"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 night's coming alive outside
And there's me and my guitar and Kentucky rye, uh huh
Maybe I should join the escapade
Instead of staring down at this blank white page, uh huh
I could take a stool at the palace bar
Flirt a little while with the bartender, uh huh
I swear to god, she knows my name
She refuses to use it
To her, we're all the same, uh huh
I could buy a drink for a pretty girl
Those young ones are always off shooting pool, uh huh
Oh, listen to me, Mr. Peter Pan
Them girls live in Never Never Land
I'm better off with a girl my age
A spinster or a divorcée, uh huh
Well here I am, a divorcé too
With a potbelly and a jagged tooth, uh huh
I patrol the bars with my gut sucked in
Trying to find my next victim, uh huh
It's the ugliest men think they can always do better
They've been hypnotized by the magazine covers, uh huh
I could saddle up with the town floozy
And maybe she'd be thinking the same about me, uh huh
We can march down Central Avenue
A telltale parade for self-inflated youth, uh huh
In bed we can share emotional scars
Your dead-eyed dad, my AWOL mom
It doesn't matter if you're quick or not
It's a competition of who gets who off, uh huh
The night's coming alive outside
As I scribble down these senseless rhymes, uh huh
My life is full of melody, but rarely ever harmony, uh huh
So here I am, a desperate man
At 2 a.m. with this tune in my head, uh huh
I don't need another foolish fling
As long as I got a song, uh huh
And there's me and my guitar and Kentucky rye, uh huh
Maybe I should join the escapade
Instead of staring down at this blank white page, uh huh
I could take a stool at the palace bar
Flirt a little while with the bartender, uh huh
I swear to god, she knows my name
She refuses to use it
To her, we're all the same, uh huh
I could buy a drink for a pretty girl
Those young ones are always off shooting pool, uh huh
Oh, listen to me, Mr. Peter Pan
Them girls live in Never Never Land
I'm better off with a girl my age
A spinster or a divorcée, uh huh
Well here I am, a divorcé too
With a potbelly and a jagged tooth, uh huh
I patrol the bars with my gut sucked in
Trying to find my next victim, uh huh
It's the ugliest men think they can always do better
They've been hypnotized by the magazine covers, uh huh
I could saddle up with the town floozy
And maybe she'd be thinking the same about me, uh huh
We can march down Central Avenue
A telltale parade for self-inflated youth, uh huh
In bed we can share emotional scars
Your dead-eyed dad, my AWOL mom
It doesn't matter if you're quick or not
It's a competition of who gets who off, uh huh
The night's coming alive outside
As I scribble down these senseless rhymes, uh huh
My life is full of melody, but rarely ever harmony, uh huh
So here I am, a desperate man
At 2 a.m. with this tune in my head, uh huh
I don't need another foolish fling
As long as I got a song, uh huh
Lyrics submitted by charcoalsketch
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"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."
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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.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
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“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.
"kentucky rye." a type of whiskey
"i could saddle up with the town floozy." a term for a loose woman.
"in bed we can share emotional scars. you're dead-eyed dad, my AWOL mom."
"i don't need another foolish fling, as long as i've got a sooooooooooooong, uh huh." song's about writing about fucking loose women, not actually fucking loose women. so it makes sense.