"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.
Yesterday was nice
And today looked fine
And we're glad the sky opened up
The moon came crashing down
I wish that I
Could tell you
That it's all alright
Wish that I
Could tell you
That it's all alright
But in truth we're doomed
Consumed by all the truck fumes
That would kill you without uttering a sound
In truth we're doomed
Entombed by the wicked law men and the benzene underground
The architecture ruining this town
Tilt your head back, don't choke
Under the glass of the microscope
Tilt your head back, don't choke
Under the glass of the microscope
Over and over
Over again
I wish that I
Could tell you
That it's all alright
Wish that I
Could tell you
That it's all alright
But in truth we're doomed
Consumed by all the truck fumes
That would kill you without uttering a sound
In truth we're doomed
Entombed by the wicked law men and the benzene underground
The architecture ruining this town
Tilt your head back, don't choke
Under the glass of the microscope
Tilt your head back, don't choke
Under the glass of the microscope
Tilt your head back, don't choke
Under the glass of the microscope
Tilt your head back, don't choke
Under the glass of the microscope
Over and over
Over again
And today looked fine
And we're glad the sky opened up
The moon came crashing down
I wish that I
Could tell you
That it's all alright
Wish that I
Could tell you
That it's all alright
But in truth we're doomed
Consumed by all the truck fumes
That would kill you without uttering a sound
In truth we're doomed
Entombed by the wicked law men and the benzene underground
The architecture ruining this town
Tilt your head back, don't choke
Under the glass of the microscope
Tilt your head back, don't choke
Under the glass of the microscope
Over and over
Over again
I wish that I
Could tell you
That it's all alright
Wish that I
Could tell you
That it's all alright
But in truth we're doomed
Consumed by all the truck fumes
That would kill you without uttering a sound
In truth we're doomed
Entombed by the wicked law men and the benzene underground
The architecture ruining this town
Tilt your head back, don't choke
Under the glass of the microscope
Tilt your head back, don't choke
Under the glass of the microscope
Tilt your head back, don't choke
Under the glass of the microscope
Tilt your head back, don't choke
Under the glass of the microscope
Over and over
Over again
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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.
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
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.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
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.
To me, the song is about not being able to see the bigger picture...we are living inside our tiny worlds, seeing only a small part of the whole - through the microscope, but it is not so hard to see more, you only have to - tilt your head back from the microscope.
I had a hard time hearing the second "in truth" section, but just submitted my corrections (I think it is "Entombed by oil spills, the wicked law men and the benzene underground The architecture ruining this town").
Still not sure what else is being said at the very end (after "Over Again")
If my lyric transcribing are at all close, I think it is about the environment.
How those that are going to be ignorant to scientific results are doomed to be damned by their ignorance.
Song is so good...
This song seems to be about oil and how our reliance on it is both killing us and degrading our quality of life. "Yesterday was nice / And today looked fine" -- everything seems OK right now, but the fact is that it's not "all alright." It's pretty fucking bleak because we're being slowly killed by gasoline fumes without realizing it and without CHOICE, since the politicians don't make laws with their citizens' well-being in mind, they do so in favor of their greed and the demand for oil. Also, to be "under the glass of the microscope" makes me think that people are really being trivialized and objectified by this whole process. If people die, get cancer, lose their jobs because of an oil spill, what does it matter? We're just pawns in this game. We are like tiny, powerless organisms in a petri dish in comparison to the structures that entomb and use us--politics, consumerism, the demand for oil. Perhaps the lyrics "Tilt your head back, don't choke" is a wry call to maintain our dignity in the face of these forces, even though they're ultimately too much for us.
I feel like this song is from the perspective of cells that are being viewed under a microscope. Upon viewing it is realized that the cells are cancerous (from the poisoning of oil / fumes).
Could it be "There's no way to ? No way to..." at the end?
I think at the end its "We're going to..." maybe even "we're going to hell" at one point
Where there's a blank, it should say oil spills
To me, the song is about not being able to see the bigger picture...we are living inside our tiny worlds, seeing only a small part of the whole - through the microscope, but it is not so hard to see more, you only have to - tilt your head back from the microscope.
To me, the song is about not being able to see the bigger picture...we are living inside our tiny worlds, seeing only a small part of the whole - through the microscope, but it is not so hard to see more, you only have to - tilt your head back from the microscope.