"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'm going to see some friends from out of state
The very trip you were supposed to take
A while ago
But it fell through
Like all of you
Like all of you
Thought I'd make the drive
But a free plane ride is in the air
And just like that my fear of it disappeared
Like all of you
Like all of you
And I look high and low for yesterday
High and low for you and I
High and low
Once I can see straight I might move
Somewhere cold
Seattle or the Bay area; to see your ghost
What's left of you
What's left of you
And I look high and low for yesterday
High and low for you and I
High and low
Found a letter from a man I might have met
Addressed to you
And I'll steal the words he ended with:
I miss you
And I do
Miss you
And I do
High and low for yesterday
High and low for you and I
High and low
The very trip you were supposed to take
A while ago
But it fell through
Like all of you
Like all of you
Thought I'd make the drive
But a free plane ride is in the air
And just like that my fear of it disappeared
Like all of you
Like all of you
And I look high and low for yesterday
High and low for you and I
High and low
Once I can see straight I might move
Somewhere cold
Seattle or the Bay area; to see your ghost
What's left of you
What's left of you
And I look high and low for yesterday
High and low for you and I
High and low
Found a letter from a man I might have met
Addressed to you
And I'll steal the words he ended with:
I miss you
And I do
Miss you
And I do
High and low for yesterday
High and low for you and I
High and low
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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"
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
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.
Thanks wolf cub. You bring up a good point. I went through the verses and put what I have down now.
Verse 1 "I'm going to see some friends from out of state. The very trip that you were suppose to take a while ago, but it fell through. Like all of you, like all of you."
She was going to see friends, but somehow didn't get to see them. Now he must see them to tell them of her passing.
Verse 2 "Thought I'd make the drive, but a free plane ride is in the air and just like that my fear of it disappeared. Like all of you, like all of you."
A plane ride is discounted or free in cases of bereavement. His fear of flying disappears like how she disappears from his life.
Chorus "And I look high and low for yesterday. High and low for you and I high and low."
He is remembering the memories and old times he had with her.
Verse 4 "Once I can see straight I might move somewhere cold. Seattle or the Bay area to see your ghost. What's left of you. What's left of you."
He can't see straight because tears blur the vision. What's left of her is in him, and he is moving somewhere cold so he can see his breath in the air. Breathing is needed for life, and she is his breath. So being able to see the condensing of his breath, is in someway seeing her. This might seem a little far fetched, but I think it fits well.
Verse 5 "Found a letter from a man I might have met addressed to you, and I'll steal the words he ended with, 'I miss you, and I do. I miss you, and I do.'"
When he is going through her belongings, he finds a letter she kept that he wrote for her. It was a love letter talking about how he wants to be with her, but now the letter to him means he misses her and needs her more than before. He "might have met" because he is in a different state in his life than he was when he originally wrote the letter.
Some parts of this might seem a bit reaching, but with this the song seems to be more meaningful to me. It's a great song.