"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.
Spent twenty-four hours
I need more hours with you
You spent the weekend
Getting even, ooh-ooh
We spent the late nights
Making things right, between us
But now it's all good baby
Roll that Backwoods baby
And play me close
'Cause girls like you
Run around with guys like me
'Til sundown, when I come through
I need a girl like you, yeah-yeah
Girls like you
Love fun and yeah, me too
What I want when I come through
I need a girl like you, yeah-yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
I need a girl like you, yeah-yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
I need a girl like you
I spent last night
On the last flight to you
Took a whole day up
Trying to get way up, ooh-ooh
We spent the daylight
Trying to make things right between us (oh, oh)
And now it's all good baby
Roll that Backwoods baby
And play me close
Yeah, 'cause girls like you
Run around with guys like me
'Til sundown, when I come through
I need a girl like you, yeah-yeah
Girls like you
Love fun and yeah, me too
What I want when I come through
I need a girl like you, yeah-yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
I need a girl like you, yeah-yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
I need a girl like you, yeah-yeah
I need a girl like you, yeah-yeah
I need a girl like you
Maybe it's 6:45
Maybe I'm barely alive
Maybe you've taken my shit for the last time, yeah
Maybe I know that I'm drunk
Maybe I know you're the one
Maybe I'm thinking it's better if you drive
Oh, 'cause girls like you
Run 'round with guys like me
'Til sundown, when I come through
I need a girl like you, yeah
(You, yeah)
(You, yeah)
'Cause girls like you (girls like you)
Run 'round with guys like me
'Til sundown (sundown), when I come through
I need a girl like you, yeah yeah (oh-oh)
Girls like you
Love fun, yeah me too
What I want when I come through
I need a girl like you, yeah yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
I need a girl like you, yeah yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
I need a girl like you
I need more hours with you
You spent the weekend
Getting even, ooh-ooh
We spent the late nights
Making things right, between us
But now it's all good baby
Roll that Backwoods baby
And play me close
'Cause girls like you
Run around with guys like me
'Til sundown, when I come through
I need a girl like you, yeah-yeah
Girls like you
Love fun and yeah, me too
What I want when I come through
I need a girl like you, yeah-yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
I need a girl like you, yeah-yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
I need a girl like you
I spent last night
On the last flight to you
Took a whole day up
Trying to get way up, ooh-ooh
We spent the daylight
Trying to make things right between us (oh, oh)
And now it's all good baby
Roll that Backwoods baby
And play me close
Yeah, 'cause girls like you
Run around with guys like me
'Til sundown, when I come through
I need a girl like you, yeah-yeah
Girls like you
Love fun and yeah, me too
What I want when I come through
I need a girl like you, yeah-yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
I need a girl like you, yeah-yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
I need a girl like you, yeah-yeah
I need a girl like you, yeah-yeah
I need a girl like you
Maybe it's 6:45
Maybe I'm barely alive
Maybe you've taken my shit for the last time, yeah
Maybe I know that I'm drunk
Maybe I know you're the one
Maybe I'm thinking it's better if you drive
Oh, 'cause girls like you
Run 'round with guys like me
'Til sundown, when I come through
I need a girl like you, yeah
(You, yeah)
(You, yeah)
'Cause girls like you (girls like you)
Run 'round with guys like me
'Til sundown (sundown), when I come through
I need a girl like you, yeah yeah (oh-oh)
Girls like you
Love fun, yeah me too
What I want when I come through
I need a girl like you, yeah yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
I need a girl like you, yeah yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
I need a girl like you
Lyrics submitted by Mellow_Harsher, edited by DanMercury, dafina1705
Girls Like You Lyrics as written by Brittany Talia Hazzard Adam Noah Levine
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Hipgnosis Songs Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
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This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
Punchline
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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.
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.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
Girls Like You is to Maroon 5 like Bonnie and Clyde is to Jay-Z. There’s both looking for the same thing, a ride or die chick. Throughout the track, Adam Levine is crooning at length to a girl that he’s put through a lot. He’s been drunk; they’ve been fighting. But, at the end of the night, their magnetic pull is undeniable.
There are two things (in particular!) about Maroon 5’s “Girls Like You” video that make my heart sing -- as a staunch feminist, I obviously love the fact that this video features so many amazing women; as someone who has always been a fan of variety in my media, I thoroughly enjoyed watching a video with so much of it! The video features Adam Levine standing on a platform alone singing into a microphone. Doesn’t sound very exciting does it? Well, as he dives into the first chorus, as the camera is rotating around him, different women begin appearing behind him at every pass.
It doesn’t take too much brainpower to recognize that these women are all...well, different. From actresses to models to olympic athletes to comedians, this video features not only women from all different walks of life, but all different ethnicities as well. You won’t see any two women dressed in the same outfit or dancing the same either. Their personalities each shine with incredible individuality.
What better way to make a mockery of the phrase “girls like you” -- Maroon 5 (along with an army of talented and confident women) is here to tell you that no two women are the same and that trying to separate them down into different groups only to dismiss them is a fallacy. Plus, Ellen Degeneres. I mean, c’mon.
Girls Like You is so catchy! I’m going to be humming it for the rest of the day. I just watched the video and that made it even better. Where else can I find a video featuring Eleven, Mary J. Blidge and Cardi B. (And so many other awesome women) ?! I love way the ups and downs of love are all presented in this song and the way that different women are celebrated in the video.
“we spent the daylight tryna make things right between us”\n\ni guess the story of the previous maroon 5 song “Daylight” had a happy ending.