"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.
Stable fortress
What makes the boundless stand on a pin?
For saturnine blue torches downed in size
Subterranean forests
Move outwards by design
Consider
A diamond’s view of time
Can see more ways
We’re offering a new power
Stop sheltering a doomed flower
That’s not what we’re meant to be made of
Swallowed Saturn under the terms of our imprisonment
To arrest in a new form ‘till the shadow of him covered every good limit
No more narrow cage to gild
Don’t let the stable fortress come to nothing
If you want to be
You can free any form you love
We put a ban on poetry and growing things
To see the seasons we’ve been sweeping
Under Saturn’s hair
We’ve been sweeping seasons
Asleep,
All the kings are out on ant hills
So don’t let this come to nothing
Come taste
Our strong sense of will
All bets on the table trumping a visit with a death by inches
Of what a win – win game of will is
Come in Sally and sing
Under the stars, say no to sleep
For those who wish to be they can free any form they love
Stop putting bans on poetry
And sweeping seasons,
Holding pins
With the weight of the world.
What makes the boundless stand on a pin?
For saturnine blue torches downed in size
Subterranean forests
Move outwards by design
Consider
A diamond’s view of time
Can see more ways
We’re offering a new power
Stop sheltering a doomed flower
That’s not what we’re meant to be made of
Swallowed Saturn under the terms of our imprisonment
To arrest in a new form ‘till the shadow of him covered every good limit
No more narrow cage to gild
Don’t let the stable fortress come to nothing
If you want to be
You can free any form you love
We put a ban on poetry and growing things
To see the seasons we’ve been sweeping
Under Saturn’s hair
We’ve been sweeping seasons
Asleep,
All the kings are out on ant hills
So don’t let this come to nothing
Come taste
Our strong sense of will
All bets on the table trumping a visit with a death by inches
Of what a win – win game of will is
Come in Sally and sing
Under the stars, say no to sleep
For those who wish to be they can free any form they love
Stop putting bans on poetry
And sweeping seasons,
Holding pins
With the weight of the world.
Lyrics submitted by Erilis
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Personally, I'd like this song to be nonsensical. It's how I like to think about it while being absolutely enchanted by Melissa Kaplan's flawless voice and the strange harmonies that just give me the shivers. The words create more a feeling than real meaning and I enjoy it very much.
However, the lyrics didn't let go of me, so here is what makes just a little bit of sense to me.
One thing I noticed was a reference to one of the other songs: " Come in Sally and sing Under the stars, say no to sleep" (see Sally's Song by Universal Hall Pass). This, along with the rest of the lyrics, might convince me that this is some sort of clash of religions - which ones, I am unable to tell (if I had to guess, the new religion might be Christianity, due to their history of overriding other religions while eradicating other cultures like the Inca). I would appreciate any thoughts on this. I don't recall Saturn (mentioned several times in the song) being of any importance in Inca mythology (because of the reference to Sally's Song), Saturn is more of a Roman god. In any way, I would see this as a new religion taking over ("We’re offering a new power Stop sheltering a doomed flower") while fighting the old dominant religion, restricting it ("We put a ban on poetry and growing things"). Because the latter fights back ("Come taste Our strong sense of will" and " So don’t let this come to nothing"). The last stanza might be a comment on freedom of religion (" For those who wish to be they can free any form they love"). While it is OK for religions to take over in some way, it is not OK to restrict another culture so severely (" Stop putting bans on poetry").
Still, I feel like I am mixing up so many things. I do not understand the song and I am very comfortable with that. An yet, I am curious as to what it actually means or what other ideas there are about the song.
I think Melissa's gift is taking on deep philosophical topics without coming off as pious. This song, to me (and I hope she reads this) is really about recognizing the nature of the universe.
As humans we like to think we have power (kings on ant hills) to imprison and free things.
Many beautiful things are created and freed under pressure/underground and when they surface or freed they just take another form of imprisonment. Diamonds grow underground are freed and then placed in a setting to represent forever (marriage is another form of imprisonment) theoretically.
We can free any form you like but is that to our growths benefit or is it detrimental.
Do we really have the power to imprison when and free anything? It's all relative.