"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.
On a cobweb afternoon
In a room full of emptiness
By a freeway I confess
I was lost in the pages
Of a book full of death
Reading how we'll die alone
And if we're good, we'll lay to rest
Anywhere we want to go
In your house, I long to be
Room by room, patiently
I'll wait for you there
Like a stone
I'll wait for you there
Alone
And on my deathbed I will pray
To the gods and the angels
Like a pagan to anyone
Who will take me to heaven
To a place I recall
I was there so long ago
The sky was bruised
The wine was bled
And there you led me on
In your house, I long to be
Room by room, patiently
I'll wait for you there
Like a stone
I'll wait for you there
Alone
Alone
And on I read
Until the day was gone
And I sat in regret
Of all the things I've done
For all that I've blessed
And all that I've wronged
In dreams until my death
I will wander on
In your house, I long to be
Room by room, patiently
I'll wait for you there
Like a stone
I'll wait for you there
Alone
Alone
In a room full of emptiness
By a freeway I confess
I was lost in the pages
Of a book full of death
Reading how we'll die alone
And if we're good, we'll lay to rest
Anywhere we want to go
In your house, I long to be
Room by room, patiently
I'll wait for you there
Like a stone
I'll wait for you there
Alone
And on my deathbed I will pray
To the gods and the angels
Like a pagan to anyone
Who will take me to heaven
To a place I recall
I was there so long ago
The sky was bruised
The wine was bled
And there you led me on
In your house, I long to be
Room by room, patiently
I'll wait for you there
Like a stone
I'll wait for you there
Alone
Alone
And on I read
Until the day was gone
And I sat in regret
Of all the things I've done
For all that I've blessed
And all that I've wronged
In dreams until my death
I will wander on
In your house, I long to be
Room by room, patiently
I'll wait for you there
Like a stone
I'll wait for you there
Alone
Alone
Lyrics submitted by pyledrvr, edited by Crasha360, ContentCop
Like a Stone Lyrics as written by Chris Cornell Timothy Commerford
Lyrics © Wixen Music Publishing, Hipgnosis Songs Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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well too bad it's not a love song... not every single song is about love or drugs.. Tim Commerford of Audioslave talks about Chris Cornell's lyrical style and explains Like a Stone on the Audioslave DVD: "He's [Cornell] a poet, and he fooled me with a lot of his songs and that like a song like "Like A Stone", I thought it was a love song. The chorus is "I'll wait for you there like a stone, I'll wait for you there alone." And I was like "Yo, bro what are you waiting for?" And he's like "Waiting to die." And I just went "Oh, okay." laughs That changes everything. I went back and looked at the song and I..I got kind of saddened by what he's singing about is like a guy waiting alone in a house of death, and all his friends are dying and he's just waiting there, and I'm picturing this man in a rocking chair like waiting to die. It changed everything for me. That made me go back and look at all the songs, and maybe go back and look at Temple of a Dog songs, and Soundgarden songs, and everything, and I started going "Okay, I get Cornell now, and he's a genius." He..He fooled me for..for 15 years, you know? Where maybe I thought some of the things he was singing about were slightly trivial, but they're never trivial, he's deep...he's really deep."
Maybe that was a little much but I'm sick of hearing about this song as a love song...listen to the lyrics!!
@blind_rockstar this song had me fooled for so long! I, like many others, thought it was about love. Only when I ready this did all the dots connect.
@blind_rockstar My God. I did not know that. I knew Chris Cornell was a genius writer and great singer, but the meaning of the song really did change the game. Now I got to go back to reading more of his lyrics to get the real meanings behind it. Thanks for that story.
@blind_rockstar I think he is in a hotel room, alone reading a bible, and wondering where he is going to go when he dies. " In your house I long to be (Gods house) Next he\'s thinking about all he has done in life.... ( for all that I\'ve blessed, for all that I\'ve wronged) He will dream of these things until "my death" He wonders the earth, waiting for the day when he dies alone. I wait for you there. Well that\'s what I get out of it.