"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.
There's a double standard for the way we live
If there's nothing to have, well then there's nothing to save
I'll break a sweat and I don't regret
What you'd kill to see brings out the god in me
Come and be with me
Live my twisted dream
Pro devoted pledge
Time for primal concrete sledge
The man of a thousand retirements
Will always be the one to tell you when to quit
I won't take stock in a withered man
I'm reaching into you, I'll make you understand
Come and be with me
Live my twisted dream
Pro devoted pledge
Time for primal concrete sledge
Come and be with me
Live my twisted dream
Pro devoted pledge
Time for primal concrete
Come and be with me
Live my twisted dream
Pro devoted pledge
Time for primal concrete sledge
If there's nothing to have, well then there's nothing to save
I'll break a sweat and I don't regret
What you'd kill to see brings out the god in me
Come and be with me
Live my twisted dream
Pro devoted pledge
Time for primal concrete sledge
The man of a thousand retirements
Will always be the one to tell you when to quit
I won't take stock in a withered man
I'm reaching into you, I'll make you understand
Come and be with me
Live my twisted dream
Pro devoted pledge
Time for primal concrete sledge
Come and be with me
Live my twisted dream
Pro devoted pledge
Time for primal concrete
Come and be with me
Live my twisted dream
Pro devoted pledge
Time for primal concrete sledge
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
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.
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.
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
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.
Pantera are the shit, they fuckin rule, they were the most true metal band besides black sabbath, those too bands were the be all and end all of the metal life, Drinking everything, doing every drug, fucking anything that moved and playing the best fuckin music ever, all i have to say is they are the gods of there time