"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.
What's your story send it over to me
I'll take a look and see what there is to see
At least jot a few things down
Anything to let me know I'm in your head
And not on the ground
With the cigarette butts
From the mouths of all those little sluts that want me
I'm lying here with the negative thoughts running my brain
Over again, look where I've been, feel me try, feel the sky
Feel that your able
To do what it is you need to when
This city life is dragging
This city life is dragging us down
Don't push me
Don't push me
Don't push me
Anyway, well I can barely face the day
Is it already a quarter to ten?
How can I drag my body from this bed again
When I feel so heavy
From the weight of nothing
It's not about you as I said
Now it's a quarter to two, another night run through
Without connecting
To anything
This city life is dragging us down
I'm already so far away from where I need to be
I'm already so far away
We move a mile a minute
Just to keep ourselves in it.
Now I think we've come to far not to win it
What is it?
If I wasn't here all of this shit would just go on anyways
If you weren't here
Everything would just go on anyway
That's what you learn
Why do you stay
When this city life is dragging us down
I'll take a look and see what there is to see
At least jot a few things down
Anything to let me know I'm in your head
And not on the ground
With the cigarette butts
From the mouths of all those little sluts that want me
I'm lying here with the negative thoughts running my brain
Over again, look where I've been, feel me try, feel the sky
Feel that your able
To do what it is you need to when
This city life is dragging
This city life is dragging us down
Don't push me
Don't push me
Don't push me
Anyway, well I can barely face the day
Is it already a quarter to ten?
How can I drag my body from this bed again
When I feel so heavy
From the weight of nothing
It's not about you as I said
Now it's a quarter to two, another night run through
Without connecting
To anything
This city life is dragging us down
I'm already so far away from where I need to be
I'm already so far away
We move a mile a minute
Just to keep ourselves in it.
Now I think we've come to far not to win it
What is it?
If I wasn't here all of this shit would just go on anyways
If you weren't here
Everything would just go on anyway
That's what you learn
Why do you stay
When this city life is dragging us down
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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
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
Holiday
Bee Gees
Bee Gees
@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
when i hear this song it takes me to a different place in tiime a place where the choces we make in the past alwasys have a way of cacthing up with us. We only run so far and then its all gone. He hates the fact that the moder industeralization of the U.S. has moved the two peaple apart
Geez, I love this song. My cousin loves Stroke 9, so it reminds me of her.
I love this song, and not only the lyrics, but the melody is great, also. i think the meaning is pretty straight forward, and i agree with kingdg3 about industrialization moving two people apart. "is it already a quarter to ten, can i drag my body from this bed again..." may not be about the relationship, but the desire for life to be more than a routine, and being sick of working day after day. living such a life naturally tears relationships apart, if they are going in seperate directions in life.
the song has absolutly nothing to do with a girl, in fact he states it when he says, "it's not about you as i said now." Melis was right about saying it is about hating the routine, the same crap he has to do day in and day out. more precisly, the song was actually written after they thought they were done with their album originally, but the label wanted different songs...this is what came out of that frustration.
"if i wasn't here all of this shit would just go on anyways; if you weren't here everything would just go on anyway"
yesssssss. my favorite lines luke ever sang.
slud is completely right. this isn't about a girl. The guys had moved (back, at least for Luke) to SF and when they had just finished their album, Universal told them that they wanted different songs. The frusteration not only comes from the record company, but from city life in general, and even frusteration with the music industry itself. nice goin', slud
"Is it already a quarter to ten? How can I drag my body from this bed again When I feel so heavy From the weight of nothing"
I can understand how this feel. I always had trouble waking up in the morning.