"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.
The other day when we were walking by the graveyard near the house
You asked me if I thought we would ever die
And if life and love both fade so predictably
We've made ourselves a kind of predictable lie
And so I pictured us like corpses
Lying side by side in pieces
In some dark and lonely plot under a bough
We looked so silly there all decomposed
Half turned to dust in tattered clothes
Though we probably look just as silly now
Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye to all this dog-eared innocence
I can't pretend that I can tell you what is going to happen next or how to be
But you have no idea about me
Do you?
And it left me to wonder if people ever know each other
Or just stumble around like strangers in the dark
'Cause sometimes you seem so strange to me, I must seem strange to you
We're like two actors playing our parts
Did you memorize your lines? 'cause I did
Here's the part where I get so mad I tell you I can't forget the past
You get so quiet now and you seem somehow like a lost and lonely child
And you just hope that the moment won't last
Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye to all this dogged innocence
I can't pretend that I can tell you what is going to happen next or how to be
But you have no idea about me
You have no idea about me
Do you?
So there's always a way around
There's something tying our feet to the ground
A moment passed we hear how it sounds
Then it seems a little less profound
Like we're all going the same way down
Yeah we're all going the same way down
I'm just trying to write it all down
'Cause I write songs and you write letters
We are tied like two in tethers
And we talk and read, and laugh and sleep
At night in bed together
And you wake in tears sometimes
I can see your thoughts flash across your eyes
They say darling will you be kind, will you be a good man and stay behind
If I get old?
And then the letters all pass through my head
With the words that I was told
About the fading flesh of life and love
The failures of the bold
I can list each crippling fear like I'm reading from a will
And I'll defy everyone and love you still
I will carry you with me up every hill
And if you die before I die I'll carve your name out of the sky
I'll fall asleep with your memory and dream of where you lie
Maybe better to move on and to let life just carry on and I may be wrong
Still I'll try
'Cause it's better to love, whether you win or lose or die
It's better to love, whether you win or lose or die
It's better to love, and I will love you 'til I die
You asked me if I thought we would ever die
And if life and love both fade so predictably
We've made ourselves a kind of predictable lie
And so I pictured us like corpses
Lying side by side in pieces
In some dark and lonely plot under a bough
We looked so silly there all decomposed
Half turned to dust in tattered clothes
Though we probably look just as silly now
Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye to all this dog-eared innocence
I can't pretend that I can tell you what is going to happen next or how to be
But you have no idea about me
Do you?
And it left me to wonder if people ever know each other
Or just stumble around like strangers in the dark
'Cause sometimes you seem so strange to me, I must seem strange to you
We're like two actors playing our parts
Did you memorize your lines? 'cause I did
Here's the part where I get so mad I tell you I can't forget the past
You get so quiet now and you seem somehow like a lost and lonely child
And you just hope that the moment won't last
Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye to all this dogged innocence
I can't pretend that I can tell you what is going to happen next or how to be
But you have no idea about me
You have no idea about me
Do you?
So there's always a way around
There's something tying our feet to the ground
A moment passed we hear how it sounds
Then it seems a little less profound
Like we're all going the same way down
Yeah we're all going the same way down
I'm just trying to write it all down
'Cause I write songs and you write letters
We are tied like two in tethers
And we talk and read, and laugh and sleep
At night in bed together
And you wake in tears sometimes
I can see your thoughts flash across your eyes
They say darling will you be kind, will you be a good man and stay behind
If I get old?
And then the letters all pass through my head
With the words that I was told
About the fading flesh of life and love
The failures of the bold
I can list each crippling fear like I'm reading from a will
And I'll defy everyone and love you still
I will carry you with me up every hill
And if you die before I die I'll carve your name out of the sky
I'll fall asleep with your memory and dream of where you lie
Maybe better to move on and to let life just carry on and I may be wrong
Still I'll try
'Cause it's better to love, whether you win or lose or die
It's better to love, whether you win or lose or die
It's better to love, and I will love you 'til I die
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
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”
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."
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
Airborne Toxic Event frontman Mikel Jollett saw both his grandparents pass away after 72 years together prior to writing the material for All At Once. He was thinking of their marriage when he penned this song. "At a certain point in your life you realize that you're going to die, and that's a really important moment," he explained to The Independent: "And then eventually you come to the conclusion that you're gonna live and you're gonna get older if you're lucky, and you're gonna go for life. And when you're doing so, it's better to love people like it's a choice, like it's a privilege."
very powerful song that shows how love and death intersect. if you find someone that makes your life worth living, of course you include them in your personal journey to make sense of immortality and it becomes a shared journey as you grow closer.
this may be based on a true story but even if its not, the situation is definitely not unique... graveyards everywhere remind us of the dead and the fact that we're going to die
to make sense of *mortality
Gorgeous song. Mikel's lyrics are always perfect. I don't know how he does it. And his voice conveys emotions in a way that seems effortless. This is one of their songs that really hits me.
I think it's about what the other people have said. Reflecting on love and how it's worth it in the end, even if you don't know where it will take you. Seems like she's being afraid of growing apart or of the relationship not lasting, but he's reassuring her that he will love her no matter what. Very touching.
Why is every word capitalized?!