"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 used to get high for a living
Believing everything that I saw on the TV
I used to get high for a living
Eating all the bullshit food that they sold me
I used to get high for a living
Thinking that my destiny was out of my control
I used to get high for a living
There's lots of different reasons and I'll tell you so
Super size, large fries, Big Mac, Coca Cola
Go on man, pick your poison
Speed, weed, ecstasy, LSD
Man, it don't bother me cos we're all on something
Caffeine, cigarettes, alcohol
You know I'm clawing at the walls trying to get my fix
Prozac, ADD tablets, coke, smack
Now, you know I am turning tricks 'cause
I used to get high for a living
Believing everything that I saw on my TV
I used to get high for a living
Eating all the bullshit food that they sold me
Yeah, that they sold me
Escape, can't wait all trying to get away
From this place man that we're feeling
Can't deal, can't feel what's real
All trying to conceal all this time we're stealing
No doubt, the route you're on
Can't find the clout that you've been needing
'Til then my friend you must contend
With the monster that you're feeding
I used to get high for a living
Believing everything that I saw on my TV
I used to get high for a living
Eating all the bullshit food that they sold me
I used to get high for a living
Thinking that my destiny was out of my control
I used to get high for a living
There's lots of different reasons and I'll tell you so
Got links of the Cheney
Getting crazy, getting lazy with their foreign relations
Starting wars, closing doors
Trying to bring about one quicker man, revelations
Economic, rational, calling fouls with the workers
Just trying to make it pay
Cost cutting, head butting, big business
Do what they like and you do what they say
What's wrong get along, just prolong all the thoughts
You got going on, on the inside
Appease, stand at ease, just try to please
All the apathy that you're trying to hide
How now, brown cow
Did we get from this standing place
And now we're kneeling
'Til then my friend you must contend
With the monster that you're feeding
I used to get high for a living
Believing everything that I saw on my TV
I used to get high for a living
Eating all the bullshit food that they sold me
I used to get high for a living
Thinking that my destiny was out of my control
I used to get high for a living
There's lots of different reasons and I'll tell you so
I used to get high for a living
I used to get high
I used to get high for
I used to get high
I used to get high for
I used to get high oh oh
I used to get high for
I used to get high
I used to get high for a living
Believing everything that I saw on my TV
I used to get high for a living
Eating all the bullshit food that they sold me
I used to get high for a living
Thinking that my destiny was out of my control
I used to get high for a living
There's lots of different reasons and I'll tell you so
Believing everything that I saw on the TV
I used to get high for a living
Eating all the bullshit food that they sold me
I used to get high for a living
Thinking that my destiny was out of my control
I used to get high for a living
There's lots of different reasons and I'll tell you so
Super size, large fries, Big Mac, Coca Cola
Go on man, pick your poison
Speed, weed, ecstasy, LSD
Man, it don't bother me cos we're all on something
Caffeine, cigarettes, alcohol
You know I'm clawing at the walls trying to get my fix
Prozac, ADD tablets, coke, smack
Now, you know I am turning tricks 'cause
I used to get high for a living
Believing everything that I saw on my TV
I used to get high for a living
Eating all the bullshit food that they sold me
Yeah, that they sold me
Escape, can't wait all trying to get away
From this place man that we're feeling
Can't deal, can't feel what's real
All trying to conceal all this time we're stealing
No doubt, the route you're on
Can't find the clout that you've been needing
'Til then my friend you must contend
With the monster that you're feeding
I used to get high for a living
Believing everything that I saw on my TV
I used to get high for a living
Eating all the bullshit food that they sold me
I used to get high for a living
Thinking that my destiny was out of my control
I used to get high for a living
There's lots of different reasons and I'll tell you so
Got links of the Cheney
Getting crazy, getting lazy with their foreign relations
Starting wars, closing doors
Trying to bring about one quicker man, revelations
Economic, rational, calling fouls with the workers
Just trying to make it pay
Cost cutting, head butting, big business
Do what they like and you do what they say
What's wrong get along, just prolong all the thoughts
You got going on, on the inside
Appease, stand at ease, just try to please
All the apathy that you're trying to hide
How now, brown cow
Did we get from this standing place
And now we're kneeling
'Til then my friend you must contend
With the monster that you're feeding
I used to get high for a living
Believing everything that I saw on my TV
I used to get high for a living
Eating all the bullshit food that they sold me
I used to get high for a living
Thinking that my destiny was out of my control
I used to get high for a living
There's lots of different reasons and I'll tell you so
I used to get high for a living
I used to get high
I used to get high for
I used to get high
I used to get high for
I used to get high oh oh
I used to get high for
I used to get high
I used to get high for a living
Believing everything that I saw on my TV
I used to get high for a living
Eating all the bullshit food that they sold me
I used to get high for a living
Thinking that my destiny was out of my control
I used to get high for a living
There's lots of different reasons and I'll tell you so
Lyrics submitted by MattyB, edited by Mellow_Harsher
Used To Get High Lyrics as written by John Wiltshire-butler
Lyrics © Spirit Music Group, Downtown Music Publishing
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
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”
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
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.
Head > Heels
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Head > Heels” is a track that aims to capture what it feels like to experience romance that exceeds expectations. Ed Sheeran dedicates his album outro to a lover who has blessed him with a unique experience that he seeks to describe through the song’s nuanced lyrics.
Well, I really don't see how this song is a disgrace. This is pretty political. This is not a song about drug abuse.
The drug use is just a metaphor for how we're addicted to the propaganda machine of the government. We always believe the bullshit we're told on the tv. ("I used to get high for a living. Believing everything that i saw on my tv") We've given up our freedom to the corporate giants ("Big business do what they like and you do what they say"), and we don't even know it. ("How now brown cow/Did we get from this standing place.../And now we're kneeling")
This is a song about the little man being subservient to those corporate giants and governments controlling our lives, and just like addiction, we try to convince ourselves it's no problem, that we chose this, and it's a life we wanna lead. ("Appease, stand at ease, just try to please All the apathy that you're trying to hide") Meanwhile, we're letting those corporate suits and governments get away with committing atrocities. ("Got links of the cheney Getting crazy, getting lazy with their foreign relations Starting wars, closing doors Trying to bring about one quicker, man, revelations Economic rational calling fouls with the workers Just trying to make it pay")
I'd say JB is trying to tell us he's realised the governments and corporates are poisonous, corrupt, full of greed, and generally are hurting the world. And it's time for us, as the people, to stand up and stop them.
What do other people think? Noone has really expressed their thoughts on what the song is about...
Amen! This is a perfect eplanation of the song meaning!<br /> You're wonderful :)