"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.
And they wandered in
From the city of St. John
Without a dime
Wearing coats that shined
Both red and green
Colors from their sunny island
From their boats of iron
They looked upon the promised land
Where surely life was sweet
On the rising tide
To New York City
Did they ride into the street
See the glory
Of the royal scam
They are hounded down
To the bottom of a bad town
Amid the ruins
Where they learn to fear
An angry race of fallen kings
Their dark companions
While the memory of
Their southern sky was clouded by
A savage winter
Every patron saint
Hung on the wall, shared the room
With twenty sinners
See the glory
Of the royal scam
By the blackened wall
He does it all
He thinks he's died and gone to heaven
Now the tale is told
By the old man back home
He reads the letter
How they are paid in gold
Just to babble in the back room
All night and waste their time
And they wandered in
From the city of St. John without a dime
See the glory
Of the royal scam
From the city of St. John
Without a dime
Wearing coats that shined
Both red and green
Colors from their sunny island
From their boats of iron
They looked upon the promised land
Where surely life was sweet
On the rising tide
To New York City
Did they ride into the street
See the glory
Of the royal scam
They are hounded down
To the bottom of a bad town
Amid the ruins
Where they learn to fear
An angry race of fallen kings
Their dark companions
While the memory of
Their southern sky was clouded by
A savage winter
Every patron saint
Hung on the wall, shared the room
With twenty sinners
See the glory
Of the royal scam
By the blackened wall
He does it all
He thinks he's died and gone to heaven
Now the tale is told
By the old man back home
He reads the letter
How they are paid in gold
Just to babble in the back room
All night and waste their time
And they wandered in
From the city of St. John without a dime
See the glory
Of the royal scam
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
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"
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.
Amazing
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran tells a story of unsuccessfully trying to feel “Amazing.” This track is about the being weighed down by emotional stress despite valiant attempts to find some positivity in the situation. This track was written by Ed Sheeran from the perspective of his friend. From the track, we see this person fall deeper into the negative thoughts and slide further down the path of mental torment with every lyric.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
lisalambchop 1 hr 31 min ago
Rated 0 The song is about the arrival of all the Puerto Ricans a few decades ago. (pun intended) The capitol if PR is San Juan which translstes to Saint John. They were told the streets were paved with gold (so to speak) But when they got to New York, it was not all it was cracked up to be. References include: "...wearing coats that shine boath red & green; colors from their sunny island" and "the memory of their Southern sky was clouded by a savage winter" "they are hounded down to the bottom of a bad town amid the ruins"
Adding to lisalambchop's comment: "...where they learn to fear an angry race of fallen kings" - the black population in NYC.<br /> <br /> Not sure, but "how they are paid in gold to babble in the back room..." reference to welfare? Either that or organized crime...<br />
@lisalambchop This is more a reply to Mumajor's comment. Isn't the "how they are paid in gold just to babble in the back room.." line actually a story that the immigrants tell in letters back home in order to "save face" or put a brave front on things? I think the song makes it clear that it's just a "tale" - "now the tale is told by the old man back home, he reads the letter". If you think of it like that then the song is even more poignant.
@lisalambchop I’m not saying anyone is wrong with their interpretation but when I first heard this song I imagined they were talking of people from Africa. However I have to admit that the timeline doesn’t fit. So I have to rethink my theory. The song could be about any of the poor and huddled masses that arrived but hat doesn’t really fit either. So after some lengthy thought I would have to agree that it is probably about the influx of Puerto Rican’s coming to America. Thank you for your time.
A Puerto Rican couple, or perhaps young family, leave San Juan to NYC in hopes of the American Dream. End up living in or near a black ghetto in overcrowded conditions One of them begins a heroin addiction. Ashamed to tell the truth, they write home with the same lies of riches that brought them there, perpeutating the cycle.
This is the most transparent and simple song on The Royal Scam album -- both lyrically and musically.
The first six songs on the Royal Scam album bounce between phenomenal and timeless -- the last three songs taper off, reaching mediocrity with this tune. But I gotta say there is not a bad song on any Steely Dan album before Gaucho.
