"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.
Woo-hoo
Woo-hoo
Woo-hoo
Woo-hoo
I got my head checked
By a jumbo jet
It wasn't easy
But nothing is
No
(Woo-hoo) When I feel heavy metal
(Woo-hoo) And I'm pins and I'm needles
(Woo-hoo) Well, I lie and I'm easy
All of the time but I'm never sure why I need you
Pleased to meet you
I got my head done
When I was young
It's not my problem
It's not my problem
(Woo-hoo) When I feel heavy metal
(Woo-hoo) And I'm pins and I'm needles
(Woo-hoo) Well, I lie and I'm easy
All of the time but I'm never sure why I need you
Pleased to meet you
Yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah
Oh, yeah
Woo-hoo
Woo-hoo
Woo-hoo
I got my head checked
By a jumbo jet
It wasn't easy
But nothing is
No
(Woo-hoo) When I feel heavy metal
(Woo-hoo) And I'm pins and I'm needles
(Woo-hoo) Well, I lie and I'm easy
All of the time but I'm never sure why I need you
Pleased to meet you
I got my head done
When I was young
It's not my problem
It's not my problem
(Woo-hoo) When I feel heavy metal
(Woo-hoo) And I'm pins and I'm needles
(Woo-hoo) Well, I lie and I'm easy
All of the time but I'm never sure why I need you
Pleased to meet you
Yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah
Oh, yeah
Lyrics submitted by Demau Senae, edited by gmg1111201, azzaets07
Song 2 Lyrics as written by David Rowntree Damon Albarn
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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You dumb asses.... This song is a parody to American popular rock. The songs are just random words. The chorus, WOOHOO is just another hack of the lack of meaning in the majority of popular american music. Songs these days are written to make money. Look at all the mainstream punk bands these days. Its rediculous. Go Blur for making a good song. I bet they laughed their asses off when their parody of american pop music became a hit... but only in America. HAHA...
@uncwjoz It was a big hit in the UK, reached #2 on the charts. Bigger hit there than it was in America.
I always thought the song was about fear of flying. Perhaps it's him telling about the first time he flew on an airplane. Every noise and every bump is terrifying:
'I got my head checked By a jumbo jet It wasn't easy But nothing is No'
I think the next bit is him hearing the engins and feeling the terror (pins and needles) of something happening. Who knows maybe he was on a plane that had engin trouble (heavy metal) when he was younger:
"When I feel heavy metal And I'm pins and I'm needles'
The next bit he's telling himself that everythings going to be alright and talking to the person in the neighboring seat to help keep calm.
'Well I lie and I'm easy All of the time but I'm never sure When I need you Pleased to meet you'
I think the, "I got my head done when I was young" means that the whole thing is past tense and just him remembering it or telling a friend what happened.
Ultimately the, 'Woo hoo' is just the terror he feels every time the plane bumps and jostles. It also is probably exilerating to know he survived and to think back on it.
When I think of it in this context it makes me laugh. Just to imagine this guy going insane on an airplane. I think it would have made a fitting music video.
Wow, I never thought of it that way. I was always told that this was a rag on American's and grunge music, and the lyrics weren't supposed to make sense because grunge music lyrics don't ever make sense. But, thinking about it, your analysis makes loads of sense... and it's funny!
That's a pretty impressive analogy.<br /> <br /> Although I can't confirm whether the song is actually about flying (because the band would never really tell me) Damon did actually write it on an aeroplane.<br /> <br /> His story is that he wrote it on a plane and he wrote it in a very short time. The title Song 2 was only a temporary working title but in the end the band decided to keep it.<br /> <br /> The original live playing of this song in 1996 was a bit different to the recorded version. I will try and fish out the original first draft lyrics if I can find them but there is a strong possibility that the song is a reference to flying.
Interesting!<br /> Nice!
@chaosmagick I agree that is a very funny scenario to imagine that's pretty creative.
When I was 11 I loved this song... I still do. But then I'd ride around on my bike singing it, it was funny. I remember that summer it has memories. It was when I loved my friend Bradley.
Sorry everyone. It was fun reading your responses. This song is actually Blur's way of commenting on what gets accepted in American radio/pop culture. The went out to prove a point that no matter what lyrics you put to a song, as long as it has a catchy rhythm, the mindless public will just eat it up. They are saddened by what is being accepted as "great" music. So they made this song with the most ridiculous lyrics ever made, gave it a booming guitar riff, and sent it out. They even casually named it "song 2". True to their suspicions, it caught on. "... I got my head checked. By a jumbo jet. It wasn't easy. But nothing is. WooHOO!" Even after we found out what they were up to we STILL embraced it. I love this song so much as a testament to what truly "great" music is.
although this is a decent song, its a shame to know that its the only song people know by blur and it's really nothing like the lot of their songs. blur is an excellent band and people should really look more into their music than just this song.
Absolutely. Songs like Coffee & TV, Girls & Boys, Parklife, She's so High, This Is a Low, There's No Other Way, The Universal and Crazy Beat are excellent examples and there's more where they came from.
Tender is an epic one as well.
@redplaid The fact that song was ultimately a joke but made them more well-known is what I find sad because they put no effort and wanted to show they could become well-known for a stupid song and we just gobbled it up just seems to prove what idiots live among us. I feel like that's what's so sad here.
The lead singer is SEXAY!
My Chemical Romance is horrible, sorry.
In the mid nineties `Britpop' was everything in parallel to Americas grunge scene. Musically they were polar opposites and they each had very little respect for each other.
Graham, the bassist from blur, was secretly a grunge fan and would play this king of music in his headphones to avoid chastising from the band.
Damon Albarn though approached Graham with a few grunge type songs for Graham to choose. The track he selected was `Song 2'its working title and official release name.
Ironically the song charted very well in England, ironic for the fact it was meant to be a satirical stab at everything grunge. Seeming non-sensical lyrics and a clich‚d video to match apparently weren't noticed by the public at the time who rode it to chart success.
`I got my head done,
When I was young,
It's not my problem'
These lyrics demonstrate the incoherent nature of the whole song, jumping from subject to subject with no links. One of the main victims of `Song 2' was the Pixies who were the poster grunge band of the nineties.
Now Damon Albarn says that it was a branching to more pure music and has never addressed the thoughts that it was in actual fact a mickey take, these have been confirmed by other members of the band though.
No idea why your comment was flagged; I think you're bang on.
Graham Coxon was the guitarist, not the bassist. The bassist was Alex James. Get your facts straight, buffoon.
good memories of this song: a girl in my class insisting the "woo-hoo" bit was "song 2!", and a mate of mine attempting to impress this girl by jumping off a bench in our college common room when the heavy bit kicked in, subsequently falling through a glass pane above a door and cutting his elbow! Excellent!
Yeah this song is great. It will be a classic, I bet they will always use it in movies, tv, and sports.