"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.
Make me dance, I want to surrender
Your familiar arms, I remember
We've been going transcontinental
Got no car, we just take a rental
But we don't have the money
(Money makes the wheels and the world go round)
Forget about it, honey
Make me dance, I want to surrender
Your familiar arms, I remember
Everybody's talking about you
Every word's a whisper without you
But we don't have the money
(Money makes the wheels and the world go round)
Forget about it, honey
Trouble's never far away when you're around
'Cause we don't have the money
(Money makes the wheels and the world go round)
Forget about it, honey
I didn't see it coming
I'm just not in the running
Take me on a train 'cos I'm not flying
I can see the world from a different side
Read about us in the morning papers
When we make it
When we make it alive
I didn't see it coming (Make me dance I want to surrender)
I'm just not in the running (Make me dance I want to surrender)
And we don't need a lifetime (Make me dance I want to surrender)
We're following the right line (Make me dance I want to surrender)
And we don't need a lifetime (Make me dance I want to surrender)
We're following the right line (Make me dance I want to surrender)
I didn't see it coming (Make me dance I want to surrender)
I'm just not in the running (Make me dance I want to surrender)
And we don't need a lifetime (Make me dance I want to surrender)
We're following the right line (Make me dance I want to surrender)
Your familiar arms, I remember
We've been going transcontinental
Got no car, we just take a rental
But we don't have the money
(Money makes the wheels and the world go round)
Forget about it, honey
Make me dance, I want to surrender
Your familiar arms, I remember
Everybody's talking about you
Every word's a whisper without you
But we don't have the money
(Money makes the wheels and the world go round)
Forget about it, honey
Trouble's never far away when you're around
'Cause we don't have the money
(Money makes the wheels and the world go round)
Forget about it, honey
I didn't see it coming
I'm just not in the running
Take me on a train 'cos I'm not flying
I can see the world from a different side
Read about us in the morning papers
When we make it
When we make it alive
I didn't see it coming (Make me dance I want to surrender)
I'm just not in the running (Make me dance I want to surrender)
And we don't need a lifetime (Make me dance I want to surrender)
We're following the right line (Make me dance I want to surrender)
And we don't need a lifetime (Make me dance I want to surrender)
We're following the right line (Make me dance I want to surrender)
I didn't see it coming (Make me dance I want to surrender)
I'm just not in the running (Make me dance I want to surrender)
And we don't need a lifetime (Make me dance I want to surrender)
We're following the right line (Make me dance I want to surrender)
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
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"
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
I agree with Sebastian1, this song is about maturity.
When we are young we all want to go wild and surrender to our passions ("make me dance, I want to surrender"). Growing older we learn how the world is so full of constraints on those passions: no money, cheap rentals, budget train tickets. But with this recognition, we mature and we learn to count our blessings and make the most of what we have been given - we even embrace the odd situations life hands us (i.e. remembering "your familiar arms", "I can see the world from a different side", etc.).
In this way, maturity is really a form of humility about our limits as individuals. We understand ourselves as much about our constraints as about our passions.
Yet in the end, we still love the part of us that wants to let loose: "Make me dance, I want to surrender..."
Yes its about getting older , everything changes but still some facts could keep it trough the time.
I think that this song talks about maturity. It´s saying that he´s not flying anymore, about knowing the direction that you wanna take but in a real way of achieving it ( by train). Now he sees the world from a different side.
The lyrics include a 'make me dance, I want to surrender' refrain (repeated approx. eight times) at the end.
Beautiful song, about taking things slowly and enjoying life imho.
COLD CAVE REMIX SO GOOD