Fast Cars and Freedom

Fast Cars and Freedom

My buddy (and new co-writer), Cam, suggested I learn Rascall Flatts’ “Fast Cars and Freedom.” I’d heard the song a time or two, but never really got into it until I actively listened. What a sweet song. And it’s compelling to listeners in multiple ways. Even if you don’t understand the full story right off the bat, you can still sing along to some of the key lines because they’re all so full of imagery and melody.

The song is just full of hooks from the first guitar riff to the weird rock-star break in the chorus–”Baby don’t move / right here it is”–that makes you want to pump your fist in the air. And of course the first and last lines in the chorus are extremely strong.

The song was written by Gary LeVox, the lead singer in Rascall Flatts, with Wendell Mobley and Neil Thrasher^[1]. When the artist is a co-writer, I sometimes wonder how much credit they should get, especially when working with a writer as proven as Thrasher. Of course, it could have been almost completely written when LeVox brought it to Mobley and Thrasher… who’s to say? Also, somewhat unrelated, can we just take a minute to laugh at their names?

The structure of this song is simple on a macro level: Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, Chorus. But the chorus really has three parts to it, which actually doesn’t fit one of Jason Blume’s rules tools for songwriting: never have more than two melodic or rhythmic structures to one section of the song. There is a LOT going on in this chorus, but somehow it all fits together. The first chorus melody comes in, followed by a punctuation-like change (the “rock-star break I referred to earlier), then back to the first melody, and then to a weird kind of chorus-coda, which contains the title hook. Interesting. I can only imagine that this is the product of either A) a 5-minute magic song or B) about a million rewrites.

This was a fun one to learn to play. Of course the recording isn’t perfect, but I’ve got other things to do, songs to write, etc. You know how it is. And happy Thanksgiving!