"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.
like a stone i drop through the breaking storm
up through the star-filled sky i soar
still more, i want more
left out in the cold and in fever's grip
then your warmth returns, it's the strangest trip
i want more, still more
i'm enruptured and bathed in blinding light
thunder rolls under the covers tonight
come here, i want more
in the pillows i'm smothered, a crime of lust
now i'm reborn by your love, and i must
have more, still more
at the limit, my heartbeat a pounding drum
i'm lost in the fog, then the clear light comes
i want more
utterly peaceful in your hand
fires extinguished, then flames again
come here, i want more, throw me off the rails
show me the way
however far
shoot me over the zenith
miraculous
do what you must
don't spare me
don't hold back anything
i never will be cured
i want still more
more cannot be enough
seas are rising, moon blood-red
volcanoes erupt on the ocean bed
i want more, still more
gyroscopes spinning behind my eyes
feel like i'm weightless,
far beyond space and time
i'm struck by lightning, heart attack
your kiss of life will bring me back
come here, i want more, clear through paradise
show me the way...
stay here, don't go away
i need so much more from you
nurse me in sickness and in health
you can stand me on the burning bridge
it's head on love, leave me no way out
take me far beyond the edge
deliver me, i yearn so much
i'm exploding with my feelings now...
up through the star-filled sky i soar
still more, i want more
left out in the cold and in fever's grip
then your warmth returns, it's the strangest trip
i want more, still more
i'm enruptured and bathed in blinding light
thunder rolls under the covers tonight
come here, i want more
in the pillows i'm smothered, a crime of lust
now i'm reborn by your love, and i must
have more, still more
at the limit, my heartbeat a pounding drum
i'm lost in the fog, then the clear light comes
i want more
utterly peaceful in your hand
fires extinguished, then flames again
come here, i want more, throw me off the rails
show me the way
however far
shoot me over the zenith
miraculous
do what you must
don't spare me
don't hold back anything
i never will be cured
i want still more
more cannot be enough
seas are rising, moon blood-red
volcanoes erupt on the ocean bed
i want more, still more
gyroscopes spinning behind my eyes
feel like i'm weightless,
far beyond space and time
i'm struck by lightning, heart attack
your kiss of life will bring me back
come here, i want more, clear through paradise
show me the way...
stay here, don't go away
i need so much more from you
nurse me in sickness and in health
you can stand me on the burning bridge
it's head on love, leave me no way out
take me far beyond the edge
deliver me, i yearn so much
i'm exploding with my feelings now...
Lyrics submitted by Omycron
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
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,
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.