"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.
Today is a lovely day to run
Start up the car with the sun
Packing blankets and dirty sheets
A roomful of dust and a broom to sweep up
All the troubles you and I have seen
Cross when the drawbridge light is green
Don't look back to that messed-up scene
Packing blankets and dirty sheets
A roomful of dust and a broom to sweep up
All the troubles you and I have seen
And all our troubles will be gone
Blowing out over that bridge
Floating up into the sky
Making the storm clouds cry
Put out that smoke and breath some air
Get a new name and cut your hair
Packing blankets and dirty sheets
A roomful of dust and a broom to sweep up
All the troubles you and I have seen
Start up the car with the sun
Packing blankets and dirty sheets
A roomful of dust and a broom to sweep up
All the troubles you and I have seen
Cross when the drawbridge light is green
Don't look back to that messed-up scene
Packing blankets and dirty sheets
A roomful of dust and a broom to sweep up
All the troubles you and I have seen
And all our troubles will be gone
Blowing out over that bridge
Floating up into the sky
Making the storm clouds cry
Put out that smoke and breath some air
Get a new name and cut your hair
Packing blankets and dirty sheets
A roomful of dust and a broom to sweep up
All the troubles you and I have seen
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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Ed Sheeran
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Ed Sheeran
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“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.
this is my favourite EELS song so far. i too wish i had someone who'd run away with me to somewhere safe and distant from whatever's not going my way..
Nice song, good melody. It's a 'light and easy' song, and very short imho.
When I read the lyrics I thought this might be a sort of follow-up for No Doubt's song "Tragic Kingdom". This is not really about a king in his lost kingdom, but about a relationship that's over or something like that. Although the songs differ very much, they fit together :)
great song i think its about an ex and him just forgetin wots happend and all the shit theyv gone through and put eachother through n just going on a journy or even moving and starting fresh something at one point in our lives wish we could do.
reminds me of the outsiders.