"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.
Everyone's a critic looking back up the river
Every boat is leaking in this town
Everybody is thinking they can all be delivered sitting in a box like lost and found
But I found my place and it's all right
We're all searching for a better way
Get this off my plate
It's all right, I got my own way to believe
Find a lighthouse in the dark stormy weather
We all could use a sedative right now
Holy rollers sitting with their backs to the middle all alone and sinking the bow
And if you want to have to pray, it's all right
We all be thinking with our different brain get this off my plate
It's all right, I got my own way to believe, it's okay
Sometimes you find yourself having to put all your faith in no faith
Mine is mine and yours won't take its place
Now, make your getaway
Science says we're making love like the lizards
Try and say that fossils ain't profound
Silence says we're not allowed to consider
Silence says stand up sit down you're out
But I found my place
And it's all right, I'm bearing witness to some better things, get this off my plate
It's all right, I've got my own way to believe
It's okay, sometimes you find yourself being told to change your ways
There's no way, mine is mine and yours won't take its place, now make your getaway
It's okay, sometimes you find yourself having to put all your faith in no faith
Mine is mine and yours won't take its place
Now make your getaway, it's okay
Sometimes you find yourself being told to change your ways
For god's sake, mine is mine and yours won't take its place
Now, make your getaway
Now, make your getaway
Every boat is leaking in this town
Everybody is thinking they can all be delivered sitting in a box like lost and found
But I found my place and it's all right
We're all searching for a better way
Get this off my plate
It's all right, I got my own way to believe
Find a lighthouse in the dark stormy weather
We all could use a sedative right now
Holy rollers sitting with their backs to the middle all alone and sinking the bow
And if you want to have to pray, it's all right
We all be thinking with our different brain get this off my plate
It's all right, I got my own way to believe, it's okay
Sometimes you find yourself having to put all your faith in no faith
Mine is mine and yours won't take its place
Now, make your getaway
Science says we're making love like the lizards
Try and say that fossils ain't profound
Silence says we're not allowed to consider
Silence says stand up sit down you're out
But I found my place
And it's all right, I'm bearing witness to some better things, get this off my plate
It's all right, I've got my own way to believe
It's okay, sometimes you find yourself being told to change your ways
There's no way, mine is mine and yours won't take its place, now make your getaway
It's okay, sometimes you find yourself having to put all your faith in no faith
Mine is mine and yours won't take its place
Now make your getaway, it's okay
Sometimes you find yourself being told to change your ways
For god's sake, mine is mine and yours won't take its place
Now, make your getaway
Now, make your getaway
Lyrics submitted by Hrd2Imagin, edited by mpedone
Getaway Lyrics as written by Eddie Jerome Vedder
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I think it's pretty simple, a "live and let live" kind of message aimed at the "holy rollers" to try to keep their opinion to themselves and stop pushing their beliefs on everyone else.
For anyone that has a "born again" in their family, I'm sure you can relate.
In my opinion, I think you guys are only getting half the picture... I feel like Vedder is taking neither side, as in he's not siding with the "holy rollers" or the science nuts. Notice the first several lines say " everybody" in them. This is why I like this song so much and also why I love Pearl Jam... I think he's trying to convey a message of compromise between all these people who refuse to see things any other way besides their own.<br /> <br /> The part where he talks about "silence says..." I think he's actually saying "Simon says," which would make more sense in context. And when he says "Simon says" in this song, I think he's talking about how whether we are science nuts or holy rollers, we are "not allowed to consider" meaning we are taught in our society not to question even our own beliefs, and no matter what happens don't let the other side win the debate.<br /> <br /> Basically, I think Vedder wrote this song with high hopes of provoking some thought from people, no matter which side they fall on. As for me, I guess I'd fall on the "holy roller" side. I grew up in church all my life and really began to resent it because of the blatant hypocrisy I would see from the people I went to church with, and I was never "allowed to consider."<br /> <br /> But eventually I found a great place where you can question anything and everything, and have real discussions about topics that have become taboo in most churches. But anyway, my whole point is that not all churchgoers are "holy rollers" going on a hypocritical holy crusade to put a bible in every hand and tell everyone to "do as I say, not as I do."<br /> <br /> If you study the life of Jesus, you'll find that he was always breaking the mold and blowing up all the man-made traditions and rules that they all tried to keep. There is without a doubt a Truth above all else out there, but it's buried under all the man-made rituals and hypocrisy that you see in churches today. So whomever may be reading this, please don't write us all off as just another judgmental "holy roller." Because there are some who love songs like "getaway." :)
You can read the actual lyrics on the PJ site: pearljam.com/music/lyrics/997/studio/21986/getaway<br /> <br /> He is saying "Science says" and it's a direct reference to to religious wackos who think fossils were implanted in the earth by Satan to fool us into thinking the Earth is more than 6000 years old. Google it, it's a thing.<br /> <br /> You must understand that Science is completely built on a foundation of questioning. Peer review is one of the necessary steps of the scientific method, the part of the process where your peers review your work and poke holes, question what you've done if they can't reproduce your results. <br /> <br /> It may only seem like you can't question science because science requires data/evidence if you're going to question. You can't just blabber into the air and think you're questioning science, you have to be in a lab or do some math/physics before anyone will take your questioning seriously.<br /> <br />