"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.
Time on your side it'll never end
The most beautiful thing you can ever spend
But you work in a shirt with your name tag on it
Drifting apart like a plate tectonic
It don't matter to me
All I wanted to be
Was a million miles from here
Somewhere more familiar
Too much time spent dragging the past up
I didn't see you not looking when I messed up
Settling down in your early twenties
Sucked more blood than a backstreet dentist
It don't matter to me
All I wanted to be
Was a million miles from here
Somewhere more familiar
[Chorus]
Oh my God I can't believe it
I've never been this far away from home
Oh my God I can't believe it
I've never been this far away from home
Oh my God I can't believe it
I've never been this far away from home
Oh my God I can't believe it
I've never been this far away from home
Bright ruins lit for a greater glory
The only thing growing is our history
Knock me down I'll get right back up again
Come back stronger than a powered-up Pacman
It don't matter to me
All I wanted to be
Was a million miles from here
Somewhere more familiar
[Chorus: x2]
The most beautiful thing you can ever spend
But you work in a shirt with your name tag on it
Drifting apart like a plate tectonic
It don't matter to me
All I wanted to be
Was a million miles from here
Somewhere more familiar
Too much time spent dragging the past up
I didn't see you not looking when I messed up
Settling down in your early twenties
Sucked more blood than a backstreet dentist
It don't matter to me
All I wanted to be
Was a million miles from here
Somewhere more familiar
[Chorus]
Oh my God I can't believe it
I've never been this far away from home
Oh my God I can't believe it
I've never been this far away from home
Oh my God I can't believe it
I've never been this far away from home
Oh my God I can't believe it
I've never been this far away from home
Bright ruins lit for a greater glory
The only thing growing is our history
Knock me down I'll get right back up again
Come back stronger than a powered-up Pacman
It don't matter to me
All I wanted to be
Was a million miles from here
Somewhere more familiar
[Chorus: x2]
Lyrics submitted by frozen_in_fire, edited by gyrgrls
Oh My God Lyrics as written by Charles Spaulding Gladfelter
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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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"
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/
American Town
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.
There is something disturbingly addicting about this song, and I am extremely weakminded when it comes to getting songs, well, unstuck from my brain, thus, it will remain.
It's catchy as all hell, though. Isn't it?
i think it's a conversation between 2 people, a man and a woman the man has fallen into a routine which is below him the first verse is the woman trying to get him out of it, "there's time on your side..." is her telling him he has such great potensial and he could do anything "but you work in a shirt..." is her pointing out how he is choosing to waste that potensial the pre-chorus "but it dont matter to me..." is him trying to act like he doesn't care about it the second verse is where they start argueing, too much time spent dragging the past up" is her telling him hes living in the past and needs to move on "i didnt see you not looking when i messed up" is him saying she is too quick to critisise him "settling down in your early twenties" is her saying he has resigned himself to a dull life without living properly first "suck more blood than a backstreet dentist" is him snapping at her, that she drains the life out of him the way a bad dentist would have to suck the blood from a patients mouth the third verse is when they begin to drift apart "great ruins make for a greater glory" is him justifying his life, him being the ruins, he feels that his life has broken him but that makes him better than her as she has not suffered the way he has "the only thing growing is our history" is her looking back over the futility of their floundering relationship "knock me down i get right back up again, i come back stronger than a powered up pacman" is him taker her previous comment as a way of knocking him and making him feel guilty, he feels that all the pain makes him stronger but he really just raises for a while before falling deeper into the shattered shards of his own existance. the chorus is the man's life in a nut-shell, he fears anything that is not farmilliar, repeating over and over because he cannot accept getting what he supposedly whished for earlier "all i wanted to be was a million miles from here". this song overall is about the decline of a persons life when they refuse to progress
I don't think that's actually a conversation. Your comment about the pre-chours contradicts itself. How can he act like he doesn't care if he desires to get away from that place? There is no dialog in there, it's a one person lyric...
I don't think that's actually a conversation. Your comment about the pre-chours contradicts itself. How can he act like he doesn't care if he desires to get away from that place? There is no dialog in there, it's a one person lyric...
Is it just me, or would this've gone really well with my fave LOTR moment, when Samwise looks all sad and says "If I take one more step, this is the farthest i've ever been from the shire". Especially the "Never been this far away from home"
any song with the lyrics:
"Knock me down I'll get right back up again Come back strong like the powered up pacman"
is automatically COOL ! ! ! its just a pleasure that the rest of the song is goodness aswell!
I absolutely love this song, the Kaiser Chiefs are gonna be HUGE!!! Well, they deserve to be anyway.
fucking brilliant. that's all i need to say
This song is awesome. Ricky Wilson said in NME this issue:
"Its a cracker, innit? It's about being in a band, about being a fish out of water. The first leap's always the hardest."
Oh-my-god. This song is brillianttttt.
This song is EVILLLLL. It's been stuck in my head for daysssss.
i reli reli reli adore this song, its just brill!!!! iv been a huge fan of the band for ages but iv onli just discovered this site and this song is ace to dance to... its just FUNKY!