"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.
As loud as hell
A ringing bell
Behind my smile
It shakes my teeth
And all the while
As vampires feed
I bleed
I bleed
I bleed
Prithee, my dear
Why are we here?
Nobody knows
We go to sleep
As breathing flows
My mind secedes
I bleed
I bleed
I bleed
I bleed
I bleed
I bleed
There's a place
In the buried west
In a cave
With a house in it
In the clay
The holes of hands
You can place
A hand in hand
I bleed
I bleed
I bleed
A ringing bell
Behind my smile
It shakes my teeth
And all the while
As vampires feed
I bleed
I bleed
I bleed
Prithee, my dear
Why are we here?
Nobody knows
We go to sleep
As breathing flows
My mind secedes
I bleed
I bleed
I bleed
I bleed
I bleed
I bleed
There's a place
In the buried west
In a cave
With a house in it
In the clay
The holes of hands
You can place
A hand in hand
I bleed
I bleed
I bleed
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Son Şansın - Şarkı Sözleri
Hayalperest
Hayalperest
This song seemingly tackles the methods of deception those who manipulate others use to get victims to follow their demands, as well as diverting attention away from important issues. They'll also use it as a means to convince people to hate or kill others by pretending acts of terrorism were committed by the enemy when the acts themselves were done by the masters of control to promote discrimination and hate. It also reinforces the idea that these manipulative forces operate in various locations, infiltrating everyday life without detection, and propagate any and everywhere.
In general, it highlights the danger of hidden agendas, manipulation, and distraction, serving as a critique of those who exploit chaos and confusion to control and gain power, depicting a cautionary tale against falling into their traps. It encourages us to question the narratives presented to us and remain vigilant against manipulation in various parts of society.
Magical
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
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.
This song is about wasting away your life at a boring 9 to 5 job and having an all around mediocre existence.
The first stanza reads:
As loud as hell, a ringing bell Behind my smile, it shakes my teeth And all the while, as vampires feed I bleed, I bleed, I bleed
The ringing bell refers to the bell that tells you when the day starts and ends, it represents the meaningless grind and conformity. In some cases it's a literal bell (alarm clock, factory bell, school bell) and in other cases metaphorical. Either way it's about being a mindless sheep who follows the herd, or as Pink Floyd might say, 'a cog in the machine.'
The second line in the first stanza is self-explanatory; although he pretends to be content with mediocrity and living his life as a cog, deep down he wants more out of life.
The vampires in the third line are all the parasitic bosses and executives in the world who reap the benefits of their inferiors' labor. The singer is discouraged that his meaningless existence constitutes someone elses lavish lifestyle.
His bleeding represents the liveliness being sucked out of him by mediocrity and parasitic bosses (vampires)
The first line of the second stanza is about questioning meaningless existence. "Why are we here?" as in, "Why do we just accept this life?" The answer to this question is that there is no rational reason, so we just dull our minds (my mind secedes) with garbage television and cheap booze (go to sleep) as a means of coping with mediocrity. The reoccurring "I bleed, I bleed..." line is the continued dissipation of passion and eccentricity.
The third stanza is a nostalgic daydream for a time and place in which people actually interacted with each other and valued each others existence, which gave life meaning. The house in the cave represents this ancient time (think cave, clay homes = antiquity) and placing your hands in the handprints of others represents solidarity and human connection. Even though we dream of escaping the grind, we continue to fade away; or as it is eloquently phrased by the Pixies: "I bleed, I bleed I bleed."
"In the first two verses there's no topic whatsoever; all this is just a rhyme structured AABCBDD. It's all very automatic. The rest is about Arizona. There's a very famous cliff dwelling there, with two or three storey houses about a mile up inside these cliffs. It's about 900 years old and you can still see the handprints from the people who pressed the plaster onto the walls. And you can take your hand and place it in the print and it's very wooh." - Black Francis in the NME, April 1989.
@Nimbie funny... The String Cheese Incident have a song called “Little hands” about the very same place...
If we're gonna talk about songs Nirvana sotle from the Pixies, I think "In Bloom" sounds WAY too much like "I Bleed."
but "In Bloom" was a song about that sort of thing. not being original, ignoring lyrics, liking shit cus it makes you cool. maybe he did it as sort of a joke, and probably thought very few would catch it.? dunno.. good call though man, i wouldn't have caught it.
No no no, Weezer took this song and renamed it on their first album. "Undone (The Sweater Song)".
I Bleed sounds nothing like In Bloom...
"If we're gonna talk about songs Nirvana sotle from the Pixies, I think "In Bloom" sounds WAY too much like "I Bleed.""
It's not like that should suprise anyone. Cobain loved The Pixies. He said in an interview once that Smells Like Teen Spirit was basically him trying to write a Pixes song. (Notice, for example, the laid-back verse and then the exploding loud and emotional chorus, which was always a Pixes staple.) =)
There were these two Jessica’s I used to hang out with after school... smoking pot, reading poetry and listening to music... as this was the early 90s The Pixies were a major influence and I’ll always remember singing this song with them as the male vocal... thanks Pixies !!!
^never noticed that, but yes...maybe! what to say about this one? i just love it. hm, thisis my first entry so don't expect too much, but I always thought this was about vampires, couldn't that be?
i mean sure, the word even is in the text, but the whole lyrics are about it, aren't they?
Well, I don't think the whole song is about vampires. In fact, the last verse sounds like it's about the Anasazi cliff dwellings in the southwest US.
God damnit! This used to be called "Bleed" and I wrote a HUGE description about it, but it disappeared! So, now, I shall try to remember what I said!
The song Bleed, to me, is about bullies or whatever in school, they are the vampires feeding off of misery. The "as loud as hell, a ringing bell" could be a school bell? The sound to the vitcim is hell. The victim tries to seem happy "behind my smile, it shakes my teeth" but as the vampires feed, the vitcim will "bleed", perhaps attempted suicide or crying or something.
The victim asks a sister or a friend in the same position "Why are we here?". The victim's only way to escape it's horrible life is to sleep and dream, "As breathing flows, My mind secedes"
I'm not too sure of the last part... Maybe it's a fantasy where things are nice?
Anyhoo, this is my idea of the meaning of this AMAZIN song! (and in case you were wondering I'm not depressed or EMo or anything)