"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.
Right foot
Followed by a left foot
We'll guide you home before your curfew
And into your bed
Standing on our tip-toes
Peering through open windows
I swear I heard my name
Sitting with the lights off
Waiting for my brain to storm
Trying to work things out
It's thunder and it's lightning
And it's all things too frightening
I could barely see outside
Your body was black and blue
Been struck twice there's nothing new
Your body was black and blue
Been struck twice there's nothing new
Your body was black and blue, your body was black and blue
Your body was black and blue, your body was black and blue
Your body was black and blue, your body was black and blue
Your body was black and blue, your body was black
And there's thunder
And there's lightning
Coming home
And there's thunder
And there's lightning
Coming back
Your body was black and blue
Your body was black and blue
And your body
I have to say goodnight
I'm leaving before you're punching out my lights
I have to say goodnight
I'm leaving before you're punching out my lights
I have to say goodnight
I'm leaving before you're punching out my lights
I have to say goodnight
I'm leaving before you're punching out my lights
I'm leaving
Followed by a left foot
We'll guide you home before your curfew
And into your bed
Standing on our tip-toes
Peering through open windows
I swear I heard my name
Sitting with the lights off
Waiting for my brain to storm
Trying to work things out
It's thunder and it's lightning
And it's all things too frightening
I could barely see outside
Your body was black and blue
Been struck twice there's nothing new
Your body was black and blue
Been struck twice there's nothing new
Your body was black and blue, your body was black and blue
Your body was black and blue, your body was black and blue
Your body was black and blue, your body was black and blue
Your body was black and blue, your body was black
And there's thunder
And there's lightning
Coming home
And there's thunder
And there's lightning
Coming back
Your body was black and blue
Your body was black and blue
And your body
I have to say goodnight
I'm leaving before you're punching out my lights
I have to say goodnight
I'm leaving before you're punching out my lights
I have to say goodnight
I'm leaving before you're punching out my lights
I have to say goodnight
I'm leaving before you're punching out my lights
I'm leaving
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
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.
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
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.
The opening verse starts with the image of having to help someone with their walking, as if they are in a stupor from being in an accident or being too dazed/drunk to keep going. Judging by the second verse, which speaks of someone paranoid that they're hearing their name - I'd say the song is from the perspective of someone who blames themselves for what has happened.
I'm guessing the person feels guilt, or remorse, that they have caused so much pain to their significant other. The line "waiting for my brain to start" (or "storm" as some have suggested), amidst the imagery of thunder and lightning striking seems like it's speaking about rage: since he is unable to get the brain to do what it normally does, which is to think.
This leads me to believe, along with the lines "Your body was black and blue/It struck twice there's nothing new" and the fact that we all know that there may eventually be a lightning storm during rainy seasons, that this is in fact a metaphor for a very violent relationship. Maybe an argument turned violent and he struck his significant other in such a way that they are now struggling to even get up and walk. The paranoia that someone was watching is evident from "standing on tip-toes" and the guilt of "oh God, not again," from the "there's nothing new."
The last lines all indicate a bit of cowardice - rather than deal with the real problem (his own rage), he is simply going to leave. This isn't to say he's gone forever, he may just cool off, come back and sweet talk the girl/guy back into his life only to have the cycle repeat itself again.
These are, after all, very frightening things in a relationship.
Whoa. Quite an interpretation. Well done. Great song!
great interpretation indeed. Cheers mate.