Mediocrity? I would have to strongly disagree. I have never heard any chord progression like that before - the chords are simple, but it's quirky to say the least, and it makes for a very unsettling and driving effect. I've only ever heard a few other songs with such hidden anger and outrage as this.
You think 'Haitian Divorce' is mediocre??
Haitian Divorce is easily one of their best songs
@bnk87 Totally agree with SeeBread. This is a powerful song. The harmonies in the chorus are exquisite and the whole effect of the song is that of a forced march. The repetitions have a lot to do with that effect. If somebody claims this is the best song on the album, I would not object; there are many strong songs on this album.
@bnk87 it’s hard to call it mediocre as well as they deliver that depressed ghetto sound with the guitar and muted trumpet like a movie of that era.
I understand the attraction of Aja...its sophistication...complexity and musicianship. However, there is something about The Royal Scam...the hard edge...the guitars...the anger. Some of us believe that The Royal Scam represents the last of the old Dan...the change. Arguably, the best SD album of them all. -P
@PLA0242 Fagan said their last two albums of that decade were their best as far as achieving the sound and effect they wanted. Agreed that their lyrics lost some edginess, but to them their sound was as important (or more) than the lyrics. <br /> <br /> So it’s very subjective.
I saw on another site somebody mentioned that this might be about the Poor Palatines, so I looked into it and it seems to hold up. The titular "Royal Scam" is that Queen Anne promised to send them to the Americas but very few ever made it. Most were sent back where they came from or dispersed around England and Ireland. The "red and green colours" are from the flags of Rhineland and Westphalia where many of these people originated.
I think the 'Dan are drawing a comparison between the plight of these people with the later Puerto Rican immigrants, swapping the imagery back and forth both to show the similarities between the two stories, and so they could feel superior to all the people who couldn't figure out the weird non-PR references in the song.
@DanFan1625 <br /> Interesting idea. It would explain why it was a "Royal" scam.
@DanFan1625 Wow this seems spot on! I had to look up the Poor Palatines on wiki and this makes a lot of sense, hence the Royal reference. The Dan typically tell multiple stories in their songs, so this theory matched with the PR immigration theory definitely works! Nice find there
lisalambchop nailed it, methinks, with the San Juan interpretation. I had immigrants in general coming to the "land of opportunity" only to find their dreams broken, living oppressed and without hope in the bad part of town. They cycle repeats itself as they write letters home to put a good face on things.
Dang...these are some edgy lyrics:
"Where they learn to fear An angry race of fallen kings Their dark companions"
St. John could be San Juan, but if the song is already so literal, it could just as easily literally be "the city of St. John" on the island of St. John in the US Virgin Islands. The angry race of fallen kings, once again, a literal reference to the involuntary immigrants who were brought to the US centuries ago.
Far from mediocrity though. Probably one of the best "songs of (or perhaps more aptly about) the 20th century" before Aja.
Surprised no one comment on the Welfare angle: "How they are paid in gold Just to babble in the back room All night and waste their time". Indeed money flowed to fuel the drug addiction and dole. Heroine users don't work.
@YaddaMinski I think this line is about prostitution. One of the PR's is writing back home telling them how great everything is, (but it's really not), so they lie and make up stories about how they're really making their money.
@YaddaMinski as tennisluvr pointed out: Fagen isn't saying this scenario actually happened, he's saying this is the story they tell the folks back home in PR in order to reassure them that everything is going well and they're doing fine. Which of course it isn't.
And they wandered in from the city of St. John without a dime
Best opening line of any song ever
@bkabbott Agreed.
I think it's pretty relevant nowadays, with the furor over illegal immigration. America is painted as this Utopia overseas, but it's not the reality once people make it here. It can be 3 or 4 generations out before immigrants see prosperity here, if at all. I don't see much metaphor here; it's a pretty straight-ahead commentary on the immigrant experience.
The song is about the arrival of all the Puerto Ricans a few decades ago. (pun intended) The capitol if PR is San Juan which translstes to Saint John. They were told the streets were paved with gold (so to speak) But when they got to New York, it was not all it was cracked up to be. References include: "...wearing coats that shine boath red & green; colors from their sunny island" and "the memory of their Southern sky was clouded by a savage winter" "they are hounded down to the bottom of a bad town amid the ruins"
Three words: purchasing power parity…