"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.
Its almost dawn I can't go home
Well maybe you could try to turn me on
You climb on top leave on your shirt
You move inside and ask me if that hurts
But I swear I didn't feel a thing
You say you never do at first
Now don't you be put off to hear
I went ahead and tried it once again
This time i'll make it mine and wont stop until
I like the sound of it
And if you should hear the cries and calls through the thinnest of the walls
Don't you get yourself so blue its just the sound of me getting over you
Other girls weren't supposed to like it
Lately I do
Other girls weren't supposed to like it
Maybe its true
Other girls weren't supposed to like it
Maybe its you
My ears my cheeks my neck my hair
That lonely spot that never found you there
Your eyes were on the bouncing ball
The slightest move could only make it fall
But I can't believe the way his hands are finding things not drawn on maps
And the way he looked me in the eyes
I have to say I was a bit surprised
Other girls weren't supposed to like it
Lately I do
Other girls weren't supposed to like it
Maybe its true
Other girls weren't supposed to like it
Maybe its you
Thought the wood was dry
Thought the pipes were rusted
Thought something else but I didn't write that lyric
And I thought I loved you but I guess I cant be trusted
The worm has turned and whats its learned its sad to say no longer your concern
Theres someone else who treats me kind and doesn't only love me from behind
But even that is better too I think he's got an inch on you
It took way too long to see my hand is even better company
Other girls weren't supposed to like it
Lately I do
Other girls weren't supposed to like
Maybe its true
Other girls weren't supposed to like it
Maybe its you.
Well maybe you could try to turn me on
You climb on top leave on your shirt
You move inside and ask me if that hurts
But I swear I didn't feel a thing
You say you never do at first
Now don't you be put off to hear
I went ahead and tried it once again
This time i'll make it mine and wont stop until
I like the sound of it
And if you should hear the cries and calls through the thinnest of the walls
Don't you get yourself so blue its just the sound of me getting over you
Other girls weren't supposed to like it
Lately I do
Other girls weren't supposed to like it
Maybe its true
Other girls weren't supposed to like it
Maybe its you
My ears my cheeks my neck my hair
That lonely spot that never found you there
Your eyes were on the bouncing ball
The slightest move could only make it fall
But I can't believe the way his hands are finding things not drawn on maps
And the way he looked me in the eyes
I have to say I was a bit surprised
Other girls weren't supposed to like it
Lately I do
Other girls weren't supposed to like it
Maybe its true
Other girls weren't supposed to like it
Maybe its you
Thought the wood was dry
Thought the pipes were rusted
Thought something else but I didn't write that lyric
And I thought I loved you but I guess I cant be trusted
The worm has turned and whats its learned its sad to say no longer your concern
Theres someone else who treats me kind and doesn't only love me from behind
But even that is better too I think he's got an inch on you
It took way too long to see my hand is even better company
Other girls weren't supposed to like it
Lately I do
Other girls weren't supposed to like
Maybe its true
Other girls weren't supposed to like it
Maybe its you.
Lyrics submitted by bearfoot
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
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
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.
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“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.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.