"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.
The bridge is all crumbled.
The water soaks into rocks
That fell at the bottom of the road (At the end of the town.)
The town that we lived in.
The memories shaken apart from the weeds that grow
Over the sidewalks,
Running away from the streets we knew,
Sidewalks,
Like the time we thought was made for you.
Or
Out on the front porch,
Watching the cars as they go by
(Eighteen blue, twenty one grey)
Looking ahead for the first time that we could drive,
Out on our own,
To speed away
From the sidewalks,
Running away from the streets we knew,
Sidewalks,
Like the time we thought was made for you.
Or
All of the days have passed us by,
All of the sun is gone away.
Sidewalks,
Running away from the streets we knew,
Sidewalks,
Running away from the streets we knew,
Sidewalks,
Like the time we thought was made for you.
(Sidewalks)
The bridges are crumpled,
(Sidewalks)
The water soaks into rocks,
That fell at the bottom of the road
The water soaks into rocks
That fell at the bottom of the road (At the end of the town.)
The town that we lived in.
The memories shaken apart from the weeds that grow
Over the sidewalks,
Running away from the streets we knew,
Sidewalks,
Like the time we thought was made for you.
Or
Out on the front porch,
Watching the cars as they go by
(Eighteen blue, twenty one grey)
Looking ahead for the first time that we could drive,
Out on our own,
To speed away
From the sidewalks,
Running away from the streets we knew,
Sidewalks,
Like the time we thought was made for you.
Or
All of the days have passed us by,
All of the sun is gone away.
Sidewalks,
Running away from the streets we knew,
Sidewalks,
Running away from the streets we knew,
Sidewalks,
Like the time we thought was made for you.
(Sidewalks)
The bridges are crumpled,
(Sidewalks)
The water soaks into rocks,
That fell at the bottom of the road
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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Page
Ed Sheeran
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There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
the lyrics to this song are pretty wrong, but this is an awesome song, I was the first out of all my friends to hear about story of the year, way before Page Avenue came out and they rock hard