"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.
Raindrop hits the leaf changing it's position
Slightly on the street next to polls of monotonous waters
He walks slipping feet from steps at random
He falls
In the space of between his body and the ground
Comets cast off their names
Stellar neurons misfire
Witnesses
Inhale the seed
And spit out a million branches
Buds abloom in all directions
Fringe which events occur
Relations and virused meetings
Catch fire and explode
In the margin of butterfly wings
Entire cycles of evolution
Outplayed and faded
Sparked away and leaned back into
Vacuum-filled nirvana
Between the two of my eyes
Feverish fractal scar
Dance like were they on drugs
Peyote labyrinth re-mapped exits
A hasty blink
And a million life-to-comes
Will never be the same
As they never were
In the kinetic energy of a moving fist
Lies a birth-machine for a parallel universe
With the first movement in organic scap
Came a bouquet of alternative answers
All different multiplied and re-divided
Coded in the spinal cord of a trilobite
Written between the legs on the Meganeura
Suburban city maps and dormant dictator semen
Marked their way through time
In the kinetic energy of a moving fist
Lies a birth-machine for a parallel universe
Slightly on the street next to polls of monotonous waters
He walks slipping feet from steps at random
He falls
In the space of between his body and the ground
Comets cast off their names
Stellar neurons misfire
Witnesses
Inhale the seed
And spit out a million branches
Buds abloom in all directions
Fringe which events occur
Relations and virused meetings
Catch fire and explode
In the margin of butterfly wings
Entire cycles of evolution
Outplayed and faded
Sparked away and leaned back into
Vacuum-filled nirvana
Between the two of my eyes
Feverish fractal scar
Dance like were they on drugs
Peyote labyrinth re-mapped exits
A hasty blink
And a million life-to-comes
Will never be the same
As they never were
In the kinetic energy of a moving fist
Lies a birth-machine for a parallel universe
With the first movement in organic scap
Came a bouquet of alternative answers
All different multiplied and re-divided
Coded in the spinal cord of a trilobite
Written between the legs on the Meganeura
Suburban city maps and dormant dictator semen
Marked their way through time
In the kinetic energy of a moving fist
Lies a birth-machine for a parallel universe
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
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.
Amazing
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran tells a story of unsuccessfully trying to feel “Amazing.” This track is about the being weighed down by emotional stress despite valiant attempts to find some positivity in the situation. This track was written by Ed Sheeran from the perspective of his friend. From the track, we see this person fall deeper into the negative thoughts and slide further down the path of mental torment with every lyric.
I think this song is about the infinity in everything and how actions can have farther reaching consequences than it may seem