"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.
Armour let it through
Borne the arboretic truth you kept posing
Sat down in the suit
Fixed on up, it wasn't you by finished closing
Ramble in the roots
Had the marvel, moved the proof be kneeled fine's glowing
Storing up the clues
It had its sullen blue bruised through by showing
Settle past a patience
Where wishes and your will are spilling pictures
Water's running through
In the valley where we grew to write this this scripture
Never gonna break, never gonna break
Never gonna break, never gonna break
Not for a part in any gamut of the dark
Doubled in the toes
Annex it, it minute closed in the morning
Did not lose it in the stack's stow
I'ma lay that call back on you
You know it won't beseech you
We're laying in an open field
I will let you grow
No need to know this
So carry on, my dear
What is clear up in the daylight is we're hung here
Fall is coming soon
A new year for the moon and the Hmong here
Never gonna break, never gonna break
Never gonna break, never gonna break
All that it seems
Bellows tracing through the streams
Never gonna break, never gonna break
Never gonna break, never gonna break
All at its seams
Swallows swelling for the beams
Borne the arboretic truth you kept posing
Sat down in the suit
Fixed on up, it wasn't you by finished closing
Ramble in the roots
Had the marvel, moved the proof be kneeled fine's glowing
Storing up the clues
It had its sullen blue bruised through by showing
Settle past a patience
Where wishes and your will are spilling pictures
Water's running through
In the valley where we grew to write this this scripture
Never gonna break, never gonna break
Never gonna break, never gonna break
Not for a part in any gamut of the dark
Doubled in the toes
Annex it, it minute closed in the morning
Did not lose it in the stack's stow
I'ma lay that call back on you
You know it won't beseech you
We're laying in an open field
I will let you grow
No need to know this
So carry on, my dear
What is clear up in the daylight is we're hung here
Fall is coming soon
A new year for the moon and the Hmong here
Never gonna break, never gonna break
Never gonna break, never gonna break
All that it seems
Bellows tracing through the streams
Never gonna break, never gonna break
Never gonna break, never gonna break
All at its seams
Swallows swelling for the beams
Lyrics submitted by iquitmyscene, edited by MCalladine, TheMelaphobic, benapere
Minnesota, WI Lyrics as written by Justin Deyarmond Edison Vernon
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Maybe it's just me, but I feel that with many Bon Iver songs, it's not necessarily what the words themselves mean. I'm sure that each word has a specific meaning, many of which we will never know.
But more than the words I feel like we're supposed to understand the feeling. After all, the music comes from the instruments and the rhythm and sound in the voice- not the words. For me, the song has a sense of desperation.
The beginning is trying to grasp the situation, then you get "Never gonna break" like never going to let go. And then the drop at "Doubled in the toes" (which is amazing) is that desperate plea. And then after that verse it's just calming back down to "Never gonna break" again.
I always look at his songs as something to be felt, not necessarily what the words mean.
"But more than the words I feel like we're supposed to understand the feeling."<br /> <br /> Agreed. Thanks for the thoughts.
I couldn't disagree more. I hate when people assume the lyrics have no or lesser meaning. Having studied music in my past, the music and the lyrics are, when at their best, synergistic. They are intertwined, they become one, and the meaning of one without the other is dampened. People should be welcome to find their own meanings in the lyrics, but to say the lyrics are lesser than the music...it can be an affront to a piece of music. It's a false dichotomy to make music and lyrics distinct, if there is integrity and strength to the music, as I suspect there is here.
@kimbee <br /> How misunderstood. Knriddle clearly stated that the words in harmony with the instruments and the rhythm seem to convey the sense of desperation. Your opinion, though may be insightful, will not be welcomed in such arrogant and disrespectful manner.
The song references the experience of the ethnic Hmong people who were "relocated" when the Chinese built the Three Gorges dam. The dam flooded the valley where they'd lived for many generations:
"water’s running through in the valley where we grew"
My guess is that Justin met some Hmong refugee(s)...
"fall is coming soon, a new year for the moon and the Hmong here" (Chinese new year?)
...and befriended them over a period of time:
"settle past a patience where wishes and your will are spilling pictures"
The rest of the song I feel speaks of Justin's surprise at their resiliency...
"never gonna break"
...and the (spiritual?) effect it had on him: "armour let it through" "had the marvel" "be kneeled" (refers to the chorus as "this scripture")
There could be some other bits about the Hmong people having to adjust to city life (most of them were farmers before the dam):
"sat down in the suit, fixed on up it wasn’t you by finished closing"
I don't think the "stack's" refers to Re: Stacks, but does refer to a book (literal or metaphoric) - as "annex" can refer to an book's appendix...
