"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.
Held your standards close to heart
But late one night you threw them down
Simple promises you said
You'd never break
But now you have
All throughout the morning though
I'm begging, no
Your lips they stay perfectly still
Still
Still
Did he fill the empty spaces
Was he everything I'm not?
There's no force behind my mouth
But in just three words
He brings you down
There's a movement
Out the door
I swear but no
Your lips they stay perfectly still
Still
Still (still)
Still (still)
But late one night you threw them down
Simple promises you said
You'd never break
But now you have
All throughout the morning though
I'm begging, no
Your lips they stay perfectly still
Still
Still
Did he fill the empty spaces
Was he everything I'm not?
There's no force behind my mouth
But in just three words
He brings you down
There's a movement
Out the door
I swear but no
Your lips they stay perfectly still
Still
Still (still)
Still (still)
Lyrics submitted by slidingonthewalls
Still Lyrics as written by Jack Steadman
Lyrics © CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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"
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.
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.
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.
I think this song is clearly about cheating
"Held your standards close to heart but late one night you threw them down Simple promises you said you'd never break but now you have" The girl he loved turned into the person she promised she would never be, a cheater.
"All throughout the morning though I'm begging no your lips they stay perfectly still" This is the part about the confrontation. He finds out that she cheated on him, and he's heartbroken, asking for it to be a lie, but of course she has nothing to say and her lips "stay perfectly still".
"Did he fill the empty spaces was he everything I'm not? There's no force behind my mouth but in just three words he brings you down" This is where the questions are asked, where he wonders what the person who she chetead with had that he didn't, if that person was able to give her what he couldn't and also how the power of "just three words" changed her completly breaking all of her promises.
"There's a movement out the door I swear but no your lips they stay perfectly still" This it's the end of it all. I think he still expects an answer to why she did it, but she knows that she could never say what he wated to hear so she just walks out the door without saying anything.
I honestly think this is the best song by Bombay Bicycle Club and what I love the most about it besides these beautiful lyrics it's the fragility of his voice when he sings it, 'cause he shows every bit of pain and sadness that a person on this situation would feel.