"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.
I want my money back
I'm down here drowning in your fat
You got me on my knees
Praying for everything you lack
I ain't afraid of you
I'm just a victim of your fears
You cower in your tower
Praying that I'll disappear
I got another plan
One that requires me to stand
On the stage or in the street
Don't need no microphone or beat
And when you hear this song
If you ain't dead sing along
Bang and strum to these here drums
Till you get where you belong
I got a list of demands
Written on the palm of my hands
I ball my fist, and you're gonna
Know where I stand
We living hand to mouth
You wanna be somebody? See somebody?
Try and free somebody?
I got a list of demands
Written on the palm of my hands
I ball my fist, and you're gonna
Know where I stand
We living hand to mouth
Hand to mouth
I wrote a song for you today
While I was sitting in my room
I jumped up on my bed today
And played it on the broom
I didn't think that it would be a song
That you would hear
But when I played it in my head
I made you reappear
I wrote a video for it
And I acted out each part
And then I took your picture out
And taped it to my heart
I've taped you to my heart, dear girl
I've taped you to my heart
And if you pull away from me
You'll tear my life apart
I got a list of demands
Written on the palm of my hands
I ball my fist, and you're gonna
Know where I stand
We living hand to mouth
You wanna be somebody? See somebody?
Try and free somebody?
I got a list of demands
Written on the palm of my hands
I ball my fist, you're gonna
Know where I stand
We living hand to mouth, hand to mouth
Ecstacy, suffering, echinacea, bufferin
We aim to remember what we choose to forget
God's just a baby and her diaper is wet
Call the police
I'm strapped to the teeth
And liable to disregard
Your every belief
Call on the law
I'm fixin' to draw
A line between what is and seems
And call up a brawl
Callin' 'em now
'Cause I'm about to go pow
I'm standing on the threshold
Of the ups and the downs
Call up a truce
Because I'm about to break loose
Protect ya neck 'cause son
I'm breaking out of my noose
I got a list of demands
Written on the palm of my hands
I ball my fist, and you're gonna
Know where I stand
We living hand to mouth
You wanna be somebody? See somebody?
Try and free somebody?
I got a list of demands
Written on the palm of my hands
I ball my fist, and you're gonna
Know where I stand
We living hand to mouth
Hand to mouth
I got a list of demands
Written on the palm of my hands
I ball my fist, and you're gonna
Know where I stand
We living hand to mouth
You wanna be somebody? See somebody?
Try and free somebody?
I got a list of demands
Written on the palm of my hands
I ball my fist, and you're gonna
Know where I stand
We living hand to mouth
Hand to mouth
I'm down here drowning in your fat
You got me on my knees
Praying for everything you lack
I ain't afraid of you
I'm just a victim of your fears
You cower in your tower
Praying that I'll disappear
I got another plan
One that requires me to stand
On the stage or in the street
Don't need no microphone or beat
And when you hear this song
If you ain't dead sing along
Bang and strum to these here drums
Till you get where you belong
I got a list of demands
Written on the palm of my hands
I ball my fist, and you're gonna
Know where I stand
We living hand to mouth
You wanna be somebody? See somebody?
Try and free somebody?
I got a list of demands
Written on the palm of my hands
I ball my fist, and you're gonna
Know where I stand
We living hand to mouth
Hand to mouth
I wrote a song for you today
While I was sitting in my room
I jumped up on my bed today
And played it on the broom
I didn't think that it would be a song
That you would hear
But when I played it in my head
I made you reappear
I wrote a video for it
And I acted out each part
And then I took your picture out
And taped it to my heart
I've taped you to my heart, dear girl
I've taped you to my heart
And if you pull away from me
You'll tear my life apart
I got a list of demands
Written on the palm of my hands
I ball my fist, and you're gonna
Know where I stand
We living hand to mouth
You wanna be somebody? See somebody?
Try and free somebody?
I got a list of demands
Written on the palm of my hands
I ball my fist, you're gonna
Know where I stand
We living hand to mouth, hand to mouth
Ecstacy, suffering, echinacea, bufferin
We aim to remember what we choose to forget
God's just a baby and her diaper is wet
Call the police
I'm strapped to the teeth
And liable to disregard
Your every belief
Call on the law
I'm fixin' to draw
A line between what is and seems
And call up a brawl
Callin' 'em now
'Cause I'm about to go pow
I'm standing on the threshold
Of the ups and the downs
Call up a truce
Because I'm about to break loose
Protect ya neck 'cause son
I'm breaking out of my noose
I got a list of demands
Written on the palm of my hands
I ball my fist, and you're gonna
Know where I stand
We living hand to mouth
You wanna be somebody? See somebody?
Try and free somebody?
I got a list of demands
Written on the palm of my hands
I ball my fist, and you're gonna
Know where I stand
We living hand to mouth
Hand to mouth
I got a list of demands
Written on the palm of my hands
I ball my fist, and you're gonna
Know where I stand
We living hand to mouth
You wanna be somebody? See somebody?
Try and free somebody?
I got a list of demands
Written on the palm of my hands
I ball my fist, and you're gonna
Know where I stand
We living hand to mouth
Hand to mouth
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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Lord Huron
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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:
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"Some and now none of you"
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Ed Sheeran
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