"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.
I took a flag to a pawn shop
For a broken guitar
I took a flag to a pawn shop
How much is that guitar
I took a flag to a pawn shop
I got me that guitar
What's a flag in a pawn shop to me?
I saw a man on the TV
In a mask with a gun
A man on the TV
He had a ten year old son
I saw a man on the TV
His son had a gun
And he says that he's coming for me
I never loved the soldier until there was a war
Or thought about tomorrow
'Til my baby hit the floor
I only talk to God when somebody's about to die
I never cherished freedom
Freedom never cries
I wrote a song for a dead man
To settle my soul
A song for a dead man
And now I'll never grow old
I wrote a song for a dead man
Now I'm out in the cold
What's a song to a dead man to me?
I never loved the soldier until there was a war
Or thought about tomorrow
'Til my baby hit the floor
I only talk to God when somebody's about to die
I never cherished freedom
Freedom never cries
You can cry for her
Die for her
Lay down your life for her
Kiss and wave goodbye to her
Anything at all
You can cry for her
Die for her
Make up your mind to her
Anything at all, oh
There's a baby on the doorstep
Wailing away
There's a baby on the doorstep
Longing for the day
There's a baby on the doorstep
Who'd give his life to take
A flag to a pawn shop
A flag to a pawn shop
May he forget why he is crying some day
For a broken guitar
I took a flag to a pawn shop
How much is that guitar
I took a flag to a pawn shop
I got me that guitar
What's a flag in a pawn shop to me?
I saw a man on the TV
In a mask with a gun
A man on the TV
He had a ten year old son
I saw a man on the TV
His son had a gun
And he says that he's coming for me
I never loved the soldier until there was a war
Or thought about tomorrow
'Til my baby hit the floor
I only talk to God when somebody's about to die
I never cherished freedom
Freedom never cries
I wrote a song for a dead man
To settle my soul
A song for a dead man
And now I'll never grow old
I wrote a song for a dead man
Now I'm out in the cold
What's a song to a dead man to me?
I never loved the soldier until there was a war
Or thought about tomorrow
'Til my baby hit the floor
I only talk to God when somebody's about to die
I never cherished freedom
Freedom never cries
You can cry for her
Die for her
Lay down your life for her
Kiss and wave goodbye to her
Anything at all
You can cry for her
Die for her
Make up your mind to her
Anything at all, oh
There's a baby on the doorstep
Wailing away
There's a baby on the doorstep
Longing for the day
There's a baby on the doorstep
Who'd give his life to take
A flag to a pawn shop
A flag to a pawn shop
May he forget why he is crying some day
Lyrics submitted by patriots122436
Freedom Never Cries Lyrics as written by John Ondrasik
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
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Page
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There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
The song is about how we have all this freedom, yet we don't even think about it and we take it for granted. "What's a flag in a pawn shop to me?" To you, someone who lives in a free country where you are able to take your nation's flag to a pawn shop and trade it for a guitar, the flag doesn't symbolize anything. It's just cloth.
To someone from somewhere else that isn't a "free" country (like the baby in the last verse. It's not a literal baby), it is an amazing thing. The "baby' would give anything to have the right to take his nation's flag to a pawn shop, but he can't because his country isn't free. "May he forget why he is crying/someday." May he one day have freedom and be able to forget about it and take it for granted one day as well.
Freedom never cries because if you have freedom then it is something that you don't think about, and if you don't have freedom then it can't cry because it doesn't exist to you.
The chorus is saying how a person can do all sorts of things FOR freedom, but freedom itself doesn't make itself known when you have it.