"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.
Heather's gone
She left a note
"He is Legend" was all she wrote
Go fetch the detective
I think I've found something
This isn't Heater's handwriting (that's right, I said it)
Don't you talk to strangers?
You know it leads to danger
"I'm gonna be a big star some day
The kidnapper is at the comfort Inn
We'll find your daughter and we'll get revenge
Record me, red carpet (burns)
The reason the handsome one knocks on your door
It's the candy, the paper, the blood on the floor
It's the "diamonds and the pills"
Leave my daughter alone!
It's the glamour that kills
"Dad, I'm not coming home"
I am Hollywood
Watch where you point your finger
I am Hollywood
You better remember
I am Hollywood
She left a note
"He is Legend" was all she wrote
Go fetch the detective
I think I've found something
This isn't Heater's handwriting (that's right, I said it)
Don't you talk to strangers?
You know it leads to danger
"I'm gonna be a big star some day
The kidnapper is at the comfort Inn
We'll find your daughter and we'll get revenge
Record me, red carpet (burns)
The reason the handsome one knocks on your door
It's the candy, the paper, the blood on the floor
It's the "diamonds and the pills"
Leave my daughter alone!
It's the glamour that kills
"Dad, I'm not coming home"
I am Hollywood
Watch where you point your finger
I am Hollywood
You better remember
I am Hollywood
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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"
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
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.
Just A Little Lovin'
Dusty Springfield
Dusty Springfield
I don't think it's necessarily about sex. It's about wanting to start the day with some love and affection. Maybe a warm cuddle. I'm not alone in interpreting it that way! For example:
"'Just a Little Lovin’ is a timeless country song originally recorded by Eddy Arnold in 1954. The song, written by Eddie Miller and Jimmy Campbell, explores the delicate nuances of love and showcases Arnold’s emotive vocals. It delves into the universal theme of love and how even the smallest gesture of affection can have a profound impact on our lives." https://oldtimemusic.com/the-meaning-behind-the-song-just-a-little-lovin-by-eddy-arnold/
Ur sure Pixdogg? I'm pretty sure it's a metaphor. The song's about a kidnapping. Hollywood is a kidnapper. The song's about how hollywood kidnaps, in a sense, people and changes them and distorts them and makes them very fake and plastic, just like everyone else in hollywood. In the end, the kid who was kidnapped doesn't want to go home, just like when people go to hollywood, they don't ever want to leave, they're just stuck in their superficial little Hollywood world.
This song is about how celebrity's get away with everthing, even murder
Marilyn Monroe said "Hollywood is a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul." It's true, things that are of real worth are lost in all the 'glamour'.
its actually "The RANSOM, the handsome one knocks on your door It's THE KID IN THE PAPER, the blood on the floor
definitely a satire on hollywood and how superficial it is. hollywood is characterized as the evil that pollutes america. notice the change in vocals when it cuts to " i...am.... HOLLYWOOD"
the band even said that this is something that's been in their hearts for a while.
Ur sure Pixdogg? I'm pretty sure it's a metaphor. The song's about a kidnapping. Hollywood is a kidnapper. The song's about how hollywood kidnaps, in a sense, people and changes them and distorts them and makes them very fake and plastic, just like everyone else in hollywood. In the end, the kid who was kidnapped doesn't want to go home, just like when people go to hollywood, they don't ever want to leave, they're just stuck in their superficial little Hollywood world.
hey yea i agree with you DemonHunter! plus the "dad i'm not coming home" makes more sense with the fact that you said that when people goes to hollywood they just want to stay there
the breakdown in this song is fucking tough.
This song definitely seems to say how Hollywood can change someone. If you pay attention to the vocals it kinda sounds like at the end that he is going crazy. The whole song is a metaphor. About how manipulative the drugs, sex, rocknroll, and most of all FASHION of Holywood is.
my favorite HIL song so far.