"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.
Look at our love, a thankless thing
A broken old branch where crow goes to sing
A charred garden, a place of no easy pardon
It's dead in the eyes, it's downright rotten
But oh, baby, admittedly I could be somewhat curmudgeonly
But nothing had changed, it stayed the same
I came back and found you where you'd been left for dead
Like something wounded
No more of those crippling piggybacks
You'll have to keep up, you'll have to stay amongst the pack
And if you want in, I'll meet you where crow goes to sing
That's if you want in, what is it they're blessing?
But oh, baby, admittedly I could be somewhat curmudgeonly
But nothing had changed, it stayed the same
I came back and found you where you'd been left for dead
Like something wounded
A broken old branch where crow goes to sing
A charred garden, a place of no easy pardon
It's dead in the eyes, it's downright rotten
But oh, baby, admittedly I could be somewhat curmudgeonly
But nothing had changed, it stayed the same
I came back and found you where you'd been left for dead
Like something wounded
No more of those crippling piggybacks
You'll have to keep up, you'll have to stay amongst the pack
And if you want in, I'll meet you where crow goes to sing
That's if you want in, what is it they're blessing?
But oh, baby, admittedly I could be somewhat curmudgeonly
But nothing had changed, it stayed the same
I came back and found you where you'd been left for dead
Like something wounded
Lyrics submitted by spinner
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
Son Şansın - Şarkı Sözleri
Hayalperest
Hayalperest
This song seemingly tackles the methods of deception those who manipulate others use to get victims to follow their demands, as well as diverting attention away from important issues. They'll also use it as a means to convince people to hate or kill others by pretending acts of terrorism were committed by the enemy when the acts themselves were done by the masters of control to promote discrimination and hate. It also reinforces the idea that these manipulative forces operate in various locations, infiltrating everyday life without detection, and propagate any and everywhere.
In general, it highlights the danger of hidden agendas, manipulation, and distraction, serving as a critique of those who exploit chaos and confusion to control and gain power, depicting a cautionary tale against falling into their traps. It encourages us to question the narratives presented to us and remain vigilant against manipulation in various parts of society.
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."
Magical
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
Just ludicrously good.
Hayden Thorpe is just an incredibly gifted singer and lyricist. At my age it takes a lot for me to appreciate rock music of the angsty/grandiose variety. (Not a knock on emotionally ambitious music, it's a knock on me for mellowing with age and losing my edge as a consumer of music.) Thorpe's verses are just so beautifully constructed, and play so cleverly and movingly with expectation. The tension in the first four lines is in the steady curdling: can he keep twisting the pictures he's painting into steadily worsening images of atrophy and decay and despair. So even as he's taking you down into hell--traveling up rotten branches to a sinister bird, to a wasted, burned tract of dead land (and place of cold judgement), to a dead-eyed stare... perfectly capped with a disgusted "rotten." The way the song then flirts with a weak, fragile hopefulness--through those chiming aching guitars, through Thorpe's acknowledgment that things may only seem as bad as he's describing them because he is "curmudgeonly"--is incredibly moving to me. Then of course his canvas opens up to a less pointed but somehow even more despairing vision than the first verse: a land and a nomadic, hopeless way of life where people who can't "keep up" (the singer's lover?) are left behind to die. It's breathtaking. Apologies for all my high-flown language, but this song is a masterpiece of a kind: it's hard to use ordinary language to describe it.