"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.
There will be no consolation prize
This time the bone is broken clean
No baptism, no reprise
And no sweet taste of victory
All the stars have fallen from the sky
And everything else in between
Satellites have closed their eyes
The moon has gone to sleep
Unloved, unloved
Unloved, unloved
Here I am inside a hotel
Choking on a million words I said
Cigarettes have burned a hole
And dreams are drunk and penniless
Here I am inside my father's arms
All jagged-bone and whiskey-dry
Whisper to me sweetly now
And tell me I will never die
Unloved, unloved
Unloved, unloved
Here I am an empty hallway
Broken window, rainy night
I am nineteen sixty-two
And I am ready for a fight
People crying hallelujah
While the bullet leaves the gun
People falling, falling, falling
And I don't know where they're falling from
Are they
Unloved, unloved
Unloved, unloved
Hoping that the kindness
Will lead us past the blindness
And not another living soul
Will ever have to feel
Unloved, unloved
Unloved, unloved, unloved
Unloved
This time the bone is broken clean
No baptism, no reprise
And no sweet taste of victory
All the stars have fallen from the sky
And everything else in between
Satellites have closed their eyes
The moon has gone to sleep
Unloved, unloved
Unloved, unloved
Here I am inside a hotel
Choking on a million words I said
Cigarettes have burned a hole
And dreams are drunk and penniless
Here I am inside my father's arms
All jagged-bone and whiskey-dry
Whisper to me sweetly now
And tell me I will never die
Unloved, unloved
Unloved, unloved
Here I am an empty hallway
Broken window, rainy night
I am nineteen sixty-two
And I am ready for a fight
People crying hallelujah
While the bullet leaves the gun
People falling, falling, falling
And I don't know where they're falling from
Are they
Unloved, unloved
Unloved, unloved
Hoping that the kindness
Will lead us past the blindness
And not another living soul
Will ever have to feel
Unloved, unloved
Unloved, unloved, unloved
Unloved
Lyrics submitted by tinkle_tinkle_drip
Unloved Lyrics as written by Jann Arden Richards
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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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"
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There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
it sounds to me like this is coming from the heart of someone who has been jilted many times, and has slipped into a deep dispair. unfortunately, they have accepted that they are destined to be 'unloved' and they are doomed to remain in this state...i hope i never feel the feeling that is conveyed in this song!
I think this song is about war. I'm not that history-savvy, but w/e was happening in 1962 (I am nineteen sixty-two), she wrote about in the second to last paragraph. Take a look. I won't copy it here, b/c you have it right up there. dot dot dot...
I love this song. One of my favourite Jann songs.
The only thing that struck me was the significance of 1962 and being ready for a fight. The Vietnam War was in effect from 1959 until 1975 (I think). But I don't think that's what she was talking about.
Jann herself was born in March of 1962, in Canada. Canada had a very small role in the Vietnam War, and Jann would have been very young while it was waging.
I love this one, I have it where Jackson Browne sings with her. For me it means dispair, that all humanity feels when frustrated and depressed. It's a very real feeling we all can relate to on a deeper lever, one that connects us all. But there are other feelings humanity shares, one being loved, loving...it's just the other side of the coin. IMHO :)<br /> 1st post, glad I found you all.<br /> Oapiti
I think the incident in 1962 may refer to the riots in Oxford Mississippi when President Kennedy was speaking in support of a black student who was to begin college the following day. 300 people were injured & 2 killed - Kennedy, I believe, brought in the Federal Marshals to get the crowds under control. <br />
I think this song has a more general meaning about alienation and those who are forgotten and fall through the cracks of life, no matter the circumstances (love, war, or ??), from 1962 to 2022 and beyond. I think it is one of most beautiful, albeit sad songs, I have ever heard. It has been a part of my life for decades. What an accomplishment to write a song that touches people so.
This song reminds me of what it feels like to be unloved, not just by a friend or a lover but to have had experience and experience of having people turn their back on you. Everyone. Your family, your children, institutions that you seek help from be it psychological, spiritual or medical. They treat you as someone they want to be rid of. At some point there is a final event that breaks the bone and leaves you falling away. You can’t think of a single person who cares about you. You don’t even resemble a human anymore that can hope for help or redemption. There will be no healing.