"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.
Boom bah bah,
Boom bah bah boom,
Twelve riders in the gloom
Seven show red and the rest are dead,
But the First Battalion's home.
Boom bah bah,
Boom bah bah boom,
You can hear the hoof beats boom,
The drums are low and the pace is slow,
But the First Battalion's home.
So run to your homes, Virginia gals
And fix your hair with pins
And give them wine and kisses,
But don't ask them where they've been.
Boom bah bah,
Boom bah bah boom,
And Richmond is their tomb,
There's a hundred still at Richmond,
Three hundred dead at Gettysburg,
And a hundred more we've never found,
But the First Battalion's home.
So hold him close and keep him warm
And hang his coat away
And don't you mind that spot of red,
That's spread in through the gray.
Boom bah bah,
Boom bah bah boom,
And Richmond is their tomb,
There's a hundred still at Richmond,
Three hundred dead at Gettysburg,
And a hundred more we've never found,
But the First Battalion's home.
Boom bah bah boom,
Twelve riders in the gloom
Seven show red and the rest are dead,
But the First Battalion's home.
Boom bah bah,
Boom bah bah boom,
You can hear the hoof beats boom,
The drums are low and the pace is slow,
But the First Battalion's home.
So run to your homes, Virginia gals
And fix your hair with pins
And give them wine and kisses,
But don't ask them where they've been.
Boom bah bah,
Boom bah bah boom,
And Richmond is their tomb,
There's a hundred still at Richmond,
Three hundred dead at Gettysburg,
And a hundred more we've never found,
But the First Battalion's home.
So hold him close and keep him warm
And hang his coat away
And don't you mind that spot of red,
That's spread in through the gray.
Boom bah bah,
Boom bah bah boom,
And Richmond is their tomb,
There's a hundred still at Richmond,
Three hundred dead at Gettysburg,
And a hundred more we've never found,
But the First Battalion's home.
Lyrics submitted by knate15
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Fast Car
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I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
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“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.