"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.
Now here you go again
You say you want your freedom
Well, who am I to keep you down?
It's only right that you should
Play the way you feel it
But listen carefully
To the sound of your loneliness
Like a heartbeat drives you mad
In the stillness of remembering what you had
And what you lost
And what you had
And what you lost
Oh, thunder only happens when it's rainin'
Players only love you when they're playin'
Say women, they will come and they will go
When the rain washes you clean, you'll know
You'll know
Now here I go again
I see the crystal visions
I keep my visions to myself
It's only me who wants to wrap around your dreams
And have you any dreams you'd like to sell?
Dreams of loneliness
Like a heartbeat drives you mad
In the stillness of remembering what you had
And what you lost
And what you had
Ooh, what you lost
Thunder only happens when it's rainin'
Players only love you when they're playin'
Women, they will come and they will go
When the rain washes you clean, you'll know
Oh, thunder only happens when it's rainin'
Players only love you when they're playin'
Say women, they will come and they will go
When the rain washes you clean, you'll know
You'll know
You will know
Oh, you'll know
You say you want your freedom
Well, who am I to keep you down?
It's only right that you should
Play the way you feel it
But listen carefully
To the sound of your loneliness
Like a heartbeat drives you mad
In the stillness of remembering what you had
And what you lost
And what you had
And what you lost
Oh, thunder only happens when it's rainin'
Players only love you when they're playin'
Say women, they will come and they will go
When the rain washes you clean, you'll know
You'll know
Now here I go again
I see the crystal visions
I keep my visions to myself
It's only me who wants to wrap around your dreams
And have you any dreams you'd like to sell?
Dreams of loneliness
Like a heartbeat drives you mad
In the stillness of remembering what you had
And what you lost
And what you had
Ooh, what you lost
Thunder only happens when it's rainin'
Players only love you when they're playin'
Women, they will come and they will go
When the rain washes you clean, you'll know
Oh, thunder only happens when it's rainin'
Players only love you when they're playin'
Say women, they will come and they will go
When the rain washes you clean, you'll know
You'll know
You will know
Oh, you'll know
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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"
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
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.
Stevie Nicks said in an interview she wrote this song about Lindsay Buckingham towards the end of their relationship when it was at its most turbulent. She said the 'meaning' of the song was an invitation for him to leave their relationship if he chose to because she wanted out likewise. He wrote a song in reply which was the now famous Fleetwood Mac song "Go your own way," which is basically about the same thing as Dreams, but in Stevie's words, more blunt and insensitive. So much so, 'Go your own way' just offended and upset Nicks even more because she believed her song "Dream's" was a polite way of breaking up, quite unlike Lindsay's more forceful and offensive break-up retort.
Finally someone with the correct meaning. That is what she said. This is why fleetwood mac is so genius. This was Mick's band, but Mick let Stevie and Lindsey write all the songs because he saw how powerful they were together. <br /> <br /> You can also relate this song to their other songs, "Go your own way", "Never going back again". It's like a story if you put it all together.
christ<br /> I've just been introduced Fleetwood Mac a little over a few weeks ago and never knew how much drama has went on in this band
@Ishmal She also said she was offended and upset about it also because of the line "Packing up and shacking up is all you want to do" from Go Your Own Way, saying that it wasn't true that she wanted to go and shack up with other guys. In response to Go Your Own Way, Stevie wrote "Silver Springs", and it was just as angry. But because Lindsey didn't like how that song made him feel, he and the rest of the band took it off of the record and didn't tell her until they decided to replace it with "I Don't Wanna Know", which was an older song from when Lindsey and Stevie were a duet, before they joined Fleetwood. Mick took her out to the parking lot and told her in private that they took out "Silver Springs" and the reason was because it was too long, but she was okay with cutting down its length so that it could be included, but he told her they were they were going to replace it with "I Don't Want to Know" anyway, and she could either sing on it, leave it off and only have 2 songs on the album, let only Lindsey song on it by himself, or basically fuck off.<br /> To this day, she's still upset about its omission from the album. <br /> Lindsey Buckingham has always had the temper of a petulant child.<br /> It was always either his way or the highway. <br /> And because he didn't like the way "Silver Springs" made him feel, he threw a trantrum and made them take it off, even though "Go Your Own Way" is just as angry as it was.<br /> Moreover, to add insult to injury, they decided to put "Silver Springs" as the b-side to the "Go Your Own Way" single.<br /> I think what was messed up even more than their deciding to take it off the album was that they decided it in secret, when Stevie wasn't in the studio with them/wasn't needed in the studio that day.<br /> Moreover, what caused Stevie to leave the band was that in the late 80s/early 90s, Stevie wanted to include "Silver Springs" on a compilation/greatest hits album of her solo career, but Mick told her no because he wanted to put it on a box set ("25 Years- The Chain").<br /> <br /> She ended up getting slight revenge when it was released as a single and became a minor hit when they released it from the live album "The Dance".<br /> <br /> Personally, I probably would have threatened to leave Fleetwood Mac if it wasn't included on Rumours and taken my songs with me if they still didn't relent.
@Ishmal @Ishmal I always thought go your own way was just a song about unhappy love, not a breakup. It's really how your interpret it, there is no real meaning of this song, it can be taken down very differently