"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.
Can you please remind me where the fuck I've been
Cause I can't find it out you see
So return me to a vital place
From a distant observation
Corrosion of emotions
Is how you block your state
From scratch to revelation
It's all been there, bleeding for someone to dare
Extension of deception, brings you to your final collapse
Am I really an exception?
Is that your only entertainment (spoiling your desire)
To blow your minds on a one-way track
From a distance
Building knowledge out of flexible existence
Hunt for adrenaline is staggering grand lack of emotions
You'll never face conclusions, you'll get what you want
Am I really an exception?
Is that your only entertainment (spoiling your desire)
To blow your minds on a one-way track
I tell you a lie and you make it a statement (sleeping in denial)
You're all wasting the time of your lives
Cold and crawling, you made it back
Fear is selling and you're one with the fact
Counting the days for rebirth
Lost once again and how it hurts
(repeat chorus)
Cause I can't find it out you see
So return me to a vital place
From a distant observation
Corrosion of emotions
Is how you block your state
From scratch to revelation
It's all been there, bleeding for someone to dare
Extension of deception, brings you to your final collapse
Am I really an exception?
Is that your only entertainment (spoiling your desire)
To blow your minds on a one-way track
From a distance
Building knowledge out of flexible existence
Hunt for adrenaline is staggering grand lack of emotions
You'll never face conclusions, you'll get what you want
Am I really an exception?
Is that your only entertainment (spoiling your desire)
To blow your minds on a one-way track
I tell you a lie and you make it a statement (sleeping in denial)
You're all wasting the time of your lives
Cold and crawling, you made it back
Fear is selling and you're one with the fact
Counting the days for rebirth
Lost once again and how it hurts
(repeat chorus)
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
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
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”
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,
Head > Heels
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Head > Heels” is a track that aims to capture what it feels like to experience romance that exceeds expectations. Ed Sheeran dedicates his album outro to a lover who has blessed him with a unique experience that he seeks to describe through the song’s nuanced lyrics.
reposting this because I put it in reply instead of adding regular comment.
Definitely NOT about paparazzi, and I doubt the suicide one as well.
I can kinda see the media thing with the parts about fear and "I tell you a lie and you make it a statement" but it doesn't seem to fit as well with the rest of it.
I've always thought this song was about drugs.
As in the narrator sees people around him hooked on drugs and he's the exception("Am I really an exception")and sees them destroying their lives while he isn't interested at all. He doesn't get why they are "wasting the time of their lives".
"Is that your only entertainment? (Spoiling your desire) To blow your minds on a one-way track"
Imagine a super pot head who does nothing, but get high. The entertainment is referring to getting high. He's asking like is that really your only entertainment, and is surprised by it because it seems so foreign to him and feels he's the only one who doesn't see the fun in it(am i really an exception). Spoiling your desire is referring to the lack of ambition and desire for a better life while being high, you can just kinda sit there in bliss or w/e and forget about problems. Blowing your minds = getting high, one way track referring to their heading toward worse addiction and eventually death.
Cold and crawling, you made it back Fear is selling and your one with the fact Counting the days for rebirth Lost once again and how it hurts...
"Cold and crawling" = image of a junkie "Rebirth" = getting back to sobriety Last line = how lost a junkie would feel after coming off the drug, no friends, no family etc and the pain that comes from that.
"Corrosion of emotions Is how you block your state"
This part is saying how the junkie is blocking their real emotions with the drugs which cause corroded emotions or fake emotions.
"Sleeping in denial" = denial that they're addicted and out of control
"Hunt for adrenaline is staggering, grand lack of emotions You'll never face conclusions, you'll get what you want"
This is the stereotypical junkie: lack of emotions, never facing conclusions of what they've done, still getting what they want(their fix)