"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.
Put your head on my shoulder baby
Things can't get any worse
Night is getting colder sometimes
Life feels like it's a curse
I can't carry these sins on my back
Don't want to carry any more
I'm gonna carry this train off the track
I'm gonna swim to the ocean floor
Crash to the other shore
Swim to the ocean floor
Children killing children while the
Students rape their teachers
Comets fly across the sky
While the churches burn their preachers
We can't carry these sins on our back
Don't want to carry anymore
We're gonna carry this train off the track
We're gonna swim to the ocean floor
Crash to the other shore
Swim to the ocean floor
Let the water wash over you
Wash all over you
Swim to the ocean floor
So that we can begin again
Wash away all our sins
Crash to the other shore
I can't carry these sins on my back
Don't want to carry any more
I'm gonna carry this train off the track
I'm gonna swim to the ocean floor
Crash to the other shore
Swim to the ocean floor
We can't carry these sins on our back
Don't want to carry anymore
We're gonna carry this train off the track
We're gonna swim to the ocean floor
Crash to the other shore
Swim to the ocean floor
Things can't get any worse
Night is getting colder sometimes
Life feels like it's a curse
I can't carry these sins on my back
Don't want to carry any more
I'm gonna carry this train off the track
I'm gonna swim to the ocean floor
Crash to the other shore
Swim to the ocean floor
Children killing children while the
Students rape their teachers
Comets fly across the sky
While the churches burn their preachers
We can't carry these sins on our back
Don't want to carry anymore
We're gonna carry this train off the track
We're gonna swim to the ocean floor
Crash to the other shore
Swim to the ocean floor
Let the water wash over you
Wash all over you
Swim to the ocean floor
So that we can begin again
Wash away all our sins
Crash to the other shore
I can't carry these sins on my back
Don't want to carry any more
I'm gonna carry this train off the track
I'm gonna swim to the ocean floor
Crash to the other shore
Swim to the ocean floor
We can't carry these sins on our back
Don't want to carry anymore
We're gonna carry this train off the track
We're gonna swim to the ocean floor
Crash to the other shore
Swim to the ocean floor
Lyrics submitted by spitfirek7
Swim Lyrics as written by Madonna Ciccone William Orbit
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Royalty Network, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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To me this a song about the meaining of life. We all move on, we all make mistakes, hence sins, and then we all have to learn from them, and keep living. We have swim away from all the negativity and trash in our lives and get cleaned up and overcome the bad.
I realize I am not about to leave a comment deconstructing the lyrics, but..... I think this entire album was completely underrated. I liked that Madonna branched out and got a little more soul on this record. That said, this is one of the better songs on the album. I could listen to this for hours on repeat. Amazing.
Sometimes I wished I could swim to the ocean floor,and never come back up...
"Let the water wash over you Wash it all over you Swim to the ocean floor So that we can begin again Wash away all our sins Crash to the other shore"
This is one my favorite songs from the first time I heard it and it made me feel hopeful. It is saying choose to swim away from, instead of accepting, the hopelessness all around us. The water washes away (baptises) our past mistakes, so we can forgive ourselves, begin again and change.
one of her prettiest songs. i wish we'd hear this one live.
I love this song.. I like how she's saying.. you can beging again. You dont have to sit and dwell for the things you've done.. Amazingly said in this song...
"Let the water wash over you Wash it all over you Swim to the ocean floor So that we can begin again"
Love it!
i agree with aheartthatbends, im not fan of madonnas music, but for me its the best song of the album, no just for the lyric, wich is simple and hopeful. The rhythm, the environment and the production its amazing.
I love this song, it has a really cosmic feel, like Madonna's taking all the sins of mankind upon herself. And I love the kind of whale-sounding background noises she makes. I don't think this is the actual meaning (because it seems to easily interpreted) but my first thought when I heard this was suicide by drowning, because you don't often make it all the way down to the ocean floor and manage to come back up. I thought maybe it was a kind of martyrdom, like she's sacrificing her life as penance for her sins...or the sins of others.
This song has two meanings, one is starting a fresh new life. However, if we look at it, it also seems a suicidal song; where she can't carry sins and want to carry the train off the track. Maybe she thinks ending her life will grant her a new beginning. She wants to swim to the ocean floor and her body will crash to the shore.
I think she's singing about life and accepting it as it is, with all its sorrows and joy, birthing again after being washed out in the ocean floor. She's not gonna accept the guilt others put on us all, and swim away to the other shore. I think it's quite philosophical, great lyrics.