"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.
My mother was a witch, she was burned alive
Thankless little