"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.
I'm on a straight line when a man comes around
And he got lines in the suit
Coming out to make us moot
I'm moving on now if I like it or not
He says I've got nowhere to go
Tell me something I don't know
He's painting it out like I don't want to know
The picture has come down
I'm taking it off and throwing it out
The picture is about what could have been easier
The picture is coming around now
How come I feel so washed up
At such a such a tender age now
How come I feel so washed up
The picture is coming around now
It could have been easier
At such a such a tender age
I'm listening to the comforting sound
Of some kind of work being done outside
Of sounds from next door the walls don't hide
I'm listening to mountain to sound
And the way it's panned is cool
But when I get back home to you
There's got to be something more than that too
The human resource clerk
Has two cigarettes and back to work
She eats right but hurts
And she says it could have been good by now
It could have been more than a wage yeah
How come she feels so washed up
At such a such a tender age now
It could have been easier
It could have been more than a wage
How come she feels so washed up at such a tender age
I'm on a straight line and a man comes around
And I got nowhere to go
Come back and tell something I don't know
And he got lines in the suit
Coming out to make us moot
I'm moving on now if I like it or not
He says I've got nowhere to go
Tell me something I don't know
He's painting it out like I don't want to know
The picture has come down
I'm taking it off and throwing it out
The picture is about what could have been easier
The picture is coming around now
How come I feel so washed up
At such a such a tender age now
How come I feel so washed up
The picture is coming around now
It could have been easier
At such a such a tender age
I'm listening to the comforting sound
Of some kind of work being done outside
Of sounds from next door the walls don't hide
I'm listening to mountain to sound
And the way it's panned is cool
But when I get back home to you
There's got to be something more than that too
The human resource clerk
Has two cigarettes and back to work
She eats right but hurts
And she says it could have been good by now
It could have been more than a wage yeah
How come she feels so washed up
At such a such a tender age now
It could have been easier
It could have been more than a wage
How come she feels so washed up at such a tender age
I'm on a straight line and a man comes around
And I got nowhere to go
Come back and tell something I don't know
Lyrics submitted by foxyurchin
Lines in the Suit Lyrics as written by Daniel Britt
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
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Great version of a great song,
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Nobody...has commented on this song?
WHAT?
I can't listen to this song without zoning out and dissolving the world around me. Not just sonically appealing though -- it's lines like "how could I feel so washed up / at such a tender age now" that make me duly appreciate the hopeful, but painful, realism of life.
I don't know exactly what the entire song is about but there are many references to the act of doing cocaine. "Lines" in the suit. The "picture" that is being passed around, the glass is being used as the tray to snort off of. <br /> <br /> The picture is coming around now<br /> How come I feel so washed up <br /> At such a such a tender age now<br /> How could I feel so washed up<br /> The picture is coming around now <br /> It could have been easier <br /> At such at such a tender age<br /> <br /> He feels so washed up at such a tender age because of the drug habit. This is what I get out of it anyway.<br /> <br /> Cheers!<br />
the message in this really hurts me. everything about living a picture that someone else painted and how hard it is to live their life, how hard it is to live your own life in their world, and how we know it's that hard. and we're always wanting to hear something we don't know. one of the best lyriced songs i've ever heard.
i love this song. in my opinion, one of their best. personally, i like this album better than 'kill the moonlight'
I couldnt agree with you more, iagoAdmirer. I definitely relate to the the HR clerk.
For me this song is about realizing is the sad realization of the lack of accomplishment in your life and how your probably going to stay in the same situation for the rest of it. I guess it could also be about the way that people can control your life liek the "man" in this song moves the painting. Can anyone help explain the verse "when i get home to you"? This and take the fifth are my two favorite spoon songs. Im surprised more people havent commented on it!
i have to agree with chingchongluv - the song is about a discouraged young person who is pretty much thinking, "okay, i guess i'm a sort of loser." i think he watched the pathetic hr clerk and sees himself in her - going nowhere. satisfied with a couple of smokes, trying to diet, and realizing her so-called career isnt all that great.
the narrator is briefly satisfied with music he listens to, and also the sounds of some sort of construction work - but ultimately not with the way his life is going.
i think that the line "when i get back home to you" is supposed to be ironic. the narrator thinks about his love life and supposes that his love life (ie. sex life) grants some sort of meaning and redemption to his doubtful success in life. but the listener, of course. knows that a love life, or a sexual relationship, is something anybody can do and doesnt necessarily make a person successful.
well. i hope the narrator of this song gets over this time of self doubt. i think weve all been through this.
Listening to the construction outside always made me think of Office Space, how fulfilled Peter or what's-his-name feels when he gets a job working construction at the end. I've worked in an office and at a trade and working with your hands is always so much more fulfilling. Actually creating and doing something makes you feel more human. That's why I think the sound of construction comforts him. Also the sounds from next door. That makes him feel like there's hope that he's a part of the human race. That's what I think.
Also, Mountain to Sound is another Spoon sound so I guess he just likes the way it's panned.
It sounds like it's talking about death to me or failure. Like the man with the shirt is going to take him away and painting out his life, and the picture is just such a depressing one, he can't stand it. It's a song about realizing disappointment.
Yeah, the song has layers of meaning, I suppose. And it is awesome. But I think it's a fairly obvious commentary on their big label deal with their first two records (reference "Mountain To Sound") and "the suits" telling them they were done... washed up at such a tender age. Then he equates that experience to nothing more than just a crappy old job "human resource clone."
The sounds from next door are bands doing there thing without being messed with - which brings us to Spoon's renaissance, if you will.
I love this song, I don't why it just takes me on some sort of hypnotic rhythmic journey. Spoon is an amazing band, and just that they thought to sing the lyrics like that is amazing and shows their true talent. I definitly rank this in their top 3 songs.As to the meaning... I see the first stanza being about a boss coming out and telling a worker that that's all he is, and the worker being depressed about it because he feels like he's right. Then The next stanza to me is the working sitting in his cubicle listening to the sounds of life passing him by while he sits in his box, and he just wants to go home. The next set to me is him just watching the hr clerk, just wasting her life, obsessed with her job, life has already passed her by, and he doesn't want to it to happen to him. Just my opinion on the song..but nevertheless AMAZING.