"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.
Eight o'clock, Monday night and I'm waitin'
To finally talk to a girl a little cooler than me
Her name is Nona, she's a rocker with a nose ring
She wears a two way, but I'm not quite sure what that means
And when she walks
All the wind blows and the angels sing
But she doesn't notice me
'Cause she is watchin' wrestling
Creamin' over tough guys
Listenin' to rap metal
Turntables in her eyes
It's like a bad movie
She is lookin' through me
If you were me, then you'd be
Screamin', "Someone shoot me"
As I fail miserably
Tryin' to get the girl all the bad guys want
'Cause she's the girl all the bad guys want
She likes the Godsmack and I like Agent Orange
Her CD changer's full of singers that are mad at their dad
She said she'd like to score some reefer and a forty
She'll never know that I'm the best that she'll never have
And when she walks
All the wind blows and the angels sing
She'll never notice me
'Cause she is watchin' wrestling
Creamin' over tough guys
Listenin' to rap metal
Turntables in her eyes
She likes 'em with a mustache
Racetrack season pass
Drivin' in a Trans-Am
Does a mullet make a man?
It's like a bad movie
She is lookin' through me
If you were me, then you'd be
Screamin', "Someone shoot me"
As I fail miserably
Tryin' to get the girl all the bad guys want
'Cause she's the girl all the bad guys want
'Cause she's the girl all the bad guys want
'Cause she's the girl all the bad guys want
There she goes again
With fishnets on and dreadlocks in her hair
She broke my heart, I want to be sedated
All I wanted was to see her naked
Now I am watchin' wrestling
Tryin' to be a tough guy
Listenin' to rap metal
Turntables in my eyes
I can't grow a mustache
And I ain't got no season pass
All I got's a moped, moped, moped
It's like a bad movie
She is lookin' through me
If you were me, then you'd be
Screamin', "Someone shoot me"
As I fail miserably
Tryin' to get the girl all the bad guys want
'Cause she's the girl all the bad guys want
'Cause she's the girl all the bad guys want
'Cause she's the girl all the bad guys want
'Cause she's the girl all the bad guys want
'Cause she's the girl all the bad guys want
'Cause she's the girl all the bad guys want
To finally talk to a girl a little cooler than me
Her name is Nona, she's a rocker with a nose ring
She wears a two way, but I'm not quite sure what that means
And when she walks
All the wind blows and the angels sing
But she doesn't notice me
'Cause she is watchin' wrestling
Creamin' over tough guys
Listenin' to rap metal
Turntables in her eyes
It's like a bad movie
She is lookin' through me
If you were me, then you'd be
Screamin', "Someone shoot me"
As I fail miserably
Tryin' to get the girl all the bad guys want
'Cause she's the girl all the bad guys want
She likes the Godsmack and I like Agent Orange
Her CD changer's full of singers that are mad at their dad
She said she'd like to score some reefer and a forty
She'll never know that I'm the best that she'll never have
And when she walks
All the wind blows and the angels sing
She'll never notice me
'Cause she is watchin' wrestling
Creamin' over tough guys
Listenin' to rap metal
Turntables in her eyes
She likes 'em with a mustache
Racetrack season pass
Drivin' in a Trans-Am
Does a mullet make a man?
It's like a bad movie
She is lookin' through me
If you were me, then you'd be
Screamin', "Someone shoot me"
As I fail miserably
Tryin' to get the girl all the bad guys want
'Cause she's the girl all the bad guys want
'Cause she's the girl all the bad guys want
'Cause she's the girl all the bad guys want
There she goes again
With fishnets on and dreadlocks in her hair
She broke my heart, I want to be sedated
All I wanted was to see her naked
Now I am watchin' wrestling
Tryin' to be a tough guy
Listenin' to rap metal
Turntables in my eyes
I can't grow a mustache
And I ain't got no season pass
All I got's a moped, moped, moped
It's like a bad movie
She is lookin' through me
If you were me, then you'd be
Screamin', "Someone shoot me"
As I fail miserably
Tryin' to get the girl all the bad guys want
'Cause she's the girl all the bad guys want
'Cause she's the girl all the bad guys want
'Cause she's the girl all the bad guys want
'Cause she's the girl all the bad guys want
'Cause she's the girl all the bad guys want
'Cause she's the girl all the bad guys want
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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"
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.
Amazing
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
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.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
This song is awesome! I love these guy's.