"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.
when my life goes down the drain
and i got no one left to blame
and i'll always have this pain
sick of playin this old game
woah my head is swollen
and im sore with bloodshot eyes
i got this reposession
such a thorn up in my side
come on down the price is high
we'll take away your dreams
steal up all your money
along with your dignity
and it gets so rough...
when my life goes down the drain
and i got no one left to blame
and i'll always have this pain
sick of playin this old game
poppin pills dont pay the bills
cant smoke it all away
cant press rewind cant change time
im livin it day to day
no walkin to the bank today
dont answer my telephone
i know its the blood-sucking leeches
the bill-collecting greedy hos
and it gets so rough...
when my life goes down the drain
and i got no one left to blame
and i'll always have this pain
sick of playin this old game
so charge it up, charge it up
aint got no cash today
and charge it up, charge it up
platic's the american way
and charge it up, charge it up
and got no cash today
and charge it up, charge it up
plastic's the american way
and it gets so rough...
when my life goes down the drain
and i got no one left to blame
and i'll always have this pain
sick of playin this old game
and i got no one left to blame
and i'll always have this pain
sick of playin this old game
woah my head is swollen
and im sore with bloodshot eyes
i got this reposession
such a thorn up in my side
come on down the price is high
we'll take away your dreams
steal up all your money
along with your dignity
and it gets so rough...
when my life goes down the drain
and i got no one left to blame
and i'll always have this pain
sick of playin this old game
poppin pills dont pay the bills
cant smoke it all away
cant press rewind cant change time
im livin it day to day
no walkin to the bank today
dont answer my telephone
i know its the blood-sucking leeches
the bill-collecting greedy hos
and it gets so rough...
when my life goes down the drain
and i got no one left to blame
and i'll always have this pain
sick of playin this old game
so charge it up, charge it up
aint got no cash today
and charge it up, charge it up
platic's the american way
and charge it up, charge it up
and got no cash today
and charge it up, charge it up
plastic's the american way
and it gets so rough...
when my life goes down the drain
and i got no one left to blame
and i'll always have this pain
sick of playin this old game
Lyrics submitted by ballyhoo21
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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Lord Huron
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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"
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This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
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Ed Sheeran
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