"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 longer that I'm out here the better you sound
You're scrunching up your face in this picture I found
And I'm chasing after you steadily losing ground
I don't wanna forget so I'm writing it down
Have you ever?
No never never
I found that hard to believe
Let's burn the furniture
To see how angry
The fire can make me
And you say that there's someone
That you need to reconnect with
Some scarecrow from highschool
That you loved and never slept with
A baby with a pipedream
Playing hopscotch on your bandages
And I'm singing all these songs
While I sleep on your couch
I'm coughing up a lung
But I'm covering my mouth
And I paint you on the wall
Yellow, red, green, and brown
I miss you all the time
But I'm blocking it out
Are you better?
No never never
What does that say about me?
Now let's break the smoke alarm
To see how scared
Locked windows can make me
You say there's a stranger
Staring sideways in a deep freeze
A loner draped in ivy
Playing slumlord in his city dream
A faker with an art form
Pulling magic tricks
On the weak girls up his sleeve
And I'm choking right along
With the words in my throat
I'm falling back in love
With the letter you wrote
And I think that I was wrong
But I guess I don't know
I figured that'll I wait
Until you tell me so
The longer that I'm out here
The better you sound
You're scrunching up your face
In this picture I found
And I'm chasing after you
Steadily losing ground
I miss you all the time
But I'm blocking it out
And the longer that I'm out here
The longer that I'm out here
The longer that I'm out here
The longer that I'm out here
The better you sound
You're scrunching up your face in this picture I found
And I'm chasing after you steadily losing ground
I don't wanna forget so I'm writing it down
Have you ever?
No never never
I found that hard to believe
Let's burn the furniture
To see how angry
The fire can make me
And you say that there's someone
That you need to reconnect with
Some scarecrow from highschool
That you loved and never slept with
A baby with a pipedream
Playing hopscotch on your bandages
And I'm singing all these songs
While I sleep on your couch
I'm coughing up a lung
But I'm covering my mouth
And I paint you on the wall
Yellow, red, green, and brown
I miss you all the time
But I'm blocking it out
Are you better?
No never never
What does that say about me?
Now let's break the smoke alarm
To see how scared
Locked windows can make me
You say there's a stranger
Staring sideways in a deep freeze
A loner draped in ivy
Playing slumlord in his city dream
A faker with an art form
Pulling magic tricks
On the weak girls up his sleeve
And I'm choking right along
With the words in my throat
I'm falling back in love
With the letter you wrote
And I think that I was wrong
But I guess I don't know
I figured that'll I wait
Until you tell me so
The longer that I'm out here
The better you sound
You're scrunching up your face
In this picture I found
And I'm chasing after you
Steadily losing ground
I miss you all the time
But I'm blocking it out
And the longer that I'm out here
The longer that I'm out here
The longer that I'm out here
The longer that I'm out here
The better you sound
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
American Town
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.
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.
i thought about this song a lot while waiting in the terminals of the incheon int'l airport in korea. it ties into the feeling of pushing someone away then realizing you need that person...