"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 watch as the daylight crawls
Past the shadows hanging on the walls
It's been a long time since I felt the stain
Of yesterday getting in my way
I'm alive but tell me am I free
I got eyes but tell me can I see
The sky is falling and no one knows
It shouldn't be hard to believe
Shouldn't be this difficult to breathe
The sky is falling and no one knows
You leave me hanging on only to catch my breath
I got you and I got nothing left
Don't leave me all alone down here
With myself and all of my fears
I'm alive but tell me am I free
I got eyes but tell me can I see
The sky is falling and no one knows
It shouldn't be hard to believe
Shouldn't be this difficult to breathe
The sky is falling and no one knows
The sky is falling and no knows
No one knows
No one knows
Past the shadows hanging on the walls
It's been a long time since I felt the stain
Of yesterday getting in my way
I'm alive but tell me am I free
I got eyes but tell me can I see
The sky is falling and no one knows
It shouldn't be hard to believe
Shouldn't be this difficult to breathe
The sky is falling and no one knows
You leave me hanging on only to catch my breath
I got you and I got nothing left
Don't leave me all alone down here
With myself and all of my fears
I'm alive but tell me am I free
I got eyes but tell me can I see
The sky is falling and no one knows
It shouldn't be hard to believe
Shouldn't be this difficult to breathe
The sky is falling and no one knows
The sky is falling and no knows
No one knows
No one knows
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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.
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.
oh my god, no comments for this, no way This son is pretty amazing, totally different song to most others.
maybe about people not knowing whats going on around them, ignorance. Not caring erally, so "im alive but tell me am i free, ive got eyes but tell me can i see" and "the sky is falling and no one knows"
i cant realy be sure of the meaning but its a wonderful song that makes ya think
This song is absolutely amazing. By far my favorite off of Stanley Climbfall. This acoustic version is incredible. I'm surprised more people haven't commented on it.
i think it's a comment on the state of the world. and people's ignorance to that. being the only one who is aware of something is a pretty daunting feeling... i feel that sometimes...
Its about sometimes when people can easily adjust back to their regular life althought something unbeleivable has happened, sort of reminded me of 9-11..
He wrote it about the World Trade Centers falling on 9/11.
he didn't write about the World Trade Centers falling...its a song about the ignorance that people live in. its this thought of what will life come to. and what is the purpose and meaning for why i am here. think about The Matrix. how neo had to breakthrough to another world ,,,the real world, to realize the illusion that he had been living his whole life. btw...lifehouse is a christian band...and it perfectly correlates to the idea of heaven.
The song was written just after 9/11 but it isnt specifically about that, its about how quickly people go back to their everyday lives after something huge happens, it can be related to anything, someone dying, a huge incident like 9/11 or just the end of the relationship cause the line
"the sky is falling and no one knows"
Can be taken in different ways, either that YOUR whole world is collapsing around you and no one else notices because they've got their own problems.
or
The whole world is in a mess and no one pays any attention because 'its just one of those things' or 'its not their problem'
Be open minded, dont try and make this song about any specific thing and then it will make a lot more sense.
I do remember reading something said by jason a while ago that this song was inspired by the affects of 9-11
I agree with some of the posts about the song referring to people and life in general.
I think though, it might be about someone who's struggling with a major problem on their own. Their 'sky is falling' and no one realizes what they're going through.
I think the song is saying that people are getting so caught up in society and the material world that they don't even realize what's happening in the world; people are too focused on their own lives and their daily routines to notice that the sky is falling.