"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.
Most folks spend their days daydreaming of finding clues
My whole life I've been here at the train station shining shoes
I started when I was nine, on my own and taught myself
No complaints, I'm doing pretty good and I got my health
Memories and callouses, my hearing's probably next to go
Sometimes I do a little handywork for extra dough
But mostly this here is how I spend my time
And I've perfected a technique I call the dry shine
Some guys use lots of water on the shoe but then when it's out in the open air
The shine is gone in 10 minutes
That whole approach to the job is dumb, in fact
Dollars to donuts, that customer won't be coming back
This is the most common mistake of the amateurs
Going for big numbers to satisfy their managers
Anyway, the dry shine, the first thing I mean to do
And this part is very important
I clean the shoe: the residue and old polish
To keep a shoe from being ruined all you need to do is use a rag with some cleaning fluid
If the shoe's all caked up with gunk you need to think
The shoe can't breathe and that's what causes the feet to stink
They took Carfoine off the market, I believe
It was a few years ago, 'cause that leather couldn't breathe
Now once you've cleaned the shoe and it's dried
Your base coat of polish can now be applied
Then you brush, 'cause what that tends to do
Is clean the shoe a little more and gets rid of the residue
And then you do the second coat just like the first one
You brush it, you rag it, and voila, your work is done
And that's it
You treat each shoe like it's special
Care about your work, and be a professional
There's a right way to go about your job and a wrong one
I find this way is much better in the long run
It ain't about the dollar or trying to go fast
Unless you take pride in what you're doing you won't last
Craftsmanship is a quality that some lack
You got to give people a reason for them to come back
The world's a different place than what I was introduced to
They don't wear shineable shoes like they used to
Casual clothes in the office, what is this?
The villain in sneakers is killing my business
My whole life I've been here at the train station shining shoes
I started when I was nine, on my own and taught myself
No complaints, I'm doing pretty good and I got my health
Memories and callouses, my hearing's probably next to go
Sometimes I do a little handywork for extra dough
But mostly this here is how I spend my time
And I've perfected a technique I call the dry shine
Some guys use lots of water on the shoe but then when it's out in the open air
The shine is gone in 10 minutes
That whole approach to the job is dumb, in fact
Dollars to donuts, that customer won't be coming back
This is the most common mistake of the amateurs
Going for big numbers to satisfy their managers
Anyway, the dry shine, the first thing I mean to do
And this part is very important
I clean the shoe: the residue and old polish
To keep a shoe from being ruined all you need to do is use a rag with some cleaning fluid
If the shoe's all caked up with gunk you need to think
The shoe can't breathe and that's what causes the feet to stink
They took Carfoine off the market, I believe
It was a few years ago, 'cause that leather couldn't breathe
Now once you've cleaned the shoe and it's dried
Your base coat of polish can now be applied
Then you brush, 'cause what that tends to do
Is clean the shoe a little more and gets rid of the residue
And then you do the second coat just like the first one
You brush it, you rag it, and voila, your work is done
And that's it
You treat each shoe like it's special
Care about your work, and be a professional
There's a right way to go about your job and a wrong one
I find this way is much better in the long run
It ain't about the dollar or trying to go fast
Unless you take pride in what you're doing you won't last
Craftsmanship is a quality that some lack
You got to give people a reason for them to come back
The world's a different place than what I was introduced to
They don't wear shineable shoes like they used to
Casual clothes in the office, what is this?
The villain in sneakers is killing my business
Lyrics submitted by geekusa
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
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
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.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
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.