"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.
This time, this time, making Christmas, making Christmas
Making Christmas, making Christmas, making Christmas is so fine
It's ours this time and won't the children be surprised?
It's ours this time
Making Christmas, making Christmas, making Christmas
Time to give them something fun
They'll talk about for years to come
Let's have a cheer from everyone, it's time to party
Making Christmas, making Christmas
Snakes and mice get wrapped up so nice
With spider legs and pretty bows
It's ours this time
All together that and this
With all are tricks we're making Christmastime, here comes Jack
I don't believe what's happening to me
My hopes, my dreams, my fantasies
Won't they be impressed, I am a genius?
See how I transformed this old rat into a most delightful hat
My compliments from me to you on this your most intriguing hat
Consider thought this substitute, a bat in place of this old rat
No, no, no, now that's all wrong
This thing will never make a present
It's been dead for much too long
Try something fresher, something pleasant
Try again, don't give up
All together, this and that
With all our tricks we're making Christmastime
This time, this time, making Christmas, making Christmas
La, la, la, it's almost here and we can't wait
So ring the bells and celebrate 'cause when the full moon starts to climb
We'll all sing out it's Christmastime
Making Christmas, making Christmas, making Christmas is so fine
It's ours this time and won't the children be surprised?
It's ours this time
Making Christmas, making Christmas, making Christmas
Time to give them something fun
They'll talk about for years to come
Let's have a cheer from everyone, it's time to party
Making Christmas, making Christmas
Snakes and mice get wrapped up so nice
With spider legs and pretty bows
It's ours this time
All together that and this
With all are tricks we're making Christmastime, here comes Jack
I don't believe what's happening to me
My hopes, my dreams, my fantasies
Won't they be impressed, I am a genius?
See how I transformed this old rat into a most delightful hat
My compliments from me to you on this your most intriguing hat
Consider thought this substitute, a bat in place of this old rat
No, no, no, now that's all wrong
This thing will never make a present
It's been dead for much too long
Try something fresher, something pleasant
Try again, don't give up
All together, this and that
With all our tricks we're making Christmastime
This time, this time, making Christmas, making Christmas
La, la, la, it's almost here and we can't wait
So ring the bells and celebrate 'cause when the full moon starts to climb
We'll all sing out it's Christmastime
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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"
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
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.
Gotta say, RA did a pretty damn good cover of it.