"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.
Seen you naked in the bath
Cigarette stains on your hands
Wilted flowers in a vase
I ask how are you
Yeah how are you?
I see the lipstick on your glass
I think you're drunk, I start to laugh
I find your note, the letters ran
It said I love you
Yeah I love you
Don't ask why, don't ask why
Don't ask why, don't ask why
Don't ask why, don't ask why, don't ask why
Sixteen candles down the drain
I watch you passed out forever
I touch your face, you start to smile
And on your note is my reply
I wish I loved you
I wish I loved you
Don't ask why, don't ask why
Don't ask why, don't ask why
Don't ask why, don't ask why, don't ask why
Sixteen candles down the drain
(The drain)
Sixteen candles down the drain
(The drain)
Sixteen candles down the drain
(The drain)
Sixteen candles down the drain
(The drain)
Don't ask why, don't ask why, don't ask why, don't ask why
Don't ask why, don't ask why, don't ask why
Sixteen candles down the drain
(The drain)
Sixteen candles down the drain
(The drain)
Sixteen candles down the drain
(The drain)
Sixteen candles down the drain
(The drain)
Cigarette stains on your hands
Wilted flowers in a vase
I ask how are you
Yeah how are you?
I see the lipstick on your glass
I think you're drunk, I start to laugh
I find your note, the letters ran
It said I love you
Yeah I love you
Don't ask why, don't ask why
Don't ask why, don't ask why
Don't ask why, don't ask why, don't ask why
Sixteen candles down the drain
I watch you passed out forever
I touch your face, you start to smile
And on your note is my reply
I wish I loved you
I wish I loved you
Don't ask why, don't ask why
Don't ask why, don't ask why
Don't ask why, don't ask why, don't ask why
Sixteen candles down the drain
(The drain)
Sixteen candles down the drain
(The drain)
Sixteen candles down the drain
(The drain)
Sixteen candles down the drain
(The drain)
Don't ask why, don't ask why, don't ask why, don't ask why
Don't ask why, don't ask why, don't ask why
Sixteen candles down the drain
(The drain)
Sixteen candles down the drain
(The drain)
Sixteen candles down the drain
(The drain)
Sixteen candles down the drain
(The drain)
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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”
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.
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.
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.
My band opened for Sponge in November of last year and I briefly spoke to Vinnie about the song. Three things I can confirm:
@megasoul cool. I read it’s about a band members death and that Molly was also someone Vinnie met. So it’s kind of two stories into 1,one that is a tribute (ended bad) and one that could have ended as bad, but didn’t. Could that be?
He loves her, she wishes she loved him.
He finds her dead in a bathtub. She's been dead for a while from the looks of the flowers in the vase. She wrote that she loved him. He doesn't want to ask why she did this (because he doesn't want to know? or he doesn't want to face the truth?). She was only 16 and now its 16 wasted years because she comitted suicide (down the drain). He touches her face (she passed out forever) and he wishes he loved her while she was still living.
It's about a guy who finds a dead teenager's suicide note. She killed herself on her birthday, she was only 16.
I think this song is a metaphor for all the people come and gone out of your life.
Its clearly about a guy finding his 16 year old girlfriend dead in the tub after she commited suicide. The lyrics are pretty straight forward here. I am surprised that most people aren't seeing that.
Seen you naked in the bath Cigarette stains on your hands Wilted flowers in a vase (Flowers wilted because she has been dead for a while) I ask how are you Yeah how are you?
I see the lipstick on your glass I think you're drunk, I start to laugh (At first he doesn't know she's dead. Thinks she is just passed out drunk) I find your note, the letters ran (Found suicide note, and letters ran, like the blood ran from her wrists, as he discovers) It said I love you (Her note says I love you to him) Yeah I love you (He reflects "I love you" toward her)
Don't ask why, don't ask why Don't ask why, don't ask why Don't ask why, don't ask why, don't ask why (self explanatory)
Sixteen candles down the drain (self explanatory)
I watch you passed out for a while (Again, he doesn't know she's deasd yet at this point) I touch your face, you start to smile (He touches her and manipulates her face in to what could appear to be a"smile", as he is checking to see if she is alive, and realizing she is not) And on your note is my reply I wish I loved you I wish I loved you (self explanatory - he feels guilty for not being there for her more)
Don't ask why, don't ask why Don't ask why, don't ask why Don't ask why, don't ask why, don't ask why
Sixteen candles down the drain (The drain) Sixteen candles down the drain (The drain) Sixteen candles down the drain (The drain) Sixteen candles down the drain (The drain)
Don't ask why, don't ask why, don't ask why, don't ask why Don't ask why, don't ask why, don't ask why
Sixteen candles down the drain (The drain) Sixteen candles down the drain (The drain) Sixteen candles down the drain (The drain) Sixteen candles down the drain (The drain)
im not sure about wat this song means... i guess it about a guy and a girl that have been going out for a long time. in the beginning of the song he talks about a specific time wen she tells him she loves him and he wants to return the feelings but he doesnt love her (i wish i loved you)... but i dont understand the chorus at all...
oh yeah... i forgot to add that he doesn't realize she is dead at first, because he thinks she is drunk and passed out in the bathtub.
errr... one more edit... in her letter his reply to her love was also written. apparently she told him that she loved him while she was still living and he replied to her that he wished he loved her. this is why she comitted suicide and she wrote his answer to her love in her suicide letter.
When i first heard this song i thought it was about a guy who has liked this girl for a long time but didnt think she liked him back. then they don't see each other for a long time and he gets over her. when he finally sees her again, she is not doing well, and he finds a note that she had written way back when he liked her, the note said she liked him but she didn't think he liked her back. now that he finds this out, he wants to love her like he did in the past, but he has changed and he can't. So, the first 16 years (candles) of his life spent secretly wanting this girl were wasted. it's about the irony of wanting something when you can't have it but when you can have it, not wanting it.