Fastball Lyrics

    ------ About the song The Way performed by Fastball

It's about a married couple leaving their children and committing suicide. They rather be dead then live another day like that. Everyone thinks its a car accident that killed them so they tell the children this story of heaven like " the road that they walk on is paved in gold". And like don't worry cause where they are" it's always summer, they never get cold...." think about it. I loved this song but it creeped me out when I really listened to it.

    ------ About the song The Way performed by Fastball

They went to Florida! Retired Canadian "Snowbirds". Yeah, that's it. "And when the car broke down they started walking..." No, they could never miss their daily round of golf. Nooooo way!

    ------ About the song The Way performed by Fastball

This song was in my head but I couldn't figure out who or what it was. My 23 year old son finally identified the song for me on Christmas Day as he was loading tons of good music on my new IPod. To me, they are on a road adventure with no regrets, destined to find a better place. No cold or grey - love this upbeat tune!

    ------ About the song The Way performed by Fastball

FWIW, my take on the song is that the couple committed suicide to escape. The wine had whatever it was that sent them onto the golden road. Not happy. But a great tune and lyrics.

    ------ About the song The Way performed by Fastball

I think the chorus is half sarcastic but also half sincere. After all, the road is never easy when you are away from everything you know and there is nothing for you to depend on, and you don't get that kind of absolute liberty and have absolute security with it. At the same time, it also believes in the fantasy to an extent. If you leave everything behind, then there isn't anything to hold you back either, and you can't just take a dump on that kind of dream completely.

    ------ About the song Out Of My Head performed by Fastball

I always love listening this song. This is truly a ''superb'' song. This song has beautiful lyric. It's not just simply an easy-listening song. It helps you contemplate, yes indeed.

    ------ About the song The Way performed by Fastball

First, the last two lines of the chorus "... they wanted the highway... they're happier there today." I think the lyrics are actually "... they WANDER the highway... they're happier there today." I could be wrong, but it makes more sense. The definition of wander is to move about without a definite destination or purpose. That makes sense, as another line in the chorus is "... where were they going without ever knowing the way."

As for the story, what I had heard is that the song was written based on a newspaper article about a group of people, who were all parents, who decided to take a road trip and, somewhere along the way, disappeared.

There are a few lines/lyrics in the song that I think have specific meanings, based on what I learned while getting my minor in literature.

1: "... they left before the sun came up that day." Often, in literature, in many different ways, the sun represents time. Specifically, here, I think it's a reference to a time in their lives. They were all relatively young, they had young children. The lyrics could be drawing a parallel between the early time of day the characters in the song left, and the early time in their lives the people disappeared/died.

2: "... an exit to eternal summer slacking." In literature, seasons also represent time, such as the seasons in a person's life. Generally spring is childhood, summer is young adulthood, autumn is middle age and winter is old age. You could say these people were in the summer of their lives. Exit could mean death, and death is eternal. These people died as young adults, in the summer of their lives, and will "never get old and gray." So, "an exit to eternal summer slacking" is a perfect metaphor.

3: "... it's always summer, they'll never get cold... they'll never get hungry... they'll never get old and gray." Exactly like the previous example, these lyrics are a perfect metaphor for the fact that these people died as young adults, and, if you believe in a Christian version of an afterlife, they'll spend the rest of eternity as young adults in heaven, in the warmth and light of God's love. They'll never age, they'll never hunger.

4: "... Anyone can see the road that they walk on is paved in gold." In the Bible, part of Revelation 21:21 reads "... The great street of the city was of pure gold..." The reference to "Streets of gold" is generally and universally accepted as a metaphor for heaven, and is referenced over and over again in literature, throughout history, and throughout the world. It is not a huge leap of the imagination to interpret these lyrics in the song to mean that the people died, and are in heaven.

I have a few thoughts about a few of the other lyrics, but I'm going to leave it at that for tonight, because, lol, I think I've already spent too much time on this already. I'm not trying to show off, or trying to get people to think that I'm super-smart or anything. I just find this stuff really interesting. Like I said, I minored in literature, but I got my bachelor's in psychology, so I tend to analyze, and over-analyze, things a lot, usually to a fault. I love music, and I love taking what I know about literature and metaphors and trying to figure out what a person is trying to communicate through a song or a poem. It's almost like cracking a code: if you can figure it out, there's a feeling of great accomplishment, and you get to uncover a secret message.

    ------ About the song The Way performed by Fastball

I don't know why every time I listen to this incredibly lovely song I picture gypsies moving from one place to another. The walk paved in gold is the freedom they feel as they are never held back by the superficial-minded world. The children got caught up in the materialistic culture so they ended up being left behind by their freedom-loving parents.

    ------ About the song Out Of My Head performed by Fastball

Truly wonderful song and lyrics. Echoes of Elvis Costello at his very best, and so much more. I live in Bali and Hard Rock Radio here is grinding your song daily, hourly, to my great pleasure !! Keep up the good work Fastball !!! Very bests for the future from Ben, Ubud in Bali. +62 821 47 522 85. Call me anytime !!! Bx

    ------ About the song The Way performed by Fastball

I also saw an interview that it is based on a newspaper article about an elderly couple who left for vacation only to completely vanish. A few months later their RV was found, having gone off the road and crashed. Supposedly the writer of the song read a newspaper article about them, and gained inspiration from that. This makes the song the most meaningful, to me. That though they were doomed, they didn't care because they had been doing something they loved.

I believe the interview was on VH1's 100 Best Songs of the 90's