"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.
Wash away what we create
My sins like funny calls you make
Teen creeps I've seen you on my street
Teen creeps get what they want and me
I won't end up like them at all
This town will take you kissing trees
Before you see the forest bleed
Teen creeps I've tried to hold it back
So let me leave your welcome mat
I won't end up like them at all
Wash away what we create
I hate you more I hate this place
I know why I feel this way
Teen creeps please don't leave me dead, dead this way
My sins like funny calls you make
Teen creeps I've seen you on my street
Teen creeps get what they want and me
I won't end up like them at all
This town will take you kissing trees
Before you see the forest bleed
Teen creeps I've tried to hold it back
So let me leave your welcome mat
I won't end up like them at all
Wash away what we create
I hate you more I hate this place
I know why I feel this way
Teen creeps please don't leave me dead, dead this way
Lyrics submitted by mlincoln
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
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.
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.
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.
I think this song is about not wanting to be engulfed in the teen subculture when your in high school because you don't want to end up like the cashier at Safeway with the heroin addict boyfriend. You think you can do bigger and better things than the people around you because as soon as the novelty of drinking and doing drugs wears off you see the reality of it and it scares you so you convince yourself that you won't end up like the 'teen creeps'.
Elitist comment # 4,448,996. Go grow a soul. <br /> <br /> Great song.
helenkeller has it right.
"because you don't want to end up like the cashier at Safeway with the heroin addict boyfriend." - Yeah, I know; gross, right? I personally think we should gather up every individual with a drug problem, put them in concentration camps and execute them one by one.<br /> <br /> Why does 'Teen Creeps' immediately imply drug subculture? To me, this song is tapping into the idea of 'Teen Creeps' being the kind of person in high school who is so concerned with status and image that they live their life based off the cultures ideals rather than cultivating their own sense of morality and individuality. What does doing "bigger and better things" even me in relation to another person's life? Do you think your doing something more "meaningful"? Even if that construct existed amongst humans the people that were truly evolved would be past the point of judging other people for the personal decisions they made with their life. No Age don't strike me as a band that would make individual judgment calls but collective judgment calls; they're attacking the conformity complex that exists amongst the media and major corporations that attempt to make more money by creating an identity that everyone can attach themselves too. The 'Teen Creeps' are the people who are more concerned with appeasing society's ideals rather than their own; the people who would rather have their questions answered for them than do their own investigating. To me, No Age is more concerned with labeling people without an identity rather than the fear caused by feeling your wasting your life through drugs and alcohol and not making an honest, truthful attempt at cultivating your unique, personal potential.
I don't understand why you think the popular kids concerned with status would be seen hanging out in the street. It seems like you're just projecting your own opinions into this song.
"I don't understand why you think the popular kids concerned with status would be seen hanging out in the street. It seems like you're just projecting your own opinions into this song." - I don't even know how to respond to this. Isn't anybody who is attmepting to analyze a song simply projecting their own opinion onto it?
*attempting...