"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.
Brandy, Dark Child
Mase get Harlem on the rise
Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on
I went from Helly Hansen to mini mansions
The girls in Aruba doing belly dancin'
Spent half of my advance on jars from Branson
To make it through my circumstances
But you know I'm wiser now, move like Tarzan now
Got a butter soft leather just to hide my pound
Got a house in the valley, come and find me now
Got enough dough to buy the town
So I might give a six to my chick, Benz to my mom
Crib so big it look like the center gone
Give her a couch just to spill Henney on
And been a don since Lotto's and Benneton
Some people say that I am not the same girl
They say I think that I am in my own world
What makes them think that I have changed, yeah
A little dough cannot erase my problems
Me, like you, I have to try and solve them
Yes, everything is quite the same, whoa
I'm just trying to be me (be me)
Doing what I got to do (doing what I gotta do)
Some people think that I'm (that I'm)
Just sittin' on top of the world (sittin', sittin' on top of the world)
I'm just trying to be me (yeah)
Provin' what I got to do (provin', oh)
Some people think that I'm (that I'm)
Just sittin' on top of the world (oh yeah)
Sittin' on top of the world
Sittin' on top of the world
Sittin' on top of the world
Top of the world, top of the world, top of the world
Sittin' on top of the world
Top of the world, top of the world, top of the world (yeah, yeah)
I wonder why it's often said that my life's
A fairy tale and everything is so right
I wish that you could know the truth, yeah
My life is real so please don't get it twisted
Problems the same and got to be dealt with
These are the things I wish you knew, oh
Always in someone's eye, so many questions why
How is it to be down with me, with me
Afraid to express myself, always me and someone else (I need)
I need to be free but it's not that easy
I'm just trying to be me
Doing what I got to do
Some people think that I'm (sittin', sittin')
Just sittin' on top of the world (on top of the world)
I'm just trying to be me (yeah)
Provin' what I got to do (provin', oh)
Some people think that I'm (that I'm)
Just sittin' on top of the world (sittin' on top of the world)
Sittin' on top of the world
Don't understand why (don't understand why)
People think I don't have friends who knew me back then
This was my dream (this was my dream)
But nothing has changed
I still do the same things
Yo, we can cut the talkin' short if it ain't about cake
I ain't sittin' on top, I want a house on the lake
I'm that snotty nosed cat with a new BM
If you mess wit Brand' then I got to bruise your chin
I be with Puff, the girls be like "Who's his friend?"
If I hit a chick once, she probably move me in
So you gotta tell me right now, either you wit'
The cats who make the hits or the one that see the chips
(Slow down Mase, you're killing 'em) But don't stop it
What's the use of buying the weight, if I'ma have to chop it?
I used to love the lady, 'til I learned her logic
She only mess wit Mase, know the money ain't no object
If it ain't Cris', he won't pop it
If it ain't platinum wit ice, he won't rock it
If it don't cost 60, he don't drop it
If it don't come with TV's, he don't cop it
You can stop it
I'm just trying to be me
Doing what I got to do
Some people think that I'm (think that I'm just sittin' on top of the world)
Just sittin' on top of the world
I'm just trying to be me
Provin' what I got to do (provin' what I gotta do)
Some people think that I'm
Just sittin' on top of the world (sittin' on top of the world)
Sittin' on top of the world
Yeah, Brandy on top of the world
Dark Child on top of the world
Mase be on top of the world, what?
Harlem World be on top of the world
Brandy on top of the world
Dark Child be on top of the world
M-A-Dolla sign-E all over the world
Brandy, all over the world
All over the world
All over the world
Yeah, yeah, yeah
What, what
Yeah, yeah, yeah, what, what, what
Mase get Harlem on the rise
Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on
I went from Helly Hansen to mini mansions
The girls in Aruba doing belly dancin'
Spent half of my advance on jars from Branson
To make it through my circumstances
But you know I'm wiser now, move like Tarzan now
Got a butter soft leather just to hide my pound
Got a house in the valley, come and find me now
Got enough dough to buy the town
So I might give a six to my chick, Benz to my mom
Crib so big it look like the center gone
Give her a couch just to spill Henney on
And been a don since Lotto's and Benneton
Some people say that I am not the same girl
They say I think that I am in my own world
What makes them think that I have changed, yeah
A little dough cannot erase my problems
Me, like you, I have to try and solve them
Yes, everything is quite the same, whoa
I'm just trying to be me (be me)
Doing what I got to do (doing what I gotta do)
Some people think that I'm (that I'm)
Just sittin' on top of the world (sittin', sittin' on top of the world)
I'm just trying to be me (yeah)
Provin' what I got to do (provin', oh)
Some people think that I'm (that I'm)
Just sittin' on top of the world (oh yeah)
Sittin' on top of the world
Sittin' on top of the world
Sittin' on top of the world
Top of the world, top of the world, top of the world
Sittin' on top of the world
Top of the world, top of the world, top of the world (yeah, yeah)
I wonder why it's often said that my life's
A fairy tale and everything is so right
I wish that you could know the truth, yeah
My life is real so please don't get it twisted
Problems the same and got to be dealt with
These are the things I wish you knew, oh
Always in someone's eye, so many questions why
How is it to be down with me, with me
Afraid to express myself, always me and someone else (I need)
I need to be free but it's not that easy
I'm just trying to be me
Doing what I got to do
Some people think that I'm (sittin', sittin')
Just sittin' on top of the world (on top of the world)
I'm just trying to be me (yeah)
Provin' what I got to do (provin', oh)
Some people think that I'm (that I'm)
Just sittin' on top of the world (sittin' on top of the world)
Sittin' on top of the world
Don't understand why (don't understand why)
People think I don't have friends who knew me back then
This was my dream (this was my dream)
But nothing has changed
I still do the same things
Yo, we can cut the talkin' short if it ain't about cake
I ain't sittin' on top, I want a house on the lake
I'm that snotty nosed cat with a new BM
If you mess wit Brand' then I got to bruise your chin
I be with Puff, the girls be like "Who's his friend?"
If I hit a chick once, she probably move me in
So you gotta tell me right now, either you wit'
The cats who make the hits or the one that see the chips
(Slow down Mase, you're killing 'em) But don't stop it
What's the use of buying the weight, if I'ma have to chop it?
I used to love the lady, 'til I learned her logic
She only mess wit Mase, know the money ain't no object
If it ain't Cris', he won't pop it
If it ain't platinum wit ice, he won't rock it
If it don't cost 60, he don't drop it
If it don't come with TV's, he don't cop it
You can stop it
I'm just trying to be me
Doing what I got to do
Some people think that I'm (think that I'm just sittin' on top of the world)
Just sittin' on top of the world
I'm just trying to be me
Provin' what I got to do (provin' what I gotta do)
Some people think that I'm
Just sittin' on top of the world (sittin' on top of the world)
Sittin' on top of the world
Yeah, Brandy on top of the world
Dark Child on top of the world
Mase be on top of the world, what?
Harlem World be on top of the world
Brandy on top of the world
Dark Child be on top of the world
M-A-Dolla sign-E all over the world
Brandy, all over the world
All over the world
All over the world
Yeah, yeah, yeah
What, what
Yeah, yeah, yeah, what, what, what
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
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"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
American Town
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
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.