"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.
have faith
have faith
in the blue
lady
strange how
the ears ring
after a night
of wrongdoing
strange how
the arms sting
when you're left
holding nothing
you need contact daily
your conscience is failing
and you already love her
have faith
in the blue
lady
strange how
the ears ring
after a night
of wrongdoing
strange how
the arms sting
when you're left
holding nothing
you need contact daily
your conscience is failing
and you already love her
Lyrics submitted by X405pastmidnight
Ears Ring Lyrics as written by
Lyrics © ROUGH TRADE PUBLISHING
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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
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.
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.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
Um okay this is probably a long shot, but this is what I found when I googled "blue lady":
"According to the ghostly Coastside legend, some 72 years ago a beautiful, young woman met by chance, a handsome dangerous man and fell in love with him. This sophisticated ladies' man was, say some, a piano player in the bar. The naive young woman, always dressed in blue was already married to another but her unsuspecting husband and young son never knew of the illicit affair. She made many trips to the restaurant to be with her lover.
The beautiful lady in blue died in a violent automobile accident and it is here at the Distillery you will now find her searching for her lover."
I believe Self mutilation is close.(referencing one of the comments below) I think it's about the use of stimulates, (Cocaine in particular) "strange how the ears ring after a night of wrongdoing" when you inject cocaine it tends to make the ears ring. It also (depending on the purity) can appear blue when covered in water. "Strange, how the arms sting when you're left holding nothing. " Arms sting could represent a needles prick, and holding nothing means the emptiness of substance abuse. "Have faith in the blue lady" ie: rely on the escape of using. Cocaine has also been referred to as a woman countless times throughout the history of pop culture.
BUT I MAYBE 1000% MISTAKEN.🤷♂️
:)
Strange how the arms sting When you're left holding nothing
I see that as self-mutilation. When the person lost a lover, she went to self harm.
I'm sorry if one does not agree with this.
yoooouuuu alreaaady love her!
one of my favorite songs by rainer maria
i dont know the blue lady? makes me think of the green fairy when you drink absithne, but i kno im probably wrong. the music video had them all at a diner and stuff, not sure exactly but i love her voice because it sounds so desperate.
i think this is about having an afair. the blue lady...i dont know what thats about but... your earing ring when youre embarassed, crying, enjoying something, or feeling blissful so basically any time your filled with emotion. when youre having an afair i assume you, at one time, are filled with one of these emotions. a night of wrong doing means they had the physical afair the night before. youre conscience is failing thus the wrong doing. you need contact daily meaning you want/need the physical part of the afair and perhaps thats why this person turned to another person. perhaps they were "fulfilled" enough. eventually i think they fall in love. OR it could be one of those things when your having sex and you accidently say "i love you" when you really should be saying "i love this" but after one night of sex he already "loves her" you could even look at love a if it meant sex. he loves her. get it? alright. im done.
this song reminds me of my mom. i have no effin clue why.
just from reading some of the words in it like "have faith," "wrongdoing," and "conscience" the reference to "blue lady" might be the bible's Mary. just a thought...
I'm not sure we're supposed to take the "arms sting" line literally. More "it hurts like hell when you lose somebody." I guess this could cause some to turn to self mutilation, but I never read it as such.
given the fact that caithlin's written songs like CT catholic, i always took "the blue lady" as the virgin mary. especially since in catholicism, mary is always wearing blue (yes, i too was a "ct catholic"). just sayin'.