"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.
Yeah, high, lay low, I don't think it's gonna go
The new neutralized race
You gotta get out while you can to start to understand
A new meaning of a change
Yeah, well we wanna get out, you know what's real
We're kickin' it as fast as we can
Because the minute they start dealing, it's the end of the free-wheelin'
No, beginning of the end
Yeah, we wanna get activated
Yeah, we wanna get activated
You cannot hold us back
You cannot hold us back with your dead world
Yeah, well you're lookin' for some trouble, trillion times on the double
Gotta double-cross their games
Yeah, well the meanings are the same, when you understand the games
Malfunction to the blame
Hiding out for situations, when the timings right you take 'em
Gotta play by your own rules (whoa, ho)
Patriotic rats tryin' to take all back
Don't step over us like we're fools, oh yeah
Yeah, we wanna get activated
Yeah, we wanna get activated
You cannot hold us back
You cannot hold us back with your dead world
Motherfucker, you cannot hold us back
You cannot hold us back
You cannot hold us back
You cannot hold us back
Fuckin' patriotic rats
Patriotic fuckin' rats
Fuckin' patriotic rats
Patriotic fuckin' rats
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
The new neutralized race
You gotta get out while you can to start to understand
A new meaning of a change
Yeah, well we wanna get out, you know what's real
We're kickin' it as fast as we can
Because the minute they start dealing, it's the end of the free-wheelin'
No, beginning of the end
Yeah, we wanna get activated
Yeah, we wanna get activated
You cannot hold us back
You cannot hold us back with your dead world
Yeah, well you're lookin' for some trouble, trillion times on the double
Gotta double-cross their games
Yeah, well the meanings are the same, when you understand the games
Malfunction to the blame
Hiding out for situations, when the timings right you take 'em
Gotta play by your own rules (whoa, ho)
Patriotic rats tryin' to take all back
Don't step over us like we're fools, oh yeah
Yeah, we wanna get activated
Yeah, we wanna get activated
You cannot hold us back
You cannot hold us back with your dead world
Motherfucker, you cannot hold us back
You cannot hold us back
You cannot hold us back
You cannot hold us back
Fuckin' patriotic rats
Patriotic fuckin' rats
Fuckin' patriotic rats
Patriotic fuckin' rats
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings
Get Activated Lyrics as written by Darren James Cross Burke Tyler Reid
Lyrics © Hipgnosis Songs Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
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I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
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This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
Blue
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“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.
Page
Ed Sheeran
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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.