"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.
From the sky we look so organized and brave
Walls that make up barricades and graves
Daddy's little empire built by hands and built by slaves
From the sky we look so organized and brave
In the heat I saw you rising from the dirt
Drunken tears and tugging at your skirt
If only you could tell me then what part of you got hurt
In the heat I saw you rising from the dirt
Take my hand, baby we're over land
I know flying over water makes you cry
Where's that liquor cart?
Maybe we shouldn't start
But I can't for the life of me say why
From the sky the highway's straight as it could be
A string pulled tight from home to Tennessee
And still somehow those ditches took the better part of me
From the sky the highway's straight as it could be
Take my hand, baby we're over land
I know flying over water makes you cry
We've been in the sky so long
It seems like a long way home
But I can't for the life of me say why
Do we leave our love behind?
Did we leave our love behind?
Do we leave our love behind?
Did we leave our love behind?
Take my hand, baby we're over land
I know flying over water makes you cry
Been in the sky so long
Seems like the long way home
But I can't for the life of me say why
Did we leave our love behind?
Did we leave our love behind?
Thank you all very much, thank you guys so much
Sadler Vaden on the rock n' roll electric guitar
Jimbo Hart, on the bass
Chad Gamble, on the drum
Amanda Shires, on the fiddle
Derrick DeBorja, on the keys
Walls that make up barricades and graves
Daddy's little empire built by hands and built by slaves
From the sky we look so organized and brave
In the heat I saw you rising from the dirt
Drunken tears and tugging at your skirt
If only you could tell me then what part of you got hurt
In the heat I saw you rising from the dirt
Take my hand, baby we're over land
I know flying over water makes you cry
Where's that liquor cart?
Maybe we shouldn't start
But I can't for the life of me say why
From the sky the highway's straight as it could be
A string pulled tight from home to Tennessee
And still somehow those ditches took the better part of me
From the sky the highway's straight as it could be
Take my hand, baby we're over land
I know flying over water makes you cry
We've been in the sky so long
It seems like a long way home
But I can't for the life of me say why
Do we leave our love behind?
Did we leave our love behind?
Do we leave our love behind?
Did we leave our love behind?
Take my hand, baby we're over land
I know flying over water makes you cry
Been in the sky so long
Seems like the long way home
But I can't for the life of me say why
Did we leave our love behind?
Did we leave our love behind?
Thank you all very much, thank you guys so much
Sadler Vaden on the rock n' roll electric guitar
Jimbo Hart, on the bass
Chad Gamble, on the drum
Amanda Shires, on the fiddle
Derrick DeBorja, on the keys
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings, edited by jfoxx
Flying Over Water [Live] Lyrics as written by Jason Isbell
Lyrics © Downtown Music Publishing, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
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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:
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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"
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