"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.
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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.
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.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
The meaning of "reins"
rein - means kidney but "les reins" is plural form and means loins. They don't use the single world "rein" for "loin" in French. Of course in a total different context "les reins" may mean "kidneys" in plural too, but obvously not in this context.
French is a language where the context determines the specific meaning of a word, whereas in English it's the opposite and one word creates a whole context. It's the reason why French is a rather wordy language... the context must be created before the meaning can come through.
Serge was a genious.
Serge's voice is sooo sexy
"entre te riens" means "between your kidneys." Basic french!
It's about fuckin'.
Maybe a translation would be in order, for all you francophobes out there. These are the lyrics from Nick Cave's english version of the song.
I love you, I love you, Oh yes I love you Nor do I Oh my love Like the wave, irresolute I go, I go and I come, Inside you my love I go and I come, Inside you my love And then I hold on
I love you, I love you, Oh Yes I love you Nor do I You are the wave, And I the naked island You go, you go and you come, inside me me love you go and you come inside me my love and then we are one
I love you, I love you, Oh yes I love you Nor do I Oh my love Like the wave, irresolute I go, i go and I come, Inside you my love I go and I come, Inside you my love And then I hold on
I love, I love you my love, Inside me my love I love you my love, Deep inside me my love And then we are one
I love you, I love you, Oh yes I love Nor do I Oh my love Physical love is a dead end I go, I go and I come, Inside you my love I go and I come And I hold on
No. Now...come
There are lots of interesting little facts concernings this song. As for its meaning, this is what Serge himself once said:
"I love women as an object, the beautiful women, the mannequins, the models. This is the inner painter in me. I never tell them I love them. Je t'aime... moi non plus (I love you... me neither) expresses erotism overcoming sentimentalism… So many songs about romantic and sentimental love, encounters, discoveries, jealousy, illusions, desillusions, betrayals, remorses, hatred, etc... Then why not devote a song to a sort of love much more current these days: physical love? "Je t'aime" isn't an obscene song, it's very reasonable to me, and fills this gap. Its explanation is that girls say "I love you" during sex, and the man with their ridiculous virility doesn't believe them. They think the girls only say it as a result of enjoyment, of pleasure. I guess I believe the girls, or maybe that's a result of my fear. But that's also an aesthetic step, a search of absoluteness"
Everything's fair in love and the search for absoluteness.
Now for the interesting little facts. This song was released in 1968. It was originally intended that Brigitte Bardot do the female part, but when she backed out Jane Birkin, Serge's future lover and mother of his daughter Charlotte, stepped in. You might remember Jane Birkin as the blond girl who got naked in Antonioni's "Blow-Up". The song received strong criticism for its language and the suggestive panting and moaning, particularly from the Vatican which condemned it in its official newspaper. The song was banned from radio and television in many countries including Italy, UK, Spain and the otherwise so liberal Sweden. This didn't stop it from reaching no. 1 in the charts in the UK and other European countries, pretty spectacular for a song in French. In the US the song made no. 69(!) in the charts.
I just love how it's I love you, nor do I. I think that would mean, yeah you say you love me now, but I know it's just the pleasure talking, so me neither, I don't really love you either, just the pleasure I get from you. Nevertheless, it's a really beautiful song and the new, I kid you not, Vibrator remix is just as excellent!! I agree with WanderingGypsy!
The king of sleaze strikes again.