"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.
You were standing on the corner
When it all came crashing down
On your black shoes and your black hat
You pulled your black dress round
I suppose you should feel sorry
But I see you dressed in silk
With a double cappuccino
And it's topped with dry steamed milk
You know I guess you should feel sorry after all
But I'm not crying anymore
Well do you forget who you are
When you're the last one in the bar
And then morning unfurls
On the wallflower
Yeah yeah
Wallflower girl
On the wallflower girl
Well you're in and out and up and down and halfway in between
You're holly-go-lightly
Yeah I heard you played that scene
Well you say that you're an actress
And a painter on the side
And you used to read the tarot cards
But you don't like what you find
But I suppose we both know your future anyway
Hey hey hey
Now do you forget who you are
When you're the last one in the bar
And then morning unfurls
On the wallflower
Yeah yeah
Wallflower girl
On the wallflower girl
When you're climbing up a mountainside
Well they say it hurts your ears when they pop
That's the price you pay now
For being on top
Well the light is turning greener
Then my thoughts are ringing true
And the reason that I'm so hard girl I see myself in you
And the mountain tops and the valleys
And the vantage points between
Well you used to read the tarot cards
But you don't like what you've seen
But I suppose we both know your future anyway
Hey hey hey
Now do you forget who you are
When you're the last one in the bar
And then morning unfurls
On the wallflower
Yeah yeah
Wallflower girl
On the wallflower girl
Oh
Oh
When it all came crashing down
On your black shoes and your black hat
You pulled your black dress round
I suppose you should feel sorry
But I see you dressed in silk
With a double cappuccino
And it's topped with dry steamed milk
You know I guess you should feel sorry after all
But I'm not crying anymore
Well do you forget who you are
When you're the last one in the bar
And then morning unfurls
On the wallflower
Yeah yeah
Wallflower girl
On the wallflower girl
Well you're in and out and up and down and halfway in between
You're holly-go-lightly
Yeah I heard you played that scene
Well you say that you're an actress
And a painter on the side
And you used to read the tarot cards
But you don't like what you find
But I suppose we both know your future anyway
Hey hey hey
Now do you forget who you are
When you're the last one in the bar
And then morning unfurls
On the wallflower
Yeah yeah
Wallflower girl
On the wallflower girl
When you're climbing up a mountainside
Well they say it hurts your ears when they pop
That's the price you pay now
For being on top
Well the light is turning greener
Then my thoughts are ringing true
And the reason that I'm so hard girl I see myself in you
And the mountain tops and the valleys
And the vantage points between
Well you used to read the tarot cards
But you don't like what you've seen
But I suppose we both know your future anyway
Hey hey hey
Now do you forget who you are
When you're the last one in the bar
And then morning unfurls
On the wallflower
Yeah yeah
Wallflower girl
On the wallflower girl
Oh
Oh
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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"
Mental Istid
Ebba Grön
Ebba Grön
This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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.
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.
I love this song.
I kind of see it as a song written about a girl who tries way too hard to fit in and be cool, from the viewpoint of a guy who used to try to live that life and saw it wasn't all it's cracked up to be.
Agree with Lapis though (the verse he posted), that is my favorite verse. Just the whole, "watch out what you ask for, you might get it" in this case she got what she wanted, and it gave her a headache. :)