"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.
Let’s make this complicated
Thinking is overrated
We’re busting out
Of this shitty little town
Green grass and colored lenses
Tear down these picket fences
Burn in our beds
While the city lies sleeping
Why oh why?
Are we starting up and going down?
My oh my
Just the two of us in Nothingtown
Our superhero play
We’ll leave this town today
Hold on tighter
With my lighter
Shining through
These city streets are burning
Rose red your wheels are turning
Make me believe
Someday we could really leave
Blindfold a new direction
Stop asking better questions
Don’t figure out
That we’re never getting out
Why oh why?
Are we starting up and going down?
My oh my
Just the two of us in Nothingtown
Our superhero play
We’ll leave this town today
And I’ll row it if you steer it
I’ll yell until you hear it
Hold on tighter
With my lighter
Shining through
Why oh why?
Are we starting up and going down?
My oh my
Just the two of us in Nothingtown
Our superhero play
Our dreams get in the way
And I’ll row it if you steer it
I’ll yell until you hear it
Hold on tighter
With my lighter
Shining through
Still stuck in Nothingtown
Still stuck in Nothingtown
Come on let’s go
Thinking is overrated
We’re busting out
Of this shitty little town
Green grass and colored lenses
Tear down these picket fences
Burn in our beds
While the city lies sleeping
Why oh why?
Are we starting up and going down?
My oh my
Just the two of us in Nothingtown
Our superhero play
We’ll leave this town today
Hold on tighter
With my lighter
Shining through
These city streets are burning
Rose red your wheels are turning
Make me believe
Someday we could really leave
Blindfold a new direction
Stop asking better questions
Don’t figure out
That we’re never getting out
Why oh why?
Are we starting up and going down?
My oh my
Just the two of us in Nothingtown
Our superhero play
We’ll leave this town today
And I’ll row it if you steer it
I’ll yell until you hear it
Hold on tighter
With my lighter
Shining through
Why oh why?
Are we starting up and going down?
My oh my
Just the two of us in Nothingtown
Our superhero play
Our dreams get in the way
And I’ll row it if you steer it
I’ll yell until you hear it
Hold on tighter
With my lighter
Shining through
Still stuck in Nothingtown
Still stuck in Nothingtown
Come on let’s go
Lyrics submitted by jbond311
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Fast Car
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This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
No Surprises
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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.
Magical
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
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.
Hold on tighter With my lighter Shining through
my guess is that the lighter is pretty much saying, i haven't got much to shine any light with, but i do have this lighter and we'll try to make it through with what little we have
I agree about the two friends, but I think it's about them dreaming of leaving wherever they live but not doing anything about it and just tolerating living there.
I think it's about living in a Nothingtown, and just wanting to get out, move somewhere else, experience new things, and make something of yourself.
I relate to that. I live in a Nothingtown. Population: 430. Student Enrollment at our only school (k-12): 180.
I think it's about two friends, who smoke weed all day, making lots of talk about quitting and making something of their lifes.
But they are just in denial, not wanting to see the truth that they won't ever change:
"Blindfold a new direction Stop asking better questions Don’t figure out That we’re never getting out"
yea, yea, i agree.
this song is the most awesomest song on the album. i love the part:
Hold on tighter With my lighter Shining through
it makes me wanna sing along. hehe.
I live in a "Nothingtown", on a city that always seems to be sleeping. I kinda understand the feeling of escaping the city, dreaming of having a life in a city that offers you what you want, but at the same time, because of usual problems like health or money, you can't escape and must tolerate living here, a little more time.
Hopefully, I'll escape my Nothingtown next year, but this song it's so freaking close to my reality that I like to "understand" it this way.
This sounds like Want You Bad lol, as well as ripping green day off, they rip themselves. haha
No one needs to hear the opinion of some dick shit who has nothing better to do than insult the Offspring. GTFO
I lived in a real-life version of Nothingtown before - Missoula, Montana. Believe me, this song is dead on the money. It's about the townies, the kids that talk about busting out of their safe, dull little slice of suburbia, but never will.
The "Hold on tighter/With my lighter" suggests either smoking or good ol' fashioned ganja, but it's a bit vague. It could go either way.
Let's make this complicated Thinking is overrated We're busting out Of this shitty little town
THis stanza is reffering to a pair of friends who are tired of always being predictable, and they are sick of the small town life. THey want to leave because everyone thinks that they will be "lima losers" who stay in their hometown for the rest of their lives.
Green grass and colored lenses Tear down these picket fences Burn in our beds While the city lies sleeping
The friends are tired of all of the illusions of small town life. They could be classified as "disgusted" with how the people in this town live. They don't want to grow up to be like all of the people in their town.
Blindfold a new direction Stop asking better questions Don't figure out That we're never getting out
They are blindly leaving because no one has ever left before. They decided not to ask any questions because their fear is that they will never leave.
Why oh why? Are we starting up and going down? My oh my Just the two of us in Nothingtown Our superhero play We'll leave this town today And I'll row it if you steer it I'll yell until you hear it Hold on tighter With my lighter Shining through
They are pleading to know when they can leave, if they will leave, and why no one thinks they will never leave. They are only seen as their "lighter" (refering to the smoking type, but it could be a metaphor) which is a metaphor to everyone thinking that they are losers (using the connotation of a smoker as a loser who will never go anywhere in life). The fact that they are only seen as losers who will end up staying in town makes them feel hapless at the aspect of leaving.
Still stuck in Nothingtown Still stuck in Nothingtown Come on let's go
They are forever going to be stuck in that nothing town state, but they desperately want to leave.
I personally take this song as referring to a nothingtown as not a small town of less than 1000 people, but to a town where no one ever leaves. I live in one of these towns. People go to the only high school here, graduate, go to the only college around, get married, and end up having kids who go to the smae HS and go through the same life. I don't want to end up like these guys, and the couple I think of when I hear this song is the main singer and a person he met who possibly has left already and the singer is going to go meet up with that person.
Finding/reaching his "sempai's" place is the endgame. It's my endgame.