"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.
There I was at the bus stop begging you just to stay
Can we work this out, baby we can work this out
A dust trail from a Greyhound headed for the West Coast
As I watch you leave, it's getting hard to breathe
No this ain't how it was supposed to be
While you're out chasing all your dreams
Tell me where does that leave me
What about the plans that you left behind
The little white house by the railway line
The one we picked out
We even put the payment down
What about the promise that you made
To stay with me till your dying day
Said you'd never go away
Are they just things that people say
Are they just things baby
The preacher stopped by the house last Tuesday
Asked if I was fine
We sat and talked a while
He tried to make me smile
But it's so hard to show my face round lately
In this small town
I guess they heard the news
'Bout me and you
It's three a.m. and I can't sleep at all
I wonder where you are tonight and do I ever cross your mind
What about the plans that you left behind
The little white house by the railway line
The one we picked out
We even put the payment down
What about the promise that you made
To stay with me till your dying day
Said you'd never go away
Are they just things that people say
Well my momma won't stop crying
She wonders what went wrong
Could I have loved a little deeper
Or did I hold on too strong
What about the plans that you left behind
The little white house by the railway line
The one we picked out
We even put the payment down
What about the promise that you made
To stay with me till your dying day
Said you'd never go away
Are they just things that people say
Are they just things baby
Can we work this out, baby we can work this out
A dust trail from a Greyhound headed for the West Coast
As I watch you leave, it's getting hard to breathe
No this ain't how it was supposed to be
While you're out chasing all your dreams
Tell me where does that leave me
What about the plans that you left behind
The little white house by the railway line
The one we picked out
We even put the payment down
What about the promise that you made
To stay with me till your dying day
Said you'd never go away
Are they just things that people say
Are they just things baby
The preacher stopped by the house last Tuesday
Asked if I was fine
We sat and talked a while
He tried to make me smile
But it's so hard to show my face round lately
In this small town
I guess they heard the news
'Bout me and you
It's three a.m. and I can't sleep at all
I wonder where you are tonight and do I ever cross your mind
What about the plans that you left behind
The little white house by the railway line
The one we picked out
We even put the payment down
What about the promise that you made
To stay with me till your dying day
Said you'd never go away
Are they just things that people say
Well my momma won't stop crying
She wonders what went wrong
Could I have loved a little deeper
Or did I hold on too strong
What about the plans that you left behind
The little white house by the railway line
The one we picked out
We even put the payment down
What about the promise that you made
To stay with me till your dying day
Said you'd never go away
Are they just things that people say
Are they just things baby
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
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”
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.
Another great song my Lady A. Glad to see they are getting bigger and bigger.