"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.
Trippin' around down town
Throw me a crumb throw me a bone, yeah
Street kid comes along
Let me through, he say's,
I'm higher than you, now
I feel like a star
I feel like a star
Kicking the can around
The air is high, my mouth dry, feeling mellow
Sweet thing come along
I say hello, she say's hello and did you know
I feel like a star
I feel like a star
It's never very far
I feel like a star
(you're never very far)
Fallin' down
Burning out
Shootin' through the sky watch the meteor fly
Gather 'round
Gather 'round
Watch me as I hit the ground
Trippin around down town
Throw me a crumb throw me a bone, yeah
I feel like a star
I feel like a star
It's never very far
I feel like a star
Yeah yeah yeah
Fallin' down
Burning out
Shootin' through the sky watch the meteor fly
Gather 'round
Gather 'round
Watch me as I hit the ground
Watch me as I hit the ground
Throw me a crumb throw me a bone, yeah
Street kid comes along
Let me through, he say's,
I'm higher than you, now
I feel like a star
I feel like a star
Kicking the can around
The air is high, my mouth dry, feeling mellow
Sweet thing come along
I say hello, she say's hello and did you know
I feel like a star
I feel like a star
It's never very far
I feel like a star
(you're never very far)
Fallin' down
Burning out
Shootin' through the sky watch the meteor fly
Gather 'round
Gather 'round
Watch me as I hit the ground
Trippin around down town
Throw me a crumb throw me a bone, yeah
I feel like a star
I feel like a star
It's never very far
I feel like a star
Yeah yeah yeah
Fallin' down
Burning out
Shootin' through the sky watch the meteor fly
Gather 'round
Gather 'round
Watch me as I hit the ground
Watch me as I hit the ground
Lyrics submitted by zekey baby, edited by Pepsi90919
Trippin' Lyrics as written by Ghazal Dunk
Lyrics © TuneCore Inc., Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, O/B/O DistroKid, Songtrust Ave
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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
Mental Istid
Ebba Grön
Ebba Grön
This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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.
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.
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.
i saw the music video for this way back in 98 or 99.. and for some reason the song has always stayed with me.. even though i never heard of Edwin again.
i think it's pretty obvious that one of the main meanings of this song is about drugs... 'i'm higher than you know', 'falling down burnin up' etc.. and just the title itself. I've never heard one phrase ('I feel like a star') sum up the feeling of being on drugs so well, though i've never gone anywhere near as far as it describes here.. it also reminds me of the description of being manic in bipolar disorder... basically: You feel like a star. The way he says it is so ironic... it captures the irony of the situation.. because then there's always the comedown, you 'hit the ground' and you're not a star at all, you're just some junkie lying on a street downtown. Same with what I've studied and heard about bipolar disorder... you're flying, everything is beautiful, the world is one shining golden place... and then you crash.
I like how the whole song keeps referencing space.. with 'star', 'meteor', etc. Great song. I wonder what happened to Edwin.. why he never released another album?
He released another album under "Edwin & the Pressure", I watched him get pelted in the face with a rock from the Fort Erie Friendship Festival in 2003, "The Pressure" came off stage to try and kick the rock thrower's ass. Edwin then formed a new band Crash Karma with other washed up Canadian musicians, they also played at the Friendship Festival in like 2010 or something and haven't been heard from since. Edwin is now a bartender in Toronto and still would have been better off not being a dick and staying with I Mother Earth.