"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.
Are you gonna live your life wondering
Standing in the back looking around?
Are you gonna waste your time thinking
How you've grown up
Or how you missed out?
Things are never gonna be the way you want
Where's it gonna get you acting serious?
Things are never gonna be quite what you want
Even at twenty five you gotta start sometime
I'm on my feet
I'm on the floor
I'm good to go
All I need is just to hear a song I know
I wanna always feel like part of this was mine
I wanna fall in love tonight
Are you gonna to live your life
Standing in the back looking around?
Are you gonna waste your time?
Gotta make a move or you'll miss out
Someone's gonna to ask you what it's all about
Stick around nostalgia won't let you down
Someone's gonna to ask you what's it's all about
What are you gonna have to say for yourself?
I'm on my feet
I'm on the floor
I'm good to go
All I need is just to hear a song I know
I wanna always feel like part of this was mine
I wanna fall in love tonight
Crimson and clover, over and over
Crimson and clover, over and over
Our house in the middle of the street (Crimson and clover, over and over)
Why did we ever meet
Start in my rock and roll fantasy (Crimson and clover, over and over)
Don't don't, don't let's star (Crimson and clover, over and over)
Why did we ever part (Crimson and clover, over and over)
Kick start my rock and roll heart (Crimson and clover, over and over)
I'm on my feet
I'm on the floor
I'm good to go
So come on Davey, sing me something that I know
I wanna always feel like part of this was mine
I wanna fall in love tonight (Here, tonight)
I wanna fall in love tonight (Here, tonight)
I wanna always feel like part of this was mine
I wanna fall in love tonight
I wanna fall in love tonight
I wanna fall in love tonight
Standing in the back looking around?
Are you gonna waste your time thinking
How you've grown up
Or how you missed out?
Things are never gonna be the way you want
Where's it gonna get you acting serious?
Things are never gonna be quite what you want
Even at twenty five you gotta start sometime
I'm on my feet
I'm on the floor
I'm good to go
All I need is just to hear a song I know
I wanna always feel like part of this was mine
I wanna fall in love tonight
Are you gonna to live your life
Standing in the back looking around?
Are you gonna waste your time?
Gotta make a move or you'll miss out
Someone's gonna to ask you what it's all about
Stick around nostalgia won't let you down
Someone's gonna to ask you what's it's all about
What are you gonna have to say for yourself?
I'm on my feet
I'm on the floor
I'm good to go
All I need is just to hear a song I know
I wanna always feel like part of this was mine
I wanna fall in love tonight
Crimson and clover, over and over
Crimson and clover, over and over
Our house in the middle of the street (Crimson and clover, over and over)
Why did we ever meet
Start in my rock and roll fantasy (Crimson and clover, over and over)
Don't don't, don't let's star (Crimson and clover, over and over)
Why did we ever part (Crimson and clover, over and over)
Kick start my rock and roll heart (Crimson and clover, over and over)
I'm on my feet
I'm on the floor
I'm good to go
So come on Davey, sing me something that I know
I wanna always feel like part of this was mine
I wanna fall in love tonight (Here, tonight)
I wanna fall in love tonight (Here, tonight)
I wanna always feel like part of this was mine
I wanna fall in love tonight
I wanna fall in love tonight
I wanna fall in love tonight
Lyrics submitted by jtrack473, edited by jackbatman, iandunn
A Praise Chorus Lyrics as written by Rick Burch Jim Adkins
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
No Surprises
Radiohead
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Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
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.
Actually, I love the way this song works... "The don't, don't let's start" comes from a really early They Might Be Giants single (Don't Let's Start) while the "Kickstart my rock'n'roll heart" is a paraphrase of "Kickstart my Heart" by Motley Crue, from the Dr Feelgood album.
For me, this song is about the inextricable link to what you feel and what you're listening to when you feel it, and the way we reach out to music for that connection. "I want to always feel like part of this was mine" seems to beautifully illustrate how we internalise our experience of music into something we can own -- like, just about everybody my age (29) has their special Violent Femmes moment, or their special Cure moment -- and probably somewhere secret, the Motley Crue moment... yeah well, I was a kid in love, OK... "Don't Go Away Mad (Just Go Away" seemed incredibly relevant to my life at the time and I can still remember every word of it.
IN SHORT, this is more than a rock'n'roll lovesong, this is a lovesong to rock'n'roll.