"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.
It's mean, soldiers
Now let me put the streets down like steamrollers
With the CATS that push
40 oz. through the hood like King Cobras
See we sling soda
'Cause the extra four in the split is mixed
It's really 36
Used to buy toasters and clips
You can tighten your circle or boa constrict
While you was lighting your purple, I was over the scripts
See, I couldn't walk the walk, couldn't really talk the talk
Had to get my talk to properly explain my walk
'Cause this lack in talk had my walk looking off
Now I'm over the limp
Watch how they mugs drop when they see my Verbal's able
(That's the Usual)
When I was po' I was low
Now me and my Chaps cop Purple Label
It's Ralph Lauren on the rap laureate
Niggas brown nose, they are like "after him"
Runners at Interscope are not as Stoute as him
Please don't Interscope
It's gonna be a whole lot of Iovine and respirating
If I lean out this window with Irene
Niggas as tall as Yao Ming
With L-U-P-Emperor
Is the foundation's high beams and the antennas
It's so serious every time I write my John Hancock like
Could damn near see Detroit ( I see you )
Niggas is scared of heights
This is saran wrap and aluminum foil
Some potpourri, a little machine oil
I stack my paper and throw off my 6
This is top floor, better look out before
Pennies from heaven is the same as the semi from the second
And I reign supreme
Turn your umbrellas upside down
Did you even catch the change in theme?
Lupe to the F to the I to the A to the S to the C to the O
from the west side of the C to the H to to the I - C - A to the G to the O
This is gangsta man
And them niggas ain't Watts nor from his regime
Gangsta lean
Hats on tilt like these niggas ain't drop out the vending machine
You gotta put more money in
And I shake niggas up every time I drop a bar
(2 for 1)
It's horse in the Porsche and bricks in the box
Like mo' money them every time I cop a car
You see I'm a roller, right
So it might be a Rover, right
But every time I drop a 'r'
(Get off the streets)
It's "over" aite
Bet I be in the head like overnight
Like rollers, right
She the chauffeur, right
So I keep her sober
She don't get Fed Ex like overnight
I am Dolemite
All that gas can't help you but solar might
Just call on sun
Drop a 's'
Pick up an 'o'
Uno, put it all on "one"
Brace yourself like overbite
"For that quiet nigga that relocated down south
Coming back to floss"
Nigga get your molars right
Fix your grill
No plaque but a whole lot of cheese
This the drill
Mr. Chill
Gave me the green light like Yoda knife
So I'ma force my will
Like the Force I wield
Of course you will
Take my time
But weight behind only pertains
To that Porsche grill
It's snakes in the hood
Gotta watch for that Cobra bite
Let me see
There's snakes in the hood
A bird, a horse behind the grill
Something gator on the seat
And a fox behind the wheel
For achiever
My procedure's
To proceed at all cost
With no breather
I'm all walk
Rain, snow, or fever
I'm all coughs coming after your teacher
I'm on the ball like FIFA
Viva
Lupe Duce
Long live the leader
I remember I ain't have sneakers
It was welfare
Coming up for air is like
Whales there
Fila
But now I'm well here
I'm Shamu with twelve pair
And niggas wanna take me back to zero like tear fare
Well, my skill's clear
You Sea World
It's Braille here
I'm Bumpy Johnson I stick to the streets
Keep my dogs out in front of me
You see what I'm saying
And I push ki's wonderfully
This is gangsta, man
Now let me put the streets down like steamrollers
With the CATS that push
40 oz. through the hood like King Cobras
See we sling soda
'Cause the extra four in the split is mixed
It's really 36
Used to buy toasters and clips
You can tighten your circle or boa constrict
While you was lighting your purple, I was over the scripts
See, I couldn't walk the walk, couldn't really talk the talk
Had to get my talk to properly explain my walk
'Cause this lack in talk had my walk looking off
Now I'm over the limp
Watch how they mugs drop when they see my Verbal's able
(That's the Usual)
When I was po' I was low
Now me and my Chaps cop Purple Label
It's Ralph Lauren on the rap laureate
Niggas brown nose, they are like "after him"
Runners at Interscope are not as Stoute as him
Please don't Interscope
It's gonna be a whole lot of Iovine and respirating
If I lean out this window with Irene
Niggas as tall as Yao Ming
With L-U-P-Emperor
Is the foundation's high beams and the antennas
It's so serious every time I write my John Hancock like
Could damn near see Detroit ( I see you )
Niggas is scared of heights
This is saran wrap and aluminum foil
Some potpourri, a little machine oil
I stack my paper and throw off my 6
This is top floor, better look out before
Pennies from heaven is the same as the semi from the second
And I reign supreme
Turn your umbrellas upside down
Did you even catch the change in theme?
Lupe to the F to the I to the A to the S to the C to the O
from the west side of the C to the H to to the I - C - A to the G to the O
This is gangsta man
And them niggas ain't Watts nor from his regime
Gangsta lean
Hats on tilt like these niggas ain't drop out the vending machine
You gotta put more money in
And I shake niggas up every time I drop a bar
(2 for 1)
It's horse in the Porsche and bricks in the box
Like mo' money them every time I cop a car
You see I'm a roller, right
So it might be a Rover, right
But every time I drop a 'r'
(Get off the streets)
It's "over" aite
Bet I be in the head like overnight
Like rollers, right
She the chauffeur, right
So I keep her sober
She don't get Fed Ex like overnight
I am Dolemite
All that gas can't help you but solar might
Just call on sun
Drop a 's'
Pick up an 'o'
Uno, put it all on "one"
Brace yourself like overbite
"For that quiet nigga that relocated down south
Coming back to floss"
Nigga get your molars right
Fix your grill
No plaque but a whole lot of cheese
This the drill
Mr. Chill
Gave me the green light like Yoda knife
So I'ma force my will
Like the Force I wield
Of course you will
Take my time
But weight behind only pertains
To that Porsche grill
It's snakes in the hood
Gotta watch for that Cobra bite
Let me see
There's snakes in the hood
A bird, a horse behind the grill
Something gator on the seat
And a fox behind the wheel
For achiever
My procedure's
To proceed at all cost
With no breather
I'm all walk
Rain, snow, or fever
I'm all coughs coming after your teacher
I'm on the ball like FIFA
Viva
Lupe Duce
Long live the leader
I remember I ain't have sneakers
It was welfare
Coming up for air is like
Whales there
Fila
But now I'm well here
I'm Shamu with twelve pair
And niggas wanna take me back to zero like tear fare
Well, my skill's clear
You Sea World
It's Braille here
I'm Bumpy Johnson I stick to the streets
Keep my dogs out in front of me
You see what I'm saying
And I push ki's wonderfully
This is gangsta, man
Lyrics submitted by ak1ra07
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
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.
American Town
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.
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.
some of his best punchline raps here.