"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.
What do the men say
To the women when they lay down at night
All naked of arms from the old imagined fight?
And how do the women hear?
In kind and in likeness of light
"In kindness you needn't and neither do I
We are both of us capable of flight"
And as if to give proof
She jumped through the hole in the roof
What did the condemned say
To the blessed when they met on the path?
"O you take the low road and I'll take the high for a laugh
(but if I'm laughing now it's because I've a gentle heart)"
And because it was true
He slipped through the hole in the roof
La la la la,
La la la la la la...
From above your head a thing can be read that you're thinking...
What the secretaries sing and the CEO's bark in the bars
What do the dead say
To the ones who still think they're alive?
"With your heads all on backwards
You can't see in front for what near behind you lies"
"Well show us some help then
Above your head let it flicker the light
These ones that I'm with
Have not learned to forgive your necessary alibis
When they made you love money
And the poor prophet's stock
When they poisoned the watersheds
And fashioned our arrowheads
From the deep forbidden rock
O but did you see what people do?
And when you saw it you did it too
Now all your children are twice the size of you
And they come in at night through
The hole in your roof
The hole in your roof
The hole in your roof
The hole in your roof
To the women when they lay down at night
All naked of arms from the old imagined fight?
And how do the women hear?
In kind and in likeness of light
"In kindness you needn't and neither do I
We are both of us capable of flight"
And as if to give proof
She jumped through the hole in the roof
What did the condemned say
To the blessed when they met on the path?
"O you take the low road and I'll take the high for a laugh
(but if I'm laughing now it's because I've a gentle heart)"
And because it was true
He slipped through the hole in the roof
La la la la,
La la la la la la...
From above your head a thing can be read that you're thinking...
What the secretaries sing and the CEO's bark in the bars
What do the dead say
To the ones who still think they're alive?
"With your heads all on backwards
You can't see in front for what near behind you lies"
"Well show us some help then
Above your head let it flicker the light
These ones that I'm with
Have not learned to forgive your necessary alibis
When they made you love money
And the poor prophet's stock
When they poisoned the watersheds
And fashioned our arrowheads
From the deep forbidden rock
O but did you see what people do?
And when you saw it you did it too
Now all your children are twice the size of you
And they come in at night through
The hole in your roof
The hole in your roof
The hole in your roof
The hole in your roof
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Holiday
Bee Gees
Bee Gees
@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
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.
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.
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.
this could well be one of my favourite augie march songs. definatily the highlight of sunset studies.
although i dont know what it means.
this is one of my favourites on sunset studies too! second only to owens lament, im not sure what this one is about either. i think maybe about loss of innocence, or maybe about the bliss of ignorance or about wanting to understand something that you cant possibly understand until you've experienced it personally. ill have to think about it more.
It's definantly what alot of his songs are about...women..and their lives dealing with abuse.