"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.
Send in the clouds. Bring down the rain.
Shut all the blinds, turn out the lights:
I feel insane when you get in my bed.
I am the trick my mother played on the world
Seventeen doctors couldn't decide
whether I should be allowed in the game.
What can't monsters get along with other monsters?
Soi disantra, soi disantra…
I know a puppy who walked form Kentucky.
Made to East Virginia by dawn.
He had seventeen ideas in his head.
Windex tears flow down the robot's face.
He's never felt a lover's embrace.
My momma named me after a king.
I'm gonna bury my name in you.
What can't monsters get along with other monsters?
Soi disantra, soi disantra…
Shut all the blinds, turn out the lights:
I feel insane when you get in my bed.
I am the trick my mother played on the world
Seventeen doctors couldn't decide
whether I should be allowed in the game.
What can't monsters get along with other monsters?
Soi disantra, soi disantra…
I know a puppy who walked form Kentucky.
Made to East Virginia by dawn.
He had seventeen ideas in his head.
Windex tears flow down the robot's face.
He's never felt a lover's embrace.
My momma named me after a king.
I'm gonna bury my name in you.
What can't monsters get along with other monsters?
Soi disantra, soi disantra…
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More Featured Meanings
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”
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,
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
Dead C: Actress Mary Elizabeth Ellis from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is also a huge fan of yours and I promised that I would ask a question for her about the song “Send in the Clouds”. She wanted to know what “Soi Disantra” meant and, based on numerous forums I found through a google search, she’s not the only person that will be happy to find out the answer to that question.
David Berman: Soi-disant means “so called”. the line before it mentions monsters. the singers are calling themselves monsters, but then adding “so called!” . Even in calling myself and Steve monstrous, I had to undercut it, to avoid sounding self-important. It was the tendency of the times.
from this interview, here: monsterfresh.com/2009/05/11/david-berman-silver-jews-interview/
This is a great song. No discussion?
It is a great song. I still don't know what soi disantra means though. I read somewhere that it means "self-styled." The lyrics here are a bit wrong. It should be "Windex tears flow down the robot's face. He never felt a mother's embrace."