"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.
I got it in the mail one morning
There was no return address
Just my name in gold leaf on the front
There was no time or location
There was really no info at all
No date no place no time no RSVP
But it said:
You are invited by anyone to do anything
You are invited for all time
I didn’t think much about it
It seemed like a really dumb joke
But later that week it was Friday—once again
So I took it down to a disco
That wouldn’t have me in am million years
I flashed it once and I was inside with a drink
I really didn’t stay too long there
‘Cause no one was having much fun
I made my way to a party all the way across town
It was thrown by the friend of an ex-thing
I wasn’t sure if I should go
But when I got in the place there were smiles all up and down
I grabbed my ex in the kitchen
I told her I was sorry I came
But she looked at me with a glazed smile and said:
You are invited by anyone to do anything
You are invited for all time
You are so needed by everyone to do everything
You are invited for all time
I headed home kinda early
The party wasn’t all that great
I saw my neighbor out crying on his front porch
I stopped to see what his deal was
I didn't catch much through the sobs
Something about a party and he didn’t go
I thought about it for a second
With the invite in my hands.
I threw it down at his feet and I said:
You are invited by anyone to do anything
You are invited for all time.
You are so needed if you really want to go
You are invited for all time
For all time
For all time
For all time
There was no return address
Just my name in gold leaf on the front
There was no time or location
There was really no info at all
No date no place no time no RSVP
But it said:
You are invited by anyone to do anything
You are invited for all time
I didn’t think much about it
It seemed like a really dumb joke
But later that week it was Friday—once again
So I took it down to a disco
That wouldn’t have me in am million years
I flashed it once and I was inside with a drink
I really didn’t stay too long there
‘Cause no one was having much fun
I made my way to a party all the way across town
It was thrown by the friend of an ex-thing
I wasn’t sure if I should go
But when I got in the place there were smiles all up and down
I grabbed my ex in the kitchen
I told her I was sorry I came
But she looked at me with a glazed smile and said:
You are invited by anyone to do anything
You are invited for all time
You are so needed by everyone to do everything
You are invited for all time
I headed home kinda early
The party wasn’t all that great
I saw my neighbor out crying on his front porch
I stopped to see what his deal was
I didn't catch much through the sobs
Something about a party and he didn’t go
I thought about it for a second
With the invite in my hands.
I threw it down at his feet and I said:
You are invited by anyone to do anything
You are invited for all time.
You are so needed if you really want to go
You are invited for all time
For all time
For all time
For all time
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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.
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
I Can't Go To Sleep
Wu-Tang Clan
Wu-Tang Clan
This song is written as the perspective of the boys in the street, as a whole, and what path they are going to choose as they get older and grow into men. (This is why the music video takes place in an orphanage.) The seen, and unseen collective suffering is imbedded in the boys’ mind, consciously or subconsciously, and is haunting them. Which path will the boys choose? Issac Hayes is the voice of reason, maybe God, the angel on his shoulder, or the voice of his forefathers from beyond the grave who can see the big picture and are pleading with the boys not to continue the violence and pattern of killing their brothers, but to rise above. The most beautiful song and has so many levels. Racism towards African Americans in America would not exist if everyone sat down and listened to this song and understood the history behind the words. The power, fear, pleading in RZA and Ghostface voices are genuine and powerful. Issac Hayes’ strong voice makes the perfect strong father figure, who is possibly from beyond the grave.
what? pervasive energy of exuberance? which dismemberment plan songs give you that idea? i could point out a sense of optimism..but exuberance?
and while i do agree with you on the idea of free will i strongly agree with the others that this song is imbedded with a feeling of disillusionment for the protagonist.
don't be pretentious. (i'm pretty sure there's some irony in me saying that)
:-/
emsquared: "I feel this song is about the fact that you can do whatever you want with your life, the "invite" is just a metaphor for free-will and being an adult, but it is your responsibility to make it happen."
I agree.
"Basically an allegory of thinking that you want something and ultimately realizing that it won't make you feel any happier after you get it. And now that you're enlightened, you put someone else on that same path you just followed [that second person might as well be our protagonist at the beginning of the song, so it's cyclical]."
Totally agree with this. We never really know what we want.
He feels excluded and powerless at first, ostracized from the popularity and successfulness he has always wanted. Then I think the invitation is a symbol of something that suddenly empowers him (although he probably had that ability all along)... And once he is able to "play the game" successfully of being a socialite, he realizes it isn't what he thought it was anyway.
Really reminds me of the party mentality and disillusionment that F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote about in the 1920s.
And then this song transitions perfectly into Gyroscope in the narrative scheme, because the girl in Gyroscope is already "in" with the crowd, but not any happier with the "losers".
This is one of the most well-written songs I've ever heard. A real way with storytelling. Dismemberment for life.
wow... these guys really impress me
I'll agree with staygold. An internet friend recommended The Dismemberment Plan to me a while back... I was kind of expecting some sort of death metal, but was pleasantly surprised with intelligent rock.
This is without question my favorite song off Emergency & I. It puts me in a good mood every time I hear it, especially when he describes meeting his ex-girlfriend at the party. The beat changes, and when she smiles and tells him he is invited the song just breaks open.
Not much mystery in this song. He gets a symbolic invitation that gives him confidence and a feeling of empowerment.
Just heard it recently, but no doubt one of my favorite songs.
i think the song is about this person being a in a position where he could go anywhere he want and hypothetically do anything he wanted, but he still felt empty and lacked happiness.
so i think the song is saying that even with the power to do anything we ever wanted, we'd still be dissapointed.
This is really great song, on an awesome album, by an amazing band. I agree with PBCrunch in that it's great when he's describing meeting his ex-girlfriend at the party and when she says he is invited the whole song opens up. I also agree with kazbonaut as to what the song is about but I also think that it's saying that though having everything might not be good for us, we could cheer someone else up with that power.
Everything everyone has said here has given me a different point of view, and like any great art, it can be interpreted in lots of different ways.
The picture I got from the song was of a guy who wasn't fully satisfied, yet he had the ultimate invitation to any social event. He only seemed really content when he gave it to the guy who was worse of that him.
Great compassionate story told in the beautiful Dismemberment Plan way.
the drum machine and syth sound build-up is crazy as hell. i love when they rock out at the climax, when the chorus hits. such an amazing song!