"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.
When your sparkle evades your soul
I'll be at your side to console
When your standing on the window ledge
I'll talk you back from the edge
I will turn your tide
Be your Shepard and your guide
When your lost in the deep and darkest place around
May my words walk you home safe and sound
When you say that I'm no good and you feel like walking
I need to make sure you know that's just the Prescription talking
When your feet decide to walk you on the wayward side
Up upon the stairs and down the downward slide
I will, I will turn your tide
Do all that I can to heal you inside
I'll be the angel on your shoulder
My name is Geraldine, I'm your social worker
I see you need me
I know you do
I'll be at your side to console
When your standing on the window ledge
I'll talk you back from the edge
I will turn your tide
Be your Shepard and your guide
When your lost in the deep and darkest place around
May my words walk you home safe and sound
When you say that I'm no good and you feel like walking
I need to make sure you know that's just the Prescription talking
When your feet decide to walk you on the wayward side
Up upon the stairs and down the downward slide
I will, I will turn your tide
Do all that I can to heal you inside
I'll be the angel on your shoulder
My name is Geraldine, I'm your social worker
I see you need me
I know you do
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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.
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
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,
I've got to say I think it's pretty sad that the real Geraldine is no longer a social worker and is selling bloody T-shirts with Glasvegas instead. As well as everyone elses comments about love etc, I'd also say that the song is giving a different view of social work than the one we normally get. We only hear about the failures of social workers and it's nice to hear a song that heroises them rather than demonises them. The fact that Geraldine herself has abandoned such a noble calling for the sake of selling merchandise for a band (basically being a hanger-on) does undercut that message somewhat. I wonder if she appreciates the irony...
The songwriter wrote a heartfelt song from the point of view of Geraldine. The listeners can then apply the song's words to their own lives by substituting their loved ones for Geraldine. In this way, listening to the song is almost like getting a touching message of love and support from your loved one. That's what I get from it anyway. Your mileage may vary.
The social worker and their client has been used as a simile. In an Interveiw James said that that the song geraldine is about how how romance isnt dead in the world and that there are still good people in the world, so there is always somebody thier for you when you need them. The realationship could be between anybody; boyfriend & girlfreind; two freinds; father & son etc...
geraldine is a women who used to wrok with the lead singers sister, both his siter and geraldine were social workers. geraldine know works on the merchanside stall at glasvegas gigs. cant wait to see them in december, the album is amazing
Incidently James Allans Sisiter is the Bands manager
even before i knew what geraldine was about, this song just makes me want to cry, it's so beautiful.
heh, his accent's so thick, i just realized he said, "my name is GERALDINE,". the meaning's amazing, by the way. it's clearly about one person saving the other; about them trying to make their life better.
I never know how to analyze that last line, "My name is geraldine, I'm your social worker" Its almost anti-climactic, because I don't know if it's meant that this is her job and therefore she is not serious or that these feelings previously expressed are truely authentic. If it is true that the song is about how romance isn't dead in the world, perhaps the line isn't supposed to be taken literally as she is actually a social worker, but instead she is like a social worker in that she is there to look out for the person and help them.
FFS what a song. It's celebrating the platonic and altruistic love given by a social worker to someone who, without that love, would go under. There's no metaphor here: it's achingly heartfelt. To substitute the social worker for anyone with a wider relationship to the other person is, I believe, missing the point. It is a reminder that, despite the jaded portrayal by the media, social workers literally save people's lives through dedication and love, and for which little thanks is ever received. To my mind it also makes the love songs that it resembles seem rather shallow and petty by comparison: "La la, you're very pretty and I'll love you forever and ever..." - listening to Geraldine makes me want to tell these people to shove their vapid shoite back up their hole.
Absolute blinder. I remember my mate saying 'and after all that, it turns out he's talkin about his social worker!' This song onl gets more relevant in these days of cutbacks, the bullshit big society and the massive cry for help that you can hear everywhere you turn your ear.
Mindblowingly good song
his thick Scottish accent is endearing
To me this song is about obviously a social worker who goes so far out of their way for a person they don't even know.
Amazing song