"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.
After this the rest is all bullshit - Oooh
After this the rest is all bullshit - Oooh
After this the rest is all bullshit - Oooh
After this the rest is all bullshit
I'm so down underground
I'll be scalping all my tickets
Floating up like scouts can
Like y'all can tell the difference
The mission fishin' for the missin' prissy little kids
We shoot 'em in a barrel
It's so easy when they're pissed
Under educated
Extra caffeinated
I just masturbated
Now I'm gonna bait it
Can't live with us
You can't live without us - Oooh
I take it then I break it
Then you write my paycheck
You can call me Little Miss Piss with a kiss
And after all this the rest is all bullshit
And you love it
You love it
You love it
You love it
After this the rest is all bullshit - Oooh
After this the rest is all bullshit - Oooh
After this the rest is all bullshit - Oooh
After this the rest is all bullshit
I'm bumping like a pimp on the stage to save face
I overcompensate with very bad taste
No offense, no romance, sick of your parents
I'm about to take a stance
And drop off my underpants
It's no accident
You will pay my rent
(synthesized voice: and I am free to download all the porno on the internet)
Carried on a stick - stick
Not too fucking quick - quick
Now that I'm a prick - prick
Y'all can jack my dick
Say no to brains
It's a no-brainer
Lowest common denominator
It pays the bills
To be this sterile
Fuck me now, rip me off later
And you love it
You love it
You love it
You love it
After this the rest is all bullshit - Oooh
After this the rest is all bullshit - Oooh
After this the rest is all bullshit - Oooh
After this the rest is all bullshit
You can call me Little Miss Piss with a kiss
You can call me Little Miss Piss with a kiss
You can't live with us, you can't live without us
You can call me Little Miss Piss with a kiss
You can call me Little Miss Piss with a kiss
You can't live with us, you can't live without us
[Repeat: x14]
Oooh
After this the rest is all bullshit - Oooh
After this the rest is all bullshit - Oooh
After this the rest is all bullshit
I'm so down underground
I'll be scalping all my tickets
Floating up like scouts can
Like y'all can tell the difference
The mission fishin' for the missin' prissy little kids
We shoot 'em in a barrel
It's so easy when they're pissed
Under educated
Extra caffeinated
I just masturbated
Now I'm gonna bait it
Can't live with us
You can't live without us - Oooh
I take it then I break it
Then you write my paycheck
You can call me Little Miss Piss with a kiss
And after all this the rest is all bullshit
And you love it
You love it
You love it
You love it
After this the rest is all bullshit - Oooh
After this the rest is all bullshit - Oooh
After this the rest is all bullshit - Oooh
After this the rest is all bullshit
I'm bumping like a pimp on the stage to save face
I overcompensate with very bad taste
No offense, no romance, sick of your parents
I'm about to take a stance
And drop off my underpants
It's no accident
You will pay my rent
(synthesized voice: and I am free to download all the porno on the internet)
Carried on a stick - stick
Not too fucking quick - quick
Now that I'm a prick - prick
Y'all can jack my dick
Say no to brains
It's a no-brainer
Lowest common denominator
It pays the bills
To be this sterile
Fuck me now, rip me off later
And you love it
You love it
You love it
You love it
After this the rest is all bullshit - Oooh
After this the rest is all bullshit - Oooh
After this the rest is all bullshit - Oooh
After this the rest is all bullshit
You can call me Little Miss Piss with a kiss
You can call me Little Miss Piss with a kiss
You can't live with us, you can't live without us
You can call me Little Miss Piss with a kiss
You can call me Little Miss Piss with a kiss
You can't live with us, you can't live without us
[Repeat: x14]
Oooh
Lyrics submitted by iLL Ronald
Bullshit Lyrics as written by James Euringer
Lyrics © JAMES IS A GIRL MUSIC C/O CITRIN COOPERMAN
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"
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
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.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
I think it's about how this will be their last "real" song. As in, after this (i.e., the song) the rest is all bullshit, the rest being all the following songs. Just another self-depreciating song, in my mind.
Except it's the last on the album, and there were pretty real songs on "if", like "Prescription", "Get It Up" and "Mark David Chapman".