"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.
In the states there's a problem with race
Because of ignorant past burned fires
From evolution we've been killing each other
I figure man should have it down to a science
No chance
Not for a minute
Not for a second
I won't be defensive
I'm straight out in my opinion
You'd better listen to a man who knows what he is saying
I've seen your side
You run and hide for the mere fact that you feel inferior
Be superior
And know your interior
Race, pride, prejudice
Black man, white man
No stand
Live in the past
We make it last
A hated mass
No solution
Mind pollution
For revolution
So low behold my eyes
This land of fools will rise
No good
For no one
You're no good
For no one
You blame oppression and play the role of criminals
To rape and burn show progress is minimal
White hoods and militants you know it's such a pity
Living, breathing
Violence in your city
If one man
Had one home
In one world
Held live alone without variety
Full of anxiety
No one to point at, question
Or even talk to in his private grave
No matter what color
He wouldn't be saved from hell
He dwells
A closed mind playing the part of prison cells
Race, pride, prejudice
Black man, white man
No stand
Live in the past
We make it last
A hated mass
No solution
Mind pollution
For revolution
So low behold my eyes
This land of fools will rise
No good
For no one
You're no good
For no one
So low behold your eyes
This land of fools will rise
No good
For no one
You're no good
For no one
Ooh
Because of ignorant past burned fires
From evolution we've been killing each other
I figure man should have it down to a science
No chance
Not for a minute
Not for a second
I won't be defensive
I'm straight out in my opinion
You'd better listen to a man who knows what he is saying
I've seen your side
You run and hide for the mere fact that you feel inferior
Be superior
And know your interior
Race, pride, prejudice
Black man, white man
No stand
Live in the past
We make it last
A hated mass
No solution
Mind pollution
For revolution
So low behold my eyes
This land of fools will rise
No good
For no one
You're no good
For no one
You blame oppression and play the role of criminals
To rape and burn show progress is minimal
White hoods and militants you know it's such a pity
Living, breathing
Violence in your city
If one man
Had one home
In one world
Held live alone without variety
Full of anxiety
No one to point at, question
Or even talk to in his private grave
No matter what color
He wouldn't be saved from hell
He dwells
A closed mind playing the part of prison cells
Race, pride, prejudice
Black man, white man
No stand
Live in the past
We make it last
A hated mass
No solution
Mind pollution
For revolution
So low behold my eyes
This land of fools will rise
No good
For no one
You're no good
For no one
So low behold your eyes
This land of fools will rise
No good
For no one
You're no good
For no one
Ooh
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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"
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
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.
Poorest song on the album? huhhhhh.....
IMO one of their very best; awesome vocals, awesome riffs and it's got an important message, unlike ego-centric songs like 'Walk'.