"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.
An Ageing Young Rebel
Called What's His Name
Wanted to be different
While he stayed the same
That he couldn't
He just couldn't
No matter what he would try
Told by his mother
An ageing old thing
You better go see Clever
You give Clever a ring
Which he did
Called him up
Just so Mommy wouldn't cry
Clever heard his story
About different and the same
You crazy
This some silly game
Oh no, no it ain't
Like Mommy said
You gotta straiten up my head
Clever is so clever
Is your cleverness enough
Can you help this ageing rebel
Do you really have the stuff
Bet you don't have
Bet the bread that you'll pass the buck instead
Clever sends our hero
To a funny darken room
Where a crowd of Cunning listens
Giggles in the gloom
That's your problem ageing rebel
Don't you really know the score
You crazy, you think you're gonna change this silly world
Better see yourself a shrink
Cunningly they argue about our boy
Who's breaking down the door
Now he's running down the dark
Diabolical awaits
Grabs him by the ankle
Ain't it just like fate
Diabolical laughs
In an alley full of suit
Forget the same
you'll be different now
Somewhat shorter on one side
Let go
Oh no
Would you diabolical inside
Panic in his brain pulls and gets away
Losses him a foot
It's a dark and evil day
See him running, limping blood
Something soft is just ahead
Something soft is Gentle
He's fallen at her side
She comforts him with kisses
He dreams of suicide
Gentle is so gentle
Grabs the trouble by its root
Bandages his stump
Cuts off his other foot
So you see, it seems to me, a gentle kind of cruelty
Ageing rebel's older, a little wiser maybe too
Gentleness has fixed him
Does he look like me and you
Footless and fancy free
Think how happy Mom will be
Footless and fancy free
Think how happy Mom will be
Called What's His Name
Wanted to be different
While he stayed the same
That he couldn't
He just couldn't
No matter what he would try
Told by his mother
An ageing old thing
You better go see Clever
You give Clever a ring
Which he did
Called him up
Just so Mommy wouldn't cry
Clever heard his story
About different and the same
You crazy
This some silly game
Oh no, no it ain't
Like Mommy said
You gotta straiten up my head
Clever is so clever
Is your cleverness enough
Can you help this ageing rebel
Do you really have the stuff
Bet you don't have
Bet the bread that you'll pass the buck instead
Clever sends our hero
To a funny darken room
Where a crowd of Cunning listens
Giggles in the gloom
That's your problem ageing rebel
Don't you really know the score
You crazy, you think you're gonna change this silly world
Better see yourself a shrink
Cunningly they argue about our boy
Who's breaking down the door
Now he's running down the dark
Diabolical awaits
Grabs him by the ankle
Ain't it just like fate
Diabolical laughs
In an alley full of suit
Forget the same
you'll be different now
Somewhat shorter on one side
Let go
Oh no
Would you diabolical inside
Panic in his brain pulls and gets away
Losses him a foot
It's a dark and evil day
See him running, limping blood
Something soft is just ahead
Something soft is Gentle
He's fallen at her side
She comforts him with kisses
He dreams of suicide
Gentle is so gentle
Grabs the trouble by its root
Bandages his stump
Cuts off his other foot
So you see, it seems to me, a gentle kind of cruelty
Ageing rebel's older, a little wiser maybe too
Gentleness has fixed him
Does he look like me and you
Footless and fancy free
Think how happy Mom will be
Footless and fancy free
Think how happy Mom will be
Lyrics submitted by kärbes
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
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."
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
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.