"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.
People are puppets held together with string
There's a beautiful sadness that runs through him
As he asked me to pray to the God he doesn't believe in
Time and again boys are raised to be men
Impatient they start, fearful at the end
But here was a man mourning tomorrow
He drank, but finally drowned in his sorrow
He could not break surface tension
He looked in the wrong place for redemption
Don't look at me with those eyes
I tried to unheave the ties
Turn back the time that drew him
But he couldn't be saved
A sadness runs through him
Through him
Time and again boys are raised to be men
Impatient they start, fearful at the end
But here was a man mourning tomorrow
Who drank, but finally drowned in his sorrow
He could not break surface tension
He looked in the wrong place for redemption
Don't look at me with those eyes
I tried to unheave the ties
Turn back the time that drew him
But he couldn't be saved
A sadness runs through him
Through him
Don't look
Don't look
Don't don't
Don't look at me with those eyes
I tried to unheave the ties
Turn back the time that drew him
But he couldn't be saved
No he couldn't be saved
A sadness runs through him
A sadness runs through him
A sadness runs through him
A sadness runs through him
A sadness runs through him
There's a beautiful sadness that runs through him
As he asked me to pray to the God he doesn't believe in
Time and again boys are raised to be men
Impatient they start, fearful at the end
But here was a man mourning tomorrow
He drank, but finally drowned in his sorrow
He could not break surface tension
He looked in the wrong place for redemption
Don't look at me with those eyes
I tried to unheave the ties
Turn back the time that drew him
But he couldn't be saved
A sadness runs through him
Through him
Time and again boys are raised to be men
Impatient they start, fearful at the end
But here was a man mourning tomorrow
Who drank, but finally drowned in his sorrow
He could not break surface tension
He looked in the wrong place for redemption
Don't look at me with those eyes
I tried to unheave the ties
Turn back the time that drew him
But he couldn't be saved
A sadness runs through him
Through him
Don't look
Don't look
Don't don't
Don't look at me with those eyes
I tried to unheave the ties
Turn back the time that drew him
But he couldn't be saved
No he couldn't be saved
A sadness runs through him
A sadness runs through him
A sadness runs through him
A sadness runs through him
A sadness runs through him
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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“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.
so what i think this song means is he was so excited to grow up and wanted to be an adult already. hence in the line "Time and again boys are raised to be men Impatient they start, fearful at the end". He then realized that being an adult isn't all its cut out to be. a lot of stuff goes down and he starts to get deppresed. He ends up trying to bring back his childhood as said in the line
"He could not break surface tension He looked in the wrong place for redemption Don't look at me with those eyes I tried to unheave the ties Turn back the time that drew him But he couldn't be saved A sadness runs through him Through him"
He tried to bring back his childhood and failed making him even more depressed. He tried to take off the ties and free his childhood but was forced to grow up sending sadness through him. this song is so sad.