"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.
First off, I didn't feel comfortable.
I'd been drinking for weeks and forgetting to eat
and sleeping shitty in a college common room.
Trying to make friends with strangers, swapping telephone numbers
Making crazy demands to play a show in your basement.
Two days later I didn't think that you would give us our first Chicago punk rock show.
I didn't think I had a chance.
I had a hunch that lost a lot of my friends.
I never thought I'd get the feeling back again.
I never thought I'd smile again but I was dumb
'cause I felt kinda good in your neighborhood
Although I kinda fell down atop a pile of kinda dried up blood
and stumbled back to your home without outblacking.
These days, we're both getting old.
And while you're buying a house, I'm losing sight of my goals.
I took my time and now I've got nothing to show.
But when I see you next year, we'll have a coffee or beer
and I'll be real glad my failures aren't making things weird.
As we get older every day feels longer
and although I know I'll struggle I will
do my best to never get tired.
I know Chicago will be cold tomorrow
Let's cash in on our thin blood and have another one.
No flaking no leaving.
No flaking no leaving, mistaking our dealings
for burdens that stop us from waking up early
and working, repeating the process of bleeding
our tired heads dry with the motions of failing again.
I'm tired of complaining
I'm tired of complaining
But I'm thankful for the first time I met Sanawon.
I'd been drinking for weeks and forgetting to eat
and sleeping shitty in a college common room.
Trying to make friends with strangers, swapping telephone numbers
Making crazy demands to play a show in your basement.
Two days later I didn't think that you would give us our first Chicago punk rock show.
I didn't think I had a chance.
I had a hunch that lost a lot of my friends.
I never thought I'd get the feeling back again.
I never thought I'd smile again but I was dumb
'cause I felt kinda good in your neighborhood
Although I kinda fell down atop a pile of kinda dried up blood
and stumbled back to your home without outblacking.
These days, we're both getting old.
And while you're buying a house, I'm losing sight of my goals.
I took my time and now I've got nothing to show.
But when I see you next year, we'll have a coffee or beer
and I'll be real glad my failures aren't making things weird.
As we get older every day feels longer
and although I know I'll struggle I will
do my best to never get tired.
I know Chicago will be cold tomorrow
Let's cash in on our thin blood and have another one.
No flaking no leaving.
No flaking no leaving, mistaking our dealings
for burdens that stop us from waking up early
and working, repeating the process of bleeding
our tired heads dry with the motions of failing again.
I'm tired of complaining
I'm tired of complaining
But I'm thankful for the first time I met Sanawon.
Lyrics submitted by Joshoewaa
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
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
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 Can't Go To Sleep
Wu-Tang Clan
Wu-Tang Clan
This song is written as the perspective of the boys in the street, as a whole, and what path they are going to choose as they get older and grow into men. (This is why the music video takes place in an orphanage.) The seen, and unseen collective suffering is imbedded in the boys’ mind, consciously or subconsciously, and is haunting them. Which path will the boys choose? Issac Hayes is the voice of reason, maybe God, the angel on his shoulder, or the voice of his forefathers from beyond the grave who can see the big picture and are pleading with the boys not to continue the violence and pattern of killing their brothers, but to rise above. The most beautiful song and has so many levels. Racism towards African Americans in America would not exist if everyone sat down and listened to this song and understood the history behind the words. The power, fear, pleading in RZA and Ghostface voices are genuine and powerful. Issac Hayes’ strong voice makes the perfect strong father figure, who is possibly from beyond the grave.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
Ok, so Sanawon is an indie-pop band from Chicago with Jenny Choi, who's a musician tied to the whole Asian Man Records family. And Sanawon's latest record came out on Jeff from BTMI!'s Quote Unquote Records.
To quote what's on sanawon.org: “Jeff is the first person I ever knew to be ballsy enough to a) break up his already very successful ska punk band because it was getting annoying; and b) start over (and become uber successful again) using a totally new music business model based only on donations. I met him on tour in Cleveland several years ago when he had just started this second band (called Bomb the Music Industry!), and he and his hoodrat friends didn’t have a place to play in Chicago the next day.
So I let him play in the basement of my house. He spray painted a cassette tape on one of the walls. Then he wrote a song about it that inevitably put the name of my band somewhere on the map of smelly heavily tattooed teenager boys.”
So Sanawon put on a show in Chicago for BTMI! and Jeff/BTMI! wrote a song saying how grateful he was for meeting Sanawon. Nice.