"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 was born in a cross-fire hurricane
And I howled at the morning driving rain
But it's all right now, in fact, it's a gas
But it's all right, I'm Jumpin' Jack Flash
It's a gas, gas, gas
I was raised by a toothless, bearded hag
I was schooled with a strap right across my back
But it's all right now, in fact, it's a gas
But it's all right, I'm Jumpin' Jack Flash
It's a gas, gas, gas (ooh)
I was drowned, I was washed up and left for dead
I fell down to my feet and I saw they bled, yeah, yeah
I frowned at the crumbs of a crust of bread
Yeah, yeah, yeah
I was crowned with a spike right through my head, my, my, yeah
But it's all right now, in fact, it's a gas
But it's all right, I'm Jumpin' Jack Flash
It's a gas, gas, gas
Jumping Jack Flash, it's a gas
Jumping Jack Flash, it's a gas
Jumping Jack Flash, it's a gas
Jumping Jack Flash, it's a gas
Jumping Jack Flash, it's a gas
Jumping Jack Flash, it's a gas
And I howled at the morning driving rain
But it's all right now, in fact, it's a gas
But it's all right, I'm Jumpin' Jack Flash
It's a gas, gas, gas
I was raised by a toothless, bearded hag
I was schooled with a strap right across my back
But it's all right now, in fact, it's a gas
But it's all right, I'm Jumpin' Jack Flash
It's a gas, gas, gas (ooh)
I was drowned, I was washed up and left for dead
I fell down to my feet and I saw they bled, yeah, yeah
I frowned at the crumbs of a crust of bread
Yeah, yeah, yeah
I was crowned with a spike right through my head, my, my, yeah
But it's all right now, in fact, it's a gas
But it's all right, I'm Jumpin' Jack Flash
It's a gas, gas, gas
Jumping Jack Flash, it's a gas
Jumping Jack Flash, it's a gas
Jumping Jack Flash, it's a gas
Jumping Jack Flash, it's a gas
Jumping Jack Flash, it's a gas
Jumping Jack Flash, it's a gas
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
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.
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.
American Town
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.
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.
I don't really see the 'Gardner Thing'.
Quite right hipshot, "I was born in a crossfire hurricane" refers to Micks birthplace, Dartford Kent during the height of the blitz. "Dartford was very much in the front line during the Second World War. The town and surrounding countryside was a target for air raids by German bombers. German planes which could not reach central London often deposited their bomb loads on Dartford before returning home. Local armaments factories were also a target for bombers.
Unmanned flying bombs aimed at London sometimes fell short of their intended target and landed in and around the borough. Over 13,000 houses in the Dartford area were damaged as a result of the bombing. The number of bombs recorded by local ARP officials included 6,000 high explosive bombs, twenty-three land mines, 200 oil bombs, seventy-three phosphorous bombs and an estimated 200,000 incendiary bombs. 150 local people were killed in the air raids and another 700 injured." read more at dartfordarchive.org.uk/20th_century/military_ww2.shtml
The whole song is a prett strait forward autobiograhy in my opinion, I'm not sure if "I was raised by a toothless, bearded hag" refers to his mother or a school teacher but corporal punishment at home and school was very common until the 80's explaining "I was schooled with a strap right across my back".
The 60s for Micks generation created an escape from the misery of the post war years and a liberation from the rules and views of their parents generation, thats why mick sings with such conviction even to this day, "But it's all right now, in fact it's a gas But it's all right, I'm Jumpin' Jack Flash It's a gas, gas, gas"
I think the best version of this has to be seen as well as heard on the Voodoo Lounge Video. You can really see how much it means to Ron Wood to also be a Rolling Stone.
p.s. if anybody wants more great Rolling Stone info visit keno.org/
@Mojo Working thank gods someone with a more realistic response. maybe the gardener thing as an incidental thing...
I'm an artist and I've pulled a few fat ones off in my time quite by accident. So I can accept that the most mundane crap can be stuck together to make an accidental hit at times, but "Gardener"?
The hurricane and howling at a mom all day doesn't say, "lawnmower man" to me. Sorry. Unless Lucifer did their lawn? Maybe that was it! Was the B-Side to this single, "Satan Is My Grounds Keeper"? In fact, I could stomach the lot of them shooting up heroin with Legion before I could take "Gardener". "Getting High With Satan" was probably the track's original name, based on what I hear about Keith Richards and his outworldly drug repertoire at that time. I've been told Keith did more drugs than there WERE in the 60s.
The song isn't about the gardener, he was only the clever inspiration for the title character. <br /> The song is about the turmoil and the drug-fueled chaos they experienced during their writing and recording of the album 'Their Satanic Majesties Request' . The character is a survivor, a hero in a wild, chaotic, unpredictable world. He's been tried, and has passed all tests, even thrived.
i can say in relative confidence, that the song jumpin jack flash was when keith and mick where in keiths redlands mansion and keiths gardner, Jack Dyer walked past the window at 6am, schwelching loudly with his soaking boots on the path, mick was startled and keith explained it was "Jumpin Jack" and that night they laid down the base for the classic song. As regards a heroin perspective, this perhaps may be a side meaning, at a later stage... but that is how the song was created originally.
<br /> You are right on and their book says Mick and Keith were on acid when ole Jack walked past.
The gardener thing is what I read too. Never know--it could be something they made up. It's a great song--Keith's favorite. The guitar riff in this song is basically the same as Satisfaction which was purely a Keith Richards invention. No one disputes that yet Bill Wyman still cries that he wrote the JJF riff.
They invented a character named jumpin jack flash then tell his story. They give him attributes similar to other historicl figures in order to bolster his greatness and give him a big mystique. They know that jack flash is heroin, but the song isn't literally about heroin. its something called a metaphor. song writers use it but its mostly used in literature. Its where they attribute the characteristics of one thing toa completely nuther thing. In this case, they make up this character named Jumpin' Jack flash, give him a bunch of amazingly legendary characteristics, make him out to be some kind of amazing guy that can't die and cant goes through hell and still keeps on ticking. So he isn't literally jesus, he is just given jesus like attributes to express the legendary status theyre trying to, you know, build him up with. He's freeking Jumpin' Jack Flash. Need I say more?
abuse enabling decepetion
I think the line about Jack Flash sitting on a candlestick in the song "American Pie" is about Mick Jagger and the Stones.
@OpinionHead No shit, Sherlock ;-)<br />
also, i always thought it was about not worrying about the horrible yet trivial things in life, because they'll all be over in a second and you might not even remember them in the future. i dunno, maybe i'm overanalyzing it
but it's all right now, in fact, it's a gas. yeah, song goes great to the end of fear and loathing too. i was unsure of who this song was by just because it wasn't on the movie's soundtrack cd, but it's pretty obvious that it's the stones. and who gives a shit what it's about man, it's kind of a song where there doesn't really need to be a meaning.
I wish I was Keith Richard's gardener with my boots full of millionares mud and a head full of stories