleading with the boys not to continue the violence and pattern of killing their brothers, but to rise above. The most beautiful song and has so many levels. Racism towards African Americans in America would not exist if everyone sat down and listened to this song and understood the history behind the words. The power, fear, pleading in RZA and Ghostface voices are genuine and powerful. Issac Hayes’ strong voice makes the perfect strong father figure, who is possibly from beyond the grave.
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
This song makes me want to dance on a rooftop with an accordion. :]
I just finished reading "Under Milk Wood" by Dylan Thomas about five minutes ago and I was laughing out loud. For real.
This song, and "Billy Liar" both come from "Under Milk Wood"- Billy Liar being about the character "Nogood Boyo" and this song is based on a song sung at the end of the story by a drunken man.
I love it.
Oh I forgot too...the line "And shipwrecked there, I'll shake you from your sleep"... This is from part of a poem in the book. The Captain says to his dead whore/lover:
"I'll tell you no lies The only sea I saw Was the seesaw sea With you riding on it. Lie down, lie easy. Let me shipwreck in your thighs."
I think the lyric: "'Oh, lonely urchin!' the widow cried 'I've not been swept since the day my husband died'" is actually "'I've not been swived since the day my husband died.'"
It never sounded quite like "swept" to me and I thought that was a pretty weak euphemism from The Decemberists anyway. And then today a friend pointed out to me that "swived" actually rhymes with "cried" and "died" and the verb means "to copulate with" so... Yeah. I think that's actually the correct lyric.
I too love the widow's voice. It's hilarious. Also, the voice of the mariner's mother in 'The Mariner's Revenge Song' is a good 'un.
well, i like cheese
love love this song...it has such a great energy and makes me want to tap my foot.
I love The Decemeberists.
hahaha but you cant even spell their name.
..How embarrassing. Oops. :X And that's even worse since their name is all over the freaking page.