"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.
you found a way to break away
from the one you say that you love
now you cry out your eyes day and night
you set free the one that you love
and it's true, I don't remember you
but I believe you if you say that we met
I get confused
nights, i've been wondering
I thought I was already dead
but man, I loved
yeah, I loved
when I loved
it was love
it was love
or at least, the closest I got
and the coffee, the cream
the blood in my dreams
are the ones you used to know
and the gas, the plane, the interstate
live the ones you don't have to know
and I regret this sad and awful truth
but my mouth, it'll get away from me
you, I just put up with you, kid
I stayed cause you wouldn't leave
remember love
oh, love
when we loved
it was love
it was love
or at least, as close as I've come
and maybe joan was running all alone
and there is a shortcut
by putting a gun to your brain
man, to take all that you got
and the truth was I was just scared for you
but for me, that's the way that it comes
you'd gotten used to me and my awful tongue
but god, didn't we have some fun?
when we made love in the van
and I drove with your hand on my lap
and when san diego got too unkind
we just picked up and left it behind
and we had some love and some hope
a full tank of gas and a wide open road
it was love
to us, it was all that we had
and there's just a day when you just break
the best thing you had
and I still call it love
for now, it's the closest I've come
from the one you say that you love
now you cry out your eyes day and night
you set free the one that you love
and it's true, I don't remember you
but I believe you if you say that we met
I get confused
nights, i've been wondering
I thought I was already dead
but man, I loved
yeah, I loved
when I loved
it was love
it was love
or at least, the closest I got
and the coffee, the cream
the blood in my dreams
are the ones you used to know
and the gas, the plane, the interstate
live the ones you don't have to know
and I regret this sad and awful truth
but my mouth, it'll get away from me
you, I just put up with you, kid
I stayed cause you wouldn't leave
remember love
oh, love
when we loved
it was love
it was love
or at least, as close as I've come
and maybe joan was running all alone
and there is a shortcut
by putting a gun to your brain
man, to take all that you got
and the truth was I was just scared for you
but for me, that's the way that it comes
you'd gotten used to me and my awful tongue
but god, didn't we have some fun?
when we made love in the van
and I drove with your hand on my lap
and when san diego got too unkind
we just picked up and left it behind
and we had some love and some hope
a full tank of gas and a wide open road
it was love
to us, it was all that we had
and there's just a day when you just break
the best thing you had
and I still call it love
for now, it's the closest I've come
Lyrics submitted by delial
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
Mental Istid
Ebba Grön
Ebba Grön
This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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”
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
hmm, i dont really get sad when I hear this song. I always think of it as like, a total recollection of the memories of a relationship that just didn't happen to work out- not as a really sad breakup song. Not just the good memories are recalled, the bad ones are too, but to me it seems like the narrator was happy the relationship took place as opposed to wishing it had never happened.