"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.
If it can be broke then it can be fixed, if it can be fused then it can be split
It's all under control
If it can be lost then it can be won, if it can be touched then it can be turned
All you need is time
We promised the world we'd tame it, what were we hoping for?
A sense of purpose and a sense of skill, a sense of function but a disregard
We will not be the first, we won't
You said you were going to conquer new frontiers,
Go stick your bloody head in the jaws of the beast
We promised the world, we'd tame it, what were we hoping for?
Breath in, breath out
So here we are reinventing the wheel
I'm shaking hands with a hurricane
It's a colour that I can't describe,
It's a language I can't understand
Ambition, tearing out the heart of you
Carving lines into you
Dripping down the sides of you
We will not be the last.
It's all under control
If it can be lost then it can be won, if it can be touched then it can be turned
All you need is time
We promised the world we'd tame it, what were we hoping for?
A sense of purpose and a sense of skill, a sense of function but a disregard
We will not be the first, we won't
You said you were going to conquer new frontiers,
Go stick your bloody head in the jaws of the beast
We promised the world, we'd tame it, what were we hoping for?
Breath in, breath out
So here we are reinventing the wheel
I'm shaking hands with a hurricane
It's a colour that I can't describe,
It's a language I can't understand
Ambition, tearing out the heart of you
Carving lines into you
Dripping down the sides of you
We will not be the last.
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
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.
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
I think it's meaning is more general than a specific war or person.
I think it's about all the idealists in the world.
The title sums up the song very well, because pioneers are idealists. They're settlers who are hoping for a better future in a new place.
"If it can be broke then it can be fixed, if it can be fused then it can be split It's all under control If it can be lost then it can be won, if it can be touched then it can be turned All you need is time" Is basically the idealist's theroy that everything can be fixed; all you need is time, motivation, and will.
"We promised the world we'd tame it, what were we hoping for?" Is I think a reflection on a time when the song writer was an idealist, and how he made all these promises to change the world for the better, but he realizes now that he was hoping for too much.
"You said you were going to conquer new frontiers, Go stick your bloody head in the jaws of the beast" Is about how idealists are trying to accomplish all these huge tasks that are far too big for one single person to accomplish.
"I'm shaking hands with a hurricane" I think is about how being an idealist is like trying to shake hands with a hurricane. Because a hurricane is so big and you're just one single person. You can't destroy every problem.
"Ambition, tearing out the heart of you Carving lines into you Dripping down the sides of you We will not be the last." Is about how much ambition idealists have to change the world, but in the end their dreams just get squashed by the world, and their hearts get torn out. But still, it will keep going, and there will always be idealists in the world who want to change things.
@Televised I have a different take. I think the song is about the illusion of progress. It’s a commentary on our failed culture that over-estimates an ability to conquer problems and tame the world with ambition, science, and tech. It’s a view of our culture as a Huxley or Ralston Saul kind of dystopia.
the line "we promised the world we tame it, what were we hoping for?" got me hook on to this song.. for me it seems like we try so hard to fix this world but never seem to know where to begin due to the numerous problemsthat exsists, like war, overpopulaiton, natural disasters etc.
this song is soo important to me. i even have some lines from it tattoed on me "Ambition Tearing out the heart of you Carving lines into you Dripping down the sides of you.." like obviously, it's talking about how something can tear you down to the point of insanity or in the lyrics wise, cutting / suicide, but i dont really think Kele was trying to make the song about that but its just so true how something can tear you apart, like someone's ambition... its fucking nuts the reason i got it tattoed into me is because my ambitions tore me apart to the point Kele writes about... awesome song...:)
Time fixes everything.
@WikedAbib it doesn’t, though. And that’s the point.
i am in love with the video
I have to agree with exsaga.. there's so many problems to be fixed and we dont know where to start. "We promised the world, we'd tame it..." - isnt that what politicans always do? not just Bush and Blair..
In the last verse they mention some of the problems we are facing nowadays.. eg.hurricanes & racism.
kick-arse-song anyways
brilliant song!
i used to hate bloc party but then i heard the line "we will not be the last" in this tune and now i'm hooked on them...it's gotta be something to do with politicians or the problems in the world. "if it can be broke, then it can be fixed..." seems to be hopeful, like someone saying "so what the worlds messed up?! the next generations can fix that"
the line "so here we are reinventing the wheel" are they saying that to right the wrong things we are going to have to start all again from scratch?
maybe the best song of bloc party :)