"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.
I don't know how I'm gonna tell you
I can't play with you no more
I don't know how I'm gonna do what mama told me
My friend the boy next door
I can't believe what people saying
You're gonna let your hair hang down
I'm satisfied to sit here working all day long
You're in the darker side of town
And when I'm out I see you walking
Why don't your eyes see me?
How could it be you've found another game to play?
What did mama say to me?
That's the way
Oh, that's the way it ought to be
Mama say that's the way it ought to stay, yeah, yeah, oh oh
And yesterday I saw you standing by the river
And weren't those tears that filled your eyes
And all the fish that lay in dirty water dying
Had they got you hypnotized?
And yesterday I saw you kissing tiny flowers
But all that lives is born to die
And so I say to you that nothing really matters
And all you do is stand and cry
I don't know what to say about it
When all you ears have turned away
But now's the time to look and look again at what you see
Is that the way it ought to stay?
That's the way
That's the way it oughta be
Oh don't you know now
Mama said, mama said, that's the way it's gonna stay, yeah, oh oh
I can't play with you no more
I don't know how I'm gonna do what mama told me
My friend the boy next door
I can't believe what people saying
You're gonna let your hair hang down
I'm satisfied to sit here working all day long
You're in the darker side of town
And when I'm out I see you walking
Why don't your eyes see me?
How could it be you've found another game to play?
What did mama say to me?
That's the way
Oh, that's the way it ought to be
Mama say that's the way it ought to stay, yeah, yeah, oh oh
And yesterday I saw you standing by the river
And weren't those tears that filled your eyes
And all the fish that lay in dirty water dying
Had they got you hypnotized?
And yesterday I saw you kissing tiny flowers
But all that lives is born to die
And so I say to you that nothing really matters
And all you do is stand and cry
I don't know what to say about it
When all you ears have turned away
But now's the time to look and look again at what you see
Is that the way it ought to stay?
That's the way
That's the way it oughta be
Oh don't you know now
Mama said, mama said, that's the way it's gonna stay, yeah, oh oh
Lyrics submitted by kevin, edited by Mellow_Harsher
That's The Way Lyrics as written by Robert Plant Jimmy Page
Lyrics © Songtrust Ave, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
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Great version of a great song,
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xOnix did a great interpretation. It is the song I feel like listening to most at the moment. To me it's just about growing up, growing out of things, coming to realise that everything is different and not as simple, that your 'mama' was right, even though you never believed her because you spent the whole time dreaming
I think this whole song is about realizing that life does have intrinsic value, and the lyrics are written through the eyes of one who just doesn't get it, talking to "the boy next door," modelled after Plant or anyone who feels that way, probably the listener in general, which is why he changed it to "girl next door" on the live DVD version. In the end, it's kind of a bitter irony, "is that the way it oughtta stay? yes, mama said that's the way it oughtta be." Kind of second-guessing what he was told and then re-assuring himself about what his parents said to him about the world, and working all day for a few bucks and neglecting life as it is. Some people just won't ever change... it's like Plant had found a power to convey pitiful emotions towards the character he was playing, which makes it twice as emotional, being in the first person like that. Easilly one of Robert's top five songwriting efforts of all time.