"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.
One, two, three, four
I write you from this grounded airplane
I wonder how you've been and where you are
A letter to the one who slipped away
A letter for the things that never start
Oh my imagination running wild
Guess I've missed you from the day that we first met
Crazy, this fascination makes a sound like a twister in my mind
The restless dream we left behind I never will forget
It's funny how the words we never say
Can turn into the only thoughts we know
But Austin's just so very far away
And I cannot believe I let you go
Oh my imagination's running wild
Guess I've missed you from the day that we first met
Crazy, this fascination makes a sound like a twister in my mind
The restless dream we left behind I never will forget
This restless dream
And so I called you from the darkness of my room
You'll never be a memory, now you're a restless dream
A restless dream
And so I write to this address that I don't know
You said you had to leave and we lost track
So if you hear this on the radio
I've said it now and there's no turning back
Oh my imagination running wild
Guess I've missed you from the day that we first met
Crazy, this fascination makes the sound like a twister in my mind
The restless dream we left behind I never will forget
I write you from this grounded airplane
I wonder how you've been and where you are
A letter to the one who slipped away
A letter for the things that never start
Oh my imagination running wild
Guess I've missed you from the day that we first met
Crazy, this fascination makes a sound like a twister in my mind
The restless dream we left behind I never will forget
It's funny how the words we never say
Can turn into the only thoughts we know
But Austin's just so very far away
And I cannot believe I let you go
Oh my imagination's running wild
Guess I've missed you from the day that we first met
Crazy, this fascination makes a sound like a twister in my mind
The restless dream we left behind I never will forget
This restless dream
And so I called you from the darkness of my room
You'll never be a memory, now you're a restless dream
A restless dream
And so I write to this address that I don't know
You said you had to leave and we lost track
So if you hear this on the radio
I've said it now and there's no turning back
Oh my imagination running wild
Guess I've missed you from the day that we first met
Crazy, this fascination makes the sound like a twister in my mind
The restless dream we left behind I never will forget
Lyrics submitted by SomthinCorporat
Restless Dream Lyrics as written by Andrew Ross Mcmahon
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Most beautiful song on the album. Another one where I truly feel like I can understand every word. This song is about a guy thinking about an ex, the one he never should have let go. The concept of a restless dream is that it differs from a memory in the sense that a memory is in the past. Even though it seems like they've been apart for a while, he still thinks of being with this girl all the time, hence a restless dream. I think it's a song about closure; he's writing her a letter to tell her how he feels. However, I don't think he's trying to get back with her because he knows that ship has sailed "and Austin is so very far away". He just wants to let her know how much she meant to him
First to comment.. #winning Stream the full album right now here: purevolume.com/news/Stream-Jacks-Mannequin-People-and-Things
Andrew wrote this song for a movie about a high school reunion. He also however related it to his own experience and having a person in your life that you never resolved a problem with.
"It's funny how the words we never say Can turn into the only thoughts we know" Amazing line.
This song is about a girl he loved who never quite became his lover, because it's "a letter to the one who slipped away, a letter for the things that never start". Everything else is how he feels about this person, in a wistful but not bittersweet way.
He writes this song "from a grounded aeroplane", which I think is a moment in his life where he takes a break from his busy life, like a delay in his flight. This is the moment that he remembers this someone, and all the things unsaid.
Beautiful, poetic lyrics. McMahon is a genius.