"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.
Baby's got a lot of baggage
It don't seem to matter, it don't seem to matter
Bought a ticket to the mid west, just for business
But dismissed it from the interest
It was a risk just for a mistress
Who was a hostess on the West Coast
Don't you see it in my eyes tonight?
Baby's got a lot of baggage
Where do I have to go
To find a honey with a little soul?
Tokyo, Tokyo
Turn off the lights and let it go
Oh, it's nice to meet you
Kimi tanoshimu
Tokyo, Tokyo
Pay in the palms of the rock and roll
Get that dynamite
Chick-a-boom on the town tonight
I never seem to get it right
But you can show me so politely
Now don't you see it in my eyes tonight?
Get that dynamite
Where do I have to go
To find a honey with a little soul?
Tokyo, Tokyo
Turn off the lights and let it go
Oh, it's nice to meet you
Kimi Tanoshimu
Tokyo, Tokyo
Pay in the palms of the rock and roll
Hey
I come back to where you are
Hey
I come back to where you are
Give that dynamite
Where do I have to go
To find a honey with a little soul?
Tokyo, Tokyo
Turn off the lights and let it go
Oh, it's nice to meet you
Kimi Tanoshimu
Tokyo, Tokyo
Pay in the palms of the rock and roll
Where do I have to go
To find a honey with a little soul?
Tokyo, Tokyo
Turn off the lights and let it go
Oh, it's nice to meet you
Kimi Tanoshimu
Tokyo, Tokyo
Pay in the palms of the rock and roll
Hey
I come back to where you are
Hey
I come back to where you are
Tokyo
Tokyo
Tokyo
It don't seem to matter, it don't seem to matter
Bought a ticket to the mid west, just for business
But dismissed it from the interest
It was a risk just for a mistress
Who was a hostess on the West Coast
Don't you see it in my eyes tonight?
Baby's got a lot of baggage
Where do I have to go
To find a honey with a little soul?
Tokyo, Tokyo
Turn off the lights and let it go
Oh, it's nice to meet you
Kimi tanoshimu
Tokyo, Tokyo
Pay in the palms of the rock and roll
Get that dynamite
Chick-a-boom on the town tonight
I never seem to get it right
But you can show me so politely
Now don't you see it in my eyes tonight?
Get that dynamite
Where do I have to go
To find a honey with a little soul?
Tokyo, Tokyo
Turn off the lights and let it go
Oh, it's nice to meet you
Kimi Tanoshimu
Tokyo, Tokyo
Pay in the palms of the rock and roll
Hey
I come back to where you are
Hey
I come back to where you are
Give that dynamite
Where do I have to go
To find a honey with a little soul?
Tokyo, Tokyo
Turn off the lights and let it go
Oh, it's nice to meet you
Kimi Tanoshimu
Tokyo, Tokyo
Pay in the palms of the rock and roll
Where do I have to go
To find a honey with a little soul?
Tokyo, Tokyo
Turn off the lights and let it go
Oh, it's nice to meet you
Kimi Tanoshimu
Tokyo, Tokyo
Pay in the palms of the rock and roll
Hey
I come back to where you are
Hey
I come back to where you are
Tokyo
Tokyo
Tokyo
Lyrics submitted by danzero, edited by communism12
Tokyo Lyrics as written by Daniel Coulter Reynolds Benjamin Arthur Mckee
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
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
Holiday
Bee Gees
Bee Gees
@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
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.
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."
Amazing
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran tells a story of unsuccessfully trying to feel “Amazing.” This track is about the being weighed down by emotional stress despite valiant attempts to find some positivity in the situation. This track was written by Ed Sheeran from the perspective of his friend. From the track, we see this person fall deeper into the negative thoughts and slide further down the path of mental torment with every lyric.
Just a nice song about "the beauty of tokyo" and how the singer thinks Tokyo is amazing. I think it's pretty self explanatory.
I thought it said "...to find a honey with a little soul? Tokyo..."
I don't think I have the song actually figured out, but I bet I'm on the right track.
I think it is all about shallow relashionships and the lack of love while certain "intimacies", so to speak, are present. In this case, the narrator is having a "normal relashionship life" but feels that he lacks love (I assume it is a he given the singer, but I doesn't really matter).
FIRST VERSE: He found a relashionship with someone who is not exactly right because "Baby's got a lot of baggage", but he is still willing to give it a chance, as he is probably feeling something, given that "It don't seem to matter".He is thinking about moving, of course, for business, but also because of that woman, "But dismissed it from the interest", because "It was a risk just for a mistress / Who was a hostess on the West Coast", meaning he knew it was not true love and maybe he was not really interested in her.
We can conclude the narrative persona dates women (not that it matters, but it is something), is looking for an actual relashionship with love and stuff, is failing to find such as other people are not really interested or worth it and, most importantly, is in the US (mid west and west coast are great indicators that it is a big country in nwhich people divide the regions like that, well, as the US).
CHORUS: "Where do I have to go / To find a honey with a little soul?" is a proof that he hasn't found someone willing to love and have an actual, deep and propper relashionship, therefore, he asks himself where he could find it. His answer is a faraway place, Tokyo! In other words, he won't find any "honey with a little soul". "Turn off the lights and let it go" indicates he kind of gave up, as, well, in a not vulgar way of opinting it out, you know what people do with lights turned off. Therefore, he accepts a life of pleasure without soul because he just turn them off and let it go. Don't know japanese at all, but "tanoshimu" seems to be it and mean something close to "to have fun" or "to enjoy", while "kimi" I already know to mean "you". Therefore, the "Oh, it's nice to meet you / Kimi Tanoshimu", actually means that the narrative persona just meets the person and, right after, without any sort of connection, proceeds to "enjoy them". Well, this means that, even in japanese, or rather, in Tokyo, the narrative persona doesn't connect with the women he has intimate momments with, showing that the is nowhere he can find a honey with a little soul.
Haven't figured out the rest, so I may be completely wrong.
@ContaInutil also, sorry for bad english, it isnt my native tongue