"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.
Did you ever get the feeling that you were all alone
And no one ever knew you and you never had a home
And the lights and the colors do their best to distract you
Fuck you. I don't even know why I like you
It's all a blur [x2]
Like a picture,it's all a blur
You don't know what you're missing
You don't know what you're missing
I've been trying so hard just to keep away
And now look where I am standing at today
Trying so hard to walk away
But it's impossible to watch you fade away
Did you ever stop believing after all was said and done?
When you turned to your friends but they were long gone
And the sky and the snapshots remind you
I trust you and I'm always going to miss you
It's all a blur, it's all a blur
Like a picture
Reminds me who you were
[Repeat Chorus]
Every time I see you look at me
I see those distant eyes and your looks are fading
Every time you're next to me
I want to talk and feel and act like we used to
Cause everybody knows and everybody cares
Until they're walking in my shoes
And now I know
It's you that I cannot lose
It's all a blur
And I owe you
You can take it all
When I call, pick up the phone like you used to
It's all a blur
Like a picture
It's all a blur
You're just a blur!
I've been trying so hard just to keep away
And now look where I am standing at today
Trying so hard to walk away
But it's impossible to watch you fade away
Trying, dying so hard
I've been denying that I'm not scarred
I've been crying, lying so far
But it's impossible to fill this space
Impossible to take your place
Impossible to watch you fade away
Watch you fade away [x3]
And no one ever knew you and you never had a home
And the lights and the colors do their best to distract you
Fuck you. I don't even know why I like you
It's all a blur [x2]
Like a picture,it's all a blur
You don't know what you're missing
You don't know what you're missing
I've been trying so hard just to keep away
And now look where I am standing at today
Trying so hard to walk away
But it's impossible to watch you fade away
Did you ever stop believing after all was said and done?
When you turned to your friends but they were long gone
And the sky and the snapshots remind you
I trust you and I'm always going to miss you
It's all a blur, it's all a blur
Like a picture
Reminds me who you were
[Repeat Chorus]
Every time I see you look at me
I see those distant eyes and your looks are fading
Every time you're next to me
I want to talk and feel and act like we used to
Cause everybody knows and everybody cares
Until they're walking in my shoes
And now I know
It's you that I cannot lose
It's all a blur
And I owe you
You can take it all
When I call, pick up the phone like you used to
It's all a blur
Like a picture
It's all a blur
You're just a blur!
I've been trying so hard just to keep away
And now look where I am standing at today
Trying so hard to walk away
But it's impossible to watch you fade away
Trying, dying so hard
I've been denying that I'm not scarred
I've been crying, lying so far
But it's impossible to fill this space
Impossible to take your place
Impossible to watch you fade away
Watch you fade away [x3]
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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The Night We Met
Lord Huron
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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
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This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
Amazing
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Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran tells a story of unsuccessfully trying to feel “Amazing.” This track is about the being weighed down by emotional stress despite valiant attempts to find some positivity in the situation. This track was written by Ed Sheeran from the perspective of his friend. From the track, we see this person fall deeper into the negative thoughts and slide further down the path of mental torment with every lyric.
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.
this song has helped me through really rough times, it explains exactly how i feel about things