"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 remember you
Do you remember me
There's no way to the heart better than awkwardly
In Canada on new year's eve
You said you'd never seen someone bleed like I bleed
Perhaps I was on
The shaking hands
The hands we'll shake
There's nothing that we've done you could call a mistake
We wore ourselves into the ground
The humming of the traffic on st. catherine's
Breaks the slow fall down
The truth is behind the hotel
The body's underneath the maple tree
The leaves turned red when you killed me
Startled by the saint's river
I won't reduce the complications to the warmer nights
When I did not know you
The truth is under the water
Finally silent I could hear you speak
About the leaves and killing me
Shaken by the saint's river
There's nothing that we've done that could be wrong
It's the only way we'll ever understand
Do you remember me
There's no way to the heart better than awkwardly
In Canada on new year's eve
You said you'd never seen someone bleed like I bleed
Perhaps I was on
The shaking hands
The hands we'll shake
There's nothing that we've done you could call a mistake
We wore ourselves into the ground
The humming of the traffic on st. catherine's
Breaks the slow fall down
The truth is behind the hotel
The body's underneath the maple tree
The leaves turned red when you killed me
Startled by the saint's river
I won't reduce the complications to the warmer nights
When I did not know you
The truth is under the water
Finally silent I could hear you speak
About the leaves and killing me
Shaken by the saint's river
There's nothing that we've done that could be wrong
It's the only way we'll ever understand
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Fast Car
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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this song sounds to me like a narrative. the author is reminiscing about a lost relationship where it sounds like he was hurt. perhaps he walks through the city and remembers pieces of old memories. "the bodies underneath the maple tree/the leaves turned red where you killed me" fall has always been a symbol of death- of the leaves which turn red and fall from the tree, but in this case of the relationship which died.
i just can't get this song out of my head. i walk around all day air-guitarring. the chords are simple but beautiful
I agree, I think the song was about a relationship which the narrator reflects on. It sounds like the other person ended the relationship, and he doesn't understand why; just see these lines:<br /> <br /> ::theres nothing that weve done you could call a mistake<br /> <br /> and then at the end:<br /> <br /> ::theres nothing that weve done that could be wrong<br /> ::its the only way well ever understand<br /> <br /> Love this song, it stirs up a lot of emotion.