"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.
I hear them talking to me inner demons stalking me
Running in between my thoughts and dreams I think they haunting me
Got me sweating got me stressing wake up in the woods with a Smith and Wesson
Bucked naked counting blessings blood soaked clothes with no confessions
I don't know what it is that's living in my nightmares
I don't know what it is that's bringing on these night scares
All I'm knowing is what the fuck I got to lose
When everything I'm dreaming of end up on the evening news
[Chorus]
I'm sleeping only sleeping I'm sleeping only sleeping
I don't want to sleep I don't want to dream
I don't want to hear the suffering
Don't want to hear the screams
[Repeat]
Last night I dreamt that I was standing by a streetlight
Bloody knuckles bloody nose but I was in a streetfight
That's when I woke up my body feeling broke up
Eyes glazed in a haze fucked up because I'm choked up
It's to the point that I don't even want to fall asleep
Every time I close my eyes another victim at my feet
It's getting hard to deal and hard to reognize the real
Hard to keep my sanity and hard to say just how I feel
[Chorus x2]
I don't know why this chick is barely breathing
Begging for her very life scratching clawing kicking screaming
While I just stand there laughing while this bitch's life was passing
Rope around her I watched her choke for every breath she's gasping
I watched her face and watched the tears pouring like the rain
How'd I end up in this place translated in her fear and pain
So sick my stomach churning in slow motion while the world keep turning
So sick mind of a vermin knowing that my soul is burning
[Bridge]
I don't want to sleep I can't even close my eyes
I don't want to think what's the truth behind the lies
I don't want to dream every time somebody dies
I don't want to hear the screams
I don't want to hear the cries
[Chorus x2]
Running in between my thoughts and dreams I think they haunting me
Got me sweating got me stressing wake up in the woods with a Smith and Wesson
Bucked naked counting blessings blood soaked clothes with no confessions
I don't know what it is that's living in my nightmares
I don't know what it is that's bringing on these night scares
All I'm knowing is what the fuck I got to lose
When everything I'm dreaming of end up on the evening news
[Chorus]
I'm sleeping only sleeping I'm sleeping only sleeping
I don't want to sleep I don't want to dream
I don't want to hear the suffering
Don't want to hear the screams
[Repeat]
Last night I dreamt that I was standing by a streetlight
Bloody knuckles bloody nose but I was in a streetfight
That's when I woke up my body feeling broke up
Eyes glazed in a haze fucked up because I'm choked up
It's to the point that I don't even want to fall asleep
Every time I close my eyes another victim at my feet
It's getting hard to deal and hard to reognize the real
Hard to keep my sanity and hard to say just how I feel
[Chorus x2]
I don't know why this chick is barely breathing
Begging for her very life scratching clawing kicking screaming
While I just stand there laughing while this bitch's life was passing
Rope around her I watched her choke for every breath she's gasping
I watched her face and watched the tears pouring like the rain
How'd I end up in this place translated in her fear and pain
So sick my stomach churning in slow motion while the world keep turning
So sick mind of a vermin knowing that my soul is burning
[Bridge]
I don't want to sleep I can't even close my eyes
I don't want to think what's the truth behind the lies
I don't want to dream every time somebody dies
I don't want to hear the screams
I don't want to hear the cries
[Chorus x2]
Lyrics submitted by whaterfjkld
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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.
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.
Just A Little Lovin'
Dusty Springfield
Dusty Springfield
I don't think it's necessarily about sex. It's about wanting to start the day with some love and affection. Maybe a warm cuddle. I'm not alone in interpreting it that way! For example:
"'Just a Little Lovin’ is a timeless country song originally recorded by Eddy Arnold in 1954. The song, written by Eddie Miller and Jimmy Campbell, explores the delicate nuances of love and showcases Arnold’s emotive vocals. It delves into the universal theme of love and how even the smallest gesture of affection can have a profound impact on our lives." https://oldtimemusic.com/the-meaning-behind-the-song-just-a-little-lovin-by-eddy-arnold/