"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.
The more delicate the task
You find the shakier the hand
You try to undersand and fight it
All that you need
Has brought you to your knees
Trembling with greed still you fight it
And it's funny how the darkest things
You only find when you've been searching
Don't back down from what you need
Guiltiness it only makes you mean
When you're alone would you put your hands
Through the camera lens to reach her?
Behind the screen does she call your name
When you hear it through the stream
Do you fight it?
And it's funny how the darkest things
You only find the light you bring
Don't back down from what you need
Guiltiness it only makes you mean
So here we are
Lovers in the room breathing oxygen
Still you fight it
Well come move my hands
I will not breakdown
Or turn into a pop-up advertisement
And it's funny how the darkest things
You only find when you've been searching
Don't back down from what you need
Guiltiness it only makes you mean
And it's funny how the darkest things
You only find when you've been searching
Don't back down from what you need
Guiltiness it only makes you mean
I'd have waited a lifetime for a sign
Only to fall apart when love arrives
But we're coming home
We're coming home
We're coming home
You find the shakier the hand
You try to undersand and fight it
All that you need
Has brought you to your knees
Trembling with greed still you fight it
And it's funny how the darkest things
You only find when you've been searching
Don't back down from what you need
Guiltiness it only makes you mean
When you're alone would you put your hands
Through the camera lens to reach her?
Behind the screen does she call your name
When you hear it through the stream
Do you fight it?
And it's funny how the darkest things
You only find the light you bring
Don't back down from what you need
Guiltiness it only makes you mean
So here we are
Lovers in the room breathing oxygen
Still you fight it
Well come move my hands
I will not breakdown
Or turn into a pop-up advertisement
And it's funny how the darkest things
You only find when you've been searching
Don't back down from what you need
Guiltiness it only makes you mean
And it's funny how the darkest things
You only find when you've been searching
Don't back down from what you need
Guiltiness it only makes you mean
I'd have waited a lifetime for a sign
Only to fall apart when love arrives
But we're coming home
We're coming home
We're coming home
Lyrics submitted by MixedUpConfusion
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
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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.
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.
I think the title and lyric 'Darkest Things' means the loneliness and pain of two people who were in love, but arn't together now, and how they stayed in the darkness of not being together because thats the only thing of the other person that they still could hold onto. I think the song in general about two former lovers who haven't been in touch for a lonth tg time, haven't seen each other in a while. But they are in the same room now, neither one will back down from what they want, from each other. They both take blame for the things that have happened that resulted in them not being together, how she fell apart when he, her true love arrived. But the song and album ends with them reconciling, it ends with them going home.