"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.
let's go undercover like
young lovers should cause
i can kiss you better then
this letter could and you
say at least under these covers
i listen to you and
all this music about you i
hope it find you smiling
again till never begins or
till forver ends
i'll still be lost
in poetics or lost in the mail
can nobody tell you these
guys have a passion for
fashion but are sincere like
a staue and if you have to
choose i am gonna lose i
always do we always do
nostalgia is drunk and
frustration can be gorgeous
but can i keep my mouth shut
cause sometimes
gorgeous can be frustration
when your life is nothing
but a honorable mention
on a radio maybe i'm a
baby but i think it's time to
grow you're everthing i
live for-ever got shorter you
begged me not to go forever
i'll know on a radio better
i'm a quitter than a starry
tortured soul the lips i
kissed now shape songs of
sadness hold me dear
when i'm away and i'll
know when i hear your
name even if i have to sing
it to myself.
young lovers should cause
i can kiss you better then
this letter could and you
say at least under these covers
i listen to you and
all this music about you i
hope it find you smiling
again till never begins or
till forver ends
i'll still be lost
in poetics or lost in the mail
can nobody tell you these
guys have a passion for
fashion but are sincere like
a staue and if you have to
choose i am gonna lose i
always do we always do
nostalgia is drunk and
frustration can be gorgeous
but can i keep my mouth shut
cause sometimes
gorgeous can be frustration
when your life is nothing
but a honorable mention
on a radio maybe i'm a
baby but i think it's time to
grow you're everthing i
live for-ever got shorter you
begged me not to go forever
i'll know on a radio better
i'm a quitter than a starry
tortured soul the lips i
kissed now shape songs of
sadness hold me dear
when i'm away and i'll
know when i hear your
name even if i have to sing
it to myself.
Lyrics submitted by faeriekate
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
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”
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Magical
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
haha, the Dismemberment plan was belting out creative jewels around the same time that your namesake was making legitimate music (I'll help you out...early 90's). Labels are for people with knowledge on musical history, not for cute little internet aliases (aww...you cry a lot?). You know where you stand? You must like emo music...right? I can't even stress how heinous your statement about TDP is, though. According to your list of favorites, you have absolutely nothing credible, creative, original, or even remotely emo involved. How on earth can you even compare those groups to a band of Dismemberment Plan's caliber and notoriously respectable D.C. background? Chris Carabba was potty-training when The Plan were releasing their first album...and you were probably still nursing at your mother's teat like a little chimpanzee.
"i am NOT emo. i am nothing." Generally people with the DIY mindset don't label themselves according to genres. I guess it's true what they say about simple minds. You can only truly appreciate that which your mind has a capacity to absorb. Your insular viewpoints are a throbbing incentive to never return to the free-sharing forums of arcane indie-pop.
And one last question: How would breaking my fingers affect my ability to verbalize opinions? You think the internet is my sole haven for bombastic reprimands? Peace...console yourself with both soft pillow and soft music. Don't be concerned with perplexity that you can't possibly ascertain (coupled with lyrical content that exceeds your plane).