"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.
have you ever had a dream
that your favorite baby's drowning
and you grab him by his sweater sleeve and pull him up on to the ground and
you can hear the water slosh around inside his tiny gut
push his belly up and down but he can't cough the water up
suddenly a flood comes out his mouth till there is nothing left inside of him
he's empty now
there isn't even one small breath
and he goes limp in your arms
all the people's mouths are moving
all you hear are car alarms
and you wake up and start to cry
I will lose my shit if even one more person I know dies
so please don't die
my mom's sick she's in a hospital bed
I've got a word for all you ghosts in her head
and all you skeletons in her closet
leave her alone
leave her alone
leave her alone, please
because my mom needs you gone
my mom needs you gone
as long as she is haunted she'll never get strong
my mom needs you gone
you traded all your paper clips for a soap dish that way
your best friend's rubber ducky wouldn't slip and slide away
but he traded his rubber duck for a cigar box to place your paper clips in
Mr. Hooper came to say
"oh my dear friends Bert and Ernie
here's a little something for each of you from me
here are your paper clips and here's your rubber ducky
how could I ignore such selfless generosity?"
the human body's made up of good and bad bacteria
but the antibiotics and the antibacterials are killing all the good ones
and the bad ones just get stronger and become super infections
it's harder to destroy them and it's harder to detect them
and there's something in her blood
and there's something in her leg
and there's something in her brain
my mom's sick she's in a hospital bed
I've got a word for all you ghosts in her head
and all you skeletons in her closet
leave her alone
leave her alone
leave her alone
leave her alone
leave her alone
leave her alone
leave her alone, please
because my mom needs you gone
my mom needs you gone
as long as she is haunted she'll never get strong
my mom needs you gone
my mom needs you gone
my mom needs you gone
my mom needs you gone
that your favorite baby's drowning
and you grab him by his sweater sleeve and pull him up on to the ground and
you can hear the water slosh around inside his tiny gut
push his belly up and down but he can't cough the water up
suddenly a flood comes out his mouth till there is nothing left inside of him
he's empty now
there isn't even one small breath
and he goes limp in your arms
all the people's mouths are moving
all you hear are car alarms
and you wake up and start to cry
I will lose my shit if even one more person I know dies
so please don't die
my mom's sick she's in a hospital bed
I've got a word for all you ghosts in her head
and all you skeletons in her closet
leave her alone
leave her alone
leave her alone, please
because my mom needs you gone
my mom needs you gone
as long as she is haunted she'll never get strong
my mom needs you gone
you traded all your paper clips for a soap dish that way
your best friend's rubber ducky wouldn't slip and slide away
but he traded his rubber duck for a cigar box to place your paper clips in
Mr. Hooper came to say
"oh my dear friends Bert and Ernie
here's a little something for each of you from me
here are your paper clips and here's your rubber ducky
how could I ignore such selfless generosity?"
the human body's made up of good and bad bacteria
but the antibiotics and the antibacterials are killing all the good ones
and the bad ones just get stronger and become super infections
it's harder to destroy them and it's harder to detect them
and there's something in her blood
and there's something in her leg
and there's something in her brain
my mom's sick she's in a hospital bed
I've got a word for all you ghosts in her head
and all you skeletons in her closet
leave her alone
leave her alone
leave her alone
leave her alone
leave her alone
leave her alone
leave her alone, please
because my mom needs you gone
my mom needs you gone
as long as she is haunted she'll never get strong
my mom needs you gone
my mom needs you gone
my mom needs you gone
my mom needs you gone
Lyrics submitted by nervous tic
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Mental Istid
Ebba Grön
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
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Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
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.
whats it mean? theres so much going on, i want to know what this song means. its beautiful and ominous.