"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.
(That, that)
Dude looks like a lady
(That, that)
Dude looks like a lady
(That, that)
Dude looks like a lady
(That, that)
Dude looks like a lady
(That)
Cruised into a bar on the shore
Her picture graced the grime on the door
She's a long lost love at first bite
Baby, maybe you're wrong
But you know it's alright, that's right
(That, that)
(That, that)
Back stage we're having the time
Of our lives until somebody said
"Forgive me if I seem out of line"
Then she whipped out a gun
And tried to blow me away
(That, that)
Dude looks like a lady
(That, that)
Dude looks like a lady
(That, that)
Dude looks like a lady
(That, that)
Dude looks like a lady
So never judge a book by its cover
Or who you gonna love by your lover
Sayin', love put me wise to her love in disguise
She had the body of a Venus
Lord, imagine my surprise
(That, that)
Dude looks like a lady
(That, that)
Dude looks like a lady
(That, that)
Dude looks like a lady
(That, that)
Dude looks like a lady
(Baby, let me follow you down)
Let me take a peek dear
(Baby, let me follow you down)
Do me, do me, do me all night
(Baby, let me follow you down)
Turn the other cheek, dear
(Baby, let him follow you down)
Do me, do me, do me, do me
Ooh, what a funky lady
Ooh, she like it, like it, like it, like that
Ooh, he was a lady, yeah
(That, that)
Dude looks like a lady
(That, that)
Dude looks like a lady
(That, that)
Dude looks like a lady
(That, that)
Dude looks like a lady
(That, that)
Dude looks like a lady
(That, that)
Dude looks like a lady
(That, that)
Dude looks like a lady
(That, that)
Dude looks like a lady
Dude, dude, dude, dude looks like a lady (that, that)
Dude, dude, dude, dude looks like a lady (that, that)
Dude, dude, dude, dude looks like a lady (that, that)
Dude, dude, dude, dude looks like a lady (that, that)
(That, that)
(That, that)
(That, that) ooh
(That, that)
(That, that)
(That, that)
(That, that)
(That, that)
(That, that)
Dude looks like a lady
(That, that)
Dude looks like a lady
(That, that)
Dude looks like a lady
(That, that)
Dude looks like a lady
(That)
Cruised into a bar on the shore
Her picture graced the grime on the door
She's a long lost love at first bite
Baby, maybe you're wrong
But you know it's alright, that's right
(That, that)
(That, that)
Back stage we're having the time
Of our lives until somebody said
"Forgive me if I seem out of line"
Then she whipped out a gun
And tried to blow me away
(That, that)
Dude looks like a lady
(That, that)
Dude looks like a lady
(That, that)
Dude looks like a lady
(That, that)
Dude looks like a lady
So never judge a book by its cover
Or who you gonna love by your lover
Sayin', love put me wise to her love in disguise
She had the body of a Venus
Lord, imagine my surprise
(That, that)
Dude looks like a lady
(That, that)
Dude looks like a lady
(That, that)
Dude looks like a lady
(That, that)
Dude looks like a lady
(Baby, let me follow you down)
Let me take a peek dear
(Baby, let me follow you down)
Do me, do me, do me all night
(Baby, let me follow you down)
Turn the other cheek, dear
(Baby, let him follow you down)
Do me, do me, do me, do me
Ooh, what a funky lady
Ooh, she like it, like it, like it, like that
Ooh, he was a lady, yeah
(That, that)
Dude looks like a lady
(That, that)
Dude looks like a lady
(That, that)
Dude looks like a lady
(That, that)
Dude looks like a lady
(That, that)
Dude looks like a lady
(That, that)
Dude looks like a lady
(That, that)
Dude looks like a lady
(That, that)
Dude looks like a lady
Dude, dude, dude, dude looks like a lady (that, that)
Dude, dude, dude, dude looks like a lady (that, that)
Dude, dude, dude, dude looks like a lady (that, that)
Dude, dude, dude, dude looks like a lady (that, that)
(That, that)
(That, that)
(That, that) ooh
(That, that)
(That, that)
(That, that)
(That, that)
(That, that)
(That, that)
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
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.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
He hooked up with a gender-bender thinking it was a woman. She "whiped out her gun", much to his surrpise. It's really quite funny how Aerosmith makes light of this kind of thing :).
@rhink Honestly thought it was about a trans man, but this makes more sense