"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.
Can you hear the sound of the static noise?
Blasting out in stereo
Cater to the class and the paranoid
Music to my nervous system
Advertising love and religion
Murder on the airwaves
Slogans on the brink of corruption
Vision of blasphemy, war and peace
Screaming at you
I can't see a thing in the video
I can't hear a sound on the radio
In stereo in the static age
Billboard on the rise in the dawn's landscape
Working your insanity
Tragic a'la madness and concrete
Coca-Cola execution
Conscience on a cross and
Your hearts in a vice
Squeezing out your state of mind
Are what you own that you cannot buy
What a fucking tragedy, strategy
Screaming at you.
I can't see a thing in the video
I can't hear a sound on the radio
In stereo in the static age
I can't see a thing in the video
I can't hear a sound on the radio
In stereo in the static age
Hey hey, it's the static age
This is how the west was won
Hey hey, it's the static age millennium
All I want to know
Is a god-damned thing
Not what's in the medicine
All I want to do is
I want to breathe
Batteries are not included
What's the latest way that a man can die
Screaming hallelujah?
Singing out "the dawn's early light"
The silence of the rotten, forgotten
Screaming at you.
I can't see a thing in the video
I can't hear a sound on the radio
In stereo in the static age
I can't see a thing in the video
I can't hear a sound on the radio
In stereo in the static age
I can't see a thing in the video
I can't hear a sound on the radio
In stereo in the static age
I can't see a thing in the video
I can't hear a sound on the radio
In stereo in the static age
The static age
Blasting out in stereo
Cater to the class and the paranoid
Music to my nervous system
Advertising love and religion
Murder on the airwaves
Slogans on the brink of corruption
Vision of blasphemy, war and peace
Screaming at you
I can't see a thing in the video
I can't hear a sound on the radio
In stereo in the static age
Billboard on the rise in the dawn's landscape
Working your insanity
Tragic a'la madness and concrete
Coca-Cola execution
Conscience on a cross and
Your hearts in a vice
Squeezing out your state of mind
Are what you own that you cannot buy
What a fucking tragedy, strategy
Screaming at you.
I can't see a thing in the video
I can't hear a sound on the radio
In stereo in the static age
I can't see a thing in the video
I can't hear a sound on the radio
In stereo in the static age
Hey hey, it's the static age
This is how the west was won
Hey hey, it's the static age millennium
All I want to know
Is a god-damned thing
Not what's in the medicine
All I want to do is
I want to breathe
Batteries are not included
What's the latest way that a man can die
Screaming hallelujah?
Singing out "the dawn's early light"
The silence of the rotten, forgotten
Screaming at you.
I can't see a thing in the video
I can't hear a sound on the radio
In stereo in the static age
I can't see a thing in the video
I can't hear a sound on the radio
In stereo in the static age
I can't see a thing in the video
I can't hear a sound on the radio
In stereo in the static age
I can't see a thing in the video
I can't hear a sound on the radio
In stereo in the static age
The static age
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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"
Holiday
Bee Gees
Bee Gees
@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
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.
American Town
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.
At the 21st Century Breakdown tour in Albany (awesome show, get tickets if you can find them), Billy Joe actually gave an insight into what the song means. He said to throw your hands up if you were tired of your boss, your job, being stuck behind a computer, hearing and seeing the same recycled songs, shows, commercials, and being bombarded with corporate, political, and religious messages every hour of the day at every corner. Then he said that he was sick of it too, and that it never seems to end because we live in 'The Static Age'.
So, in other words, the 'static' is the saturation of our lives with ads, political garbage, bad news, and never being left to create our own thoughts about things, express our own opinions without having the 'right' answers poured down our throats on the radio, on tv, and the internet, etc.
Yes.