"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.
Oh, I miss the kiss of treachery
The shameless kiss of vanity
The soft and the black and the velvety
Up tight against the side of me
And mouth and eyes and heart all bleed
And run in thickening streams of greed
As bit by bit it starts the need
To just let go my party piece
I miss the kiss of treachery
The aching kiss before I feed
The stench of a love for a younger meat
And the sound that it makes when it cuts in deep
The holding up on bended knees
The addiction of duplicities
As bit by bit, it starts the need
To just let go of my party piece
But I never said I would stay to the end
So I leave you with babies and hoping for frequency
Screaming like this in the hope of the secrecy
Screaming me over and over and over
I leave you with photographs, pictures of trickery
Stains on the carpet and stains on the scenery
Songs about happiness murmured in dreams
When both of us knew how the ending would be
So it's all come back 'round to breaking apart again
Breaking apart like I'm made up of glass again
Making it up behind my back again
Holding my breath for the fear of sleep again
Holding it up behind my head again
Cut in the deep to the heart of the bone again
'Round and 'round and 'round and it's coming apart again
Over and over and over
And now that I know that I'm breaking to pieces
I'll pull out my heart and I'll feed it to anyone
I'm crying for sympathy, crocodiles cry
For the love of the crowd
And the three cheers from everyone
Dropping through sky
Through the glass of the roof
Through the roof of your mouth
Through the mouth of your eye
Through the eye of the needle
It's easier for me to get closer to Heaven
Than ever feel whole again
But I never said I would stay to the end
I knew I would leave you with babies and everything
Screaming like this in the whole of sincerity
Screaming me over and over and over
I leave you with photographs, pictures of trickery
And stains on the carpet and stains on the memory of
Songs about happiness murmured in dreams
When we both of us knew how the end always is
How the end always is
How the end always is
How the end always is
How the end always is
How the end always is
Always
Always
The shameless kiss of vanity
The soft and the black and the velvety
Up tight against the side of me
And mouth and eyes and heart all bleed
And run in thickening streams of greed
As bit by bit it starts the need
To just let go my party piece
I miss the kiss of treachery
The aching kiss before I feed
The stench of a love for a younger meat
And the sound that it makes when it cuts in deep
The holding up on bended knees
The addiction of duplicities
As bit by bit, it starts the need
To just let go of my party piece
But I never said I would stay to the end
So I leave you with babies and hoping for frequency
Screaming like this in the hope of the secrecy
Screaming me over and over and over
I leave you with photographs, pictures of trickery
Stains on the carpet and stains on the scenery
Songs about happiness murmured in dreams
When both of us knew how the ending would be
So it's all come back 'round to breaking apart again
Breaking apart like I'm made up of glass again
Making it up behind my back again
Holding my breath for the fear of sleep again
Holding it up behind my head again
Cut in the deep to the heart of the bone again
'Round and 'round and 'round and it's coming apart again
Over and over and over
And now that I know that I'm breaking to pieces
I'll pull out my heart and I'll feed it to anyone
I'm crying for sympathy, crocodiles cry
For the love of the crowd
And the three cheers from everyone
Dropping through sky
Through the glass of the roof
Through the roof of your mouth
Through the mouth of your eye
Through the eye of the needle
It's easier for me to get closer to Heaven
Than ever feel whole again
But I never said I would stay to the end
I knew I would leave you with babies and everything
Screaming like this in the whole of sincerity
Screaming me over and over and over
I leave you with photographs, pictures of trickery
And stains on the carpet and stains on the memory of
Songs about happiness murmured in dreams
When we both of us knew how the end always is
How the end always is
How the end always is
How the end always is
How the end always is
How the end always is
Always
Always
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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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"
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Mountain Song
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Punchline
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American Town
Ed Sheeran
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Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.
I interpratate it in this way: for me this song speaks of a monotonous relationship where everything is routine, and the love that used to be is no longer the same. He´s going to brake out from her, he knows, at the same time hes afraid to be alone. he feels it like a loss, and misses those days when everything was going well. Feel the need to find a new love that makes him feel good again. He feels guilty for separating, but does not support it anymore. It´s about disintegration of feelings and time itself, everything ends in some ways... This is the way i interpretate this beautiful lyrics, maybe because im living the same situation..