"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.
Threw you the obvious
And you flew with it on your back
A name in your recollection
Down among a million same
Difficult not to feel a little bit
Disappointed and passed over
When I look right through
To see you naked but oblivious
And you don't see me
But I threw you the obvious
Just to see if there's more behind
The eyes of a fallen angel
Eyes of a tragedy
Here I am expecting
Just a little bit too much from the wounded
but I see, see through it all
See through, see you
'Cause I threw you the obvious
to see what occurs behind
the Eyes of a fallen angel
Eyes of a tragedy
Oh well, oh well
Apparently nothing
Apparently nothing at all
You don't, you don't, you don't see me
You don't, you don't, you don't see me
You don't, you don't, you don't see me
You don't, you don't, you don't see me
You don't see me
You don't, you don't
You don't see me at all
And you flew with it on your back
A name in your recollection
Down among a million same
Difficult not to feel a little bit
Disappointed and passed over
When I look right through
To see you naked but oblivious
And you don't see me
But I threw you the obvious
Just to see if there's more behind
The eyes of a fallen angel
Eyes of a tragedy
Here I am expecting
Just a little bit too much from the wounded
but I see, see through it all
See through, see you
'Cause I threw you the obvious
to see what occurs behind
the Eyes of a fallen angel
Eyes of a tragedy
Oh well, oh well
Apparently nothing
Apparently nothing at all
You don't, you don't, you don't see me
You don't, you don't, you don't see me
You don't, you don't, you don't see me
You don't, you don't, you don't see me
You don't see me
You don't, you don't
You don't see me at all
Lyrics submitted by Demau Senae, edited by sciencejim, BreakingTheFaith, Serspring, aKiRatM, AnthraxPrincess, markydissod
3 Libras Lyrics as written by Maynard Keenan Billy Howerdel
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group
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Fast Car
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Ed Sheeran tells a story of unsuccessfully trying to feel “Amazing.” This track is about the being weighed down by emotional stress despite valiant attempts to find some positivity in the situation. This track was written by Ed Sheeran from the perspective of his friend. From the track, we see this person fall deeper into the negative thoughts and slide further down the path of mental torment with every lyric.
I can't say what the song is about, only what it so deftly describes.
When I see this song, the first thing that comes to mind is bipolar disorder. If I ever wanted to explain what it's like I'd just show them this song. I understand this only because I am bipolar.
To me it's about a label and diagnosis, at first. You throw the doc what will obviously lead to your diagnosis. You feel like it's all smokin mirrors. The other part is realizing that everything that was real to you isn't real. Your entire identity is put into question. Who am I beyond this label?
Bipolar people can see through peoples bullshit and see them for who they are, but no one can see them. It's the heart of this song.
You realize you will never see yourself and the world won't ever see you either. The "among a million sane" to me is being classified as a statistic. I believe even the name 3 libras, which means 3 stories, is more like 3 states of being in bipolar. Mania, normal, depressed.
It's as if he is seeing all these sides and realizing all these things are him, not just the best but the worst as well. The other sides of this, is that in bipolar it's so much more complex than anyone understands. In relationships, all relationships, we try to either show our best or pretend to be what we are not only to hide our changing states. This drains us so much, because even if we could identify who we were, we'd still have to "fake it to make it."
Sometimes the hardest thing for us though, is when we show people who we are, we are rejected. We make relationships with wounded people and just hope they can understand our demons since we can see and understand theres. Tragically this is rarely the case. We are not seen by the wounded, by anyone.
He wants people to be deeper than they are and so few people lack depth.
It creates detatchment, and in the end the easiest way to describe a bipolar person is the mind of a child. It's why in the video he sees the boy and sees a part of himself in the boy and the boy sees himself in him.
Ultimately it all leads to disappointment, a bipolar person wants so desperately to learn who he or she is but we fall short of being able to accurately display who we are. It leads to isolation, giving up, when he says oh well , apparently nothing at all. Out of frustration and anger it's like he's trying to explain that they don't see him and it's why he is isolated. Even with company, as the video shows, he feels isolated.
Whether you believe my definition or not makes no difference to me because he truly is describing bipolar whether it was intentional or not.