"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.
Turn your eyes from the window
So you won't see this world
The walls are closing inward
There's nowhere left to turn
You want it, you need it, the words slip away
You're crying your eyes out, your mind wants to break
Your heart is your weakness, your song plays endlessly
Wonder how you sleep
All your houses crumble
Shadows begin to howl
There's spiders on the rooftops
The trapdoor is in ourselves
You want it, you need it, the words slip away
You're crying your eyes out, your mind wants to break
Your heart is your weakness, your song plays endlessly
Wonder how you sleep, it's a wonder to me
So how's it going to feel when you don't know what's real
You tell yourself it's love, then tear your insides up
So how's it going to feel when you don't know what's real
You tell yourself it's love, then tear yourself apart
Senses, all been fractured
The traitor's in your sights
The hour's spinning backwards
There's nowhere left to hide
You want it, you need it, the words slip away
You're crying your eyes out, your mind wants to break
Your heart is your weakness, your song plays endlessly
Wonder how you sleep, it's a wonder to me
So how's it going to feel when you don't know what's real'
You tell yourself it's love, then tear your insides up
So how's it going to feel when you don't know what's real'
You tell yourself it's love, then tear yourself apart
How many people must learn'
How many roads must you turn'
There's something hiding below
How many tears must you cry'
How many buried inside
Until you finally let go'
How many years must you fight'
How many stories survive
Until the tables will turn'
How many days must you brave'
How many years must you pay'
There's nothing left to let go
So you won't see this world
The walls are closing inward
There's nowhere left to turn
You want it, you need it, the words slip away
You're crying your eyes out, your mind wants to break
Your heart is your weakness, your song plays endlessly
Wonder how you sleep
All your houses crumble
Shadows begin to howl
There's spiders on the rooftops
The trapdoor is in ourselves
You want it, you need it, the words slip away
You're crying your eyes out, your mind wants to break
Your heart is your weakness, your song plays endlessly
Wonder how you sleep, it's a wonder to me
So how's it going to feel when you don't know what's real
You tell yourself it's love, then tear your insides up
So how's it going to feel when you don't know what's real
You tell yourself it's love, then tear yourself apart
Senses, all been fractured
The traitor's in your sights
The hour's spinning backwards
There's nowhere left to hide
You want it, you need it, the words slip away
You're crying your eyes out, your mind wants to break
Your heart is your weakness, your song plays endlessly
Wonder how you sleep, it's a wonder to me
So how's it going to feel when you don't know what's real'
You tell yourself it's love, then tear your insides up
So how's it going to feel when you don't know what's real'
You tell yourself it's love, then tear yourself apart
How many people must learn'
How many roads must you turn'
There's something hiding below
How many tears must you cry'
How many buried inside
Until you finally let go'
How many years must you fight'
How many stories survive
Until the tables will turn'
How many days must you brave'
How many years must you pay'
There's nothing left to let go
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
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.
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Magical
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
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.
Transit Pluto conjunct the Moon!