"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.
She wears denim wherever she goes
Says she's gonna get some records by the Status Quo
Oh yeah Oh yeah
Still she won't be forced against her will
Says she don't do drugs but she does the pill
Oh yeah Oh yeah
I didn't want to hurt you oh yeah
I didn't want to hurt you oh yeah
Says she likes my hair 'cause it's down my back
Says she likes the group 'cause we pull in the slack
Oh yeah Oh yeah
When she's at the gig she takes her car
And she drive us home if it is in a bar
Oh yeah Oh yeah
I didn't want to hurt you oh yeah
I didn't want to hurt you oh yeah
I didn't want to hurt you oh yeah
I didn't want to hurt you oh yeah
Ah
Says she's gonna get some records by the Status Quo
Oh yeah Oh yeah
Still she won't be forced against her will
Says she don't do drugs but she does the pill
Oh yeah Oh yeah
I didn't want to hurt you oh yeah
I didn't want to hurt you oh yeah
Says she likes my hair 'cause it's down my back
Says she likes the group 'cause we pull in the slack
Oh yeah Oh yeah
When she's at the gig she takes her car
And she drive us home if it is in a bar
Oh yeah Oh yeah
I didn't want to hurt you oh yeah
I didn't want to hurt you oh yeah
I didn't want to hurt you oh yeah
I didn't want to hurt you oh yeah
Ah
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Mental Istid
Ebba Grön
Ebba Grön
This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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.
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.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
This song is so beautiful. I think it's about a sort of groupie-ish girl who followed them around, i.e. always there at gigs and offering to drive them home, but after a while the guy singing, whether it's actually from the point of view of the real singer or not, began to realise that he really liked, her, but he had already treated her really badly because he thought that as a "rock star" that that was what he was meant to do. By the time she's gone he realises how much he misses her. That's just what I thought. I'm probably wrong.
That line made me think of Prince singing about wanting to do the right thing in the song Purple Rain
this song is telling a story of a girl he once loved, but treated bad. he is saying how he didnt mean to treat her bad, but you get a sense in this song that its too late. the end guitar solo is so moving, you know right away how he is feeling when he wrote this song. the emotional outpour is amazing in the last half of this song.
"I didn't want to hurt you... ." I think we've all been there.
I believe he says "she'll drive us home if there isn't a bar."
Never meant to cause you any sorrow
I never meant to cause you any pain
my life my brutal life is what this song meaning to me.
This tune being played alive in the Reading festival(middle 90's...) is so touchy...man....it can make you cry!