"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.
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
Mental Istid
Ebba Grön
Ebba Grön
This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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.
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
I loved this song from the first time I heard it. It was worth naming the album after it. Well, I think the lyrics are quite obvious. It's about a man who isn't able to get a woman to love him, so he just pictures that he can have her in his fantasy. And the constant change between "Liebe ist für alle da - Nicht für mich" and "Liebe ist für alle da - Auch für mich!" seems to suggest that he is somewhat losing his touch with reality, or that's at least how I interpret it.
Note that just before he first says love is auch für mich, that he suddenly talks about "So braune haut!"
maybe he's on a trip to Thailand where girls are made readily available with no questions asked.
Maybe it's just me but I think it's about rape. A sexually frustrated guy who watches "beautiful bodies, nice curves..." but can't get any of it in the natural way (=with her approval), so he just takes it violently. "Ich halt sie fest/ Und keiner sieht sie weinen".
Not sure where some of you guys are getting rape and porn from... I see some dirty thoughts in the lyrics but not those. Pretty easy song to decipher, it's about someone who can't find love/can't get a girl they want so they fantasize about her.
I found this song and the entire album pretty mediocre. I hope the next album shows a real improvement, and brings back more of the style that they had in the beginning.
This is blatently about porn. This band are fucking dirty when it comes to lyric.