"doubled in the toes annex it, it minute closed in the morning"
...which might refer to someone writing of their experience?
There's plenty more that remains a mystery to me (and perhaps anyone but Justin), but I think the core of the song is just about being moved and humbled by his experience with some Hmong people he met.
Also, my guess for the title is perhaps that what his Hmong friend(s) mixed the names of the states & cities up?
best song off the new album, it gives me chills every time
LostatLimbo, Your interpretation is very well and I agree to most of it. I think this song does have a lot to do coping with a new lifestyle.
The Three Gorge dam may be a different matter though, as it was in China it probably affected the ethnic Hmong in China. However many of the Hmong that currently reside in the US (Minnesota and Wisconsin) are those that were relocated here after the Vietnam War.
My guess is: "settle past a patience where wishes and your will are spilling pictures" Letting go of the past and ‘wishes and will spilling pictures’ means fond memories of the old country.
"water�s running through in the valley where we grew to write this this scripture:" This might be referring to the popular flower cloth in which the story depicts the Hmong crossing the Mekong river to escape persecution.
"you know it won�t beseech you, we�re laying in an open field I will let you grow, no need to know this" I think this could mean that looking at the past life won’t do any good. Rather the open field means a new life in a new country.
“so carry on my dear, what is clear up in the daylight is we�re hung here fall is coming soon, a new year for the moon and the Hmong here” This is the home of the Hmong now, and as always they celebrated a new year in their old country they shall do here as well.
Might be somewhere between our interpretations, but from what I have read, the Three Gorges valley was where the Hmong culture originated, so even those who had been in Vietnam and relocated during the war would have still had history in that valley and perhaps still felt a loss in its flooding. <br /> <br /> Who knows. Regardless of the details, I think the core of the song is about not letting anything break you - which is a beautiful sentiment. <br /> <br /> Thanks!
i agree with lostatlimbo and MightyMorphingZeke
i think that the song is being told from a hmong parent to their child telling them to be optimistic about the new land and the opportunity, and to be strong and never break
you know it won�t beseech you, we�re laying in an open field I will let you grow, no need to know this
so carry on my dear, what is clear up in the daylight is we�re hung here fall is coming soon, a new year for the moon and the Hmong here
never gonna break never gonna break never gonna break never gonna break all that it seems bellows tracing through the streams
I am, by no means, a writer, so forgive me. I believe this song is in reference to Chai Vang, a Hmong man from St. Paul, MN who shot 8 people, killing 6, in northern Wisconsin in 2004 while deer hunting. Justin Vernon would have been about 23 at this time and I have read in interviews that he started hunting when he was 23. The Chai Vang shootings were a tragedy of epic importance in this part of Wisconsin and caused such suffering, not only in lives lost, but also quite a bit of racial, cultural hatred, which I found to be extremely sad. I was there. I was first time rifle hunting with my boyfriend (first and last time of hunting)just about 2 miles from where this all went down that morning. In this typically quiet, cold, stark landscape, I heard the helicopters, police and ambulance sirens who barraged the area after the shootings. It was surreal. It was truly horrible on so many levels.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chai_Vang
Key words/phrases for me (in song order): Title: Minnesota, WI, armour, arboretic truth, suit, storing up the clues, settle past the patience, never gonna break (Vang obviously "broke"), we're laying in an open field, so carry on my dear (I think Vernon intentionally spells "dear" but means "deer") and bellows.
Just my interpretion. I love this song, but I hate what I think of when I hear it.
my favorite off the album.
Never one for literal interpretations, and these songs certainly don't lend themselves to them, but I feel like the genesis of this song comes from his days on the high school football field.
This song is my favorite off the album. I am Hmong and I think the whole Hmong thing is there to describe what Minnesota, and Wisconsin is like. I also agree with what shanlr77 has to say.
This song is about the infamous border battle between Hudson, Wi and Stillwater, Mn. On the morning of July the 17th, Jon Franklin Mordgen was coming home from work the grave shift at the Stillwater Spur Station and was beaten to death by Micheal Francis Milligan. Jon's brother, David Thomas Mordgen, sought out revenge and shot Micheal, while Micheal was in the hospital his cousin, Allen Matthew Peters gathered up his friends and burn the Mordgen home to the ground. By the time the police gained control to the feud 13 people lay dead on the ground. Including both of the Mordgen brothers, their mother was found clutching the body of David screaming, "Never going to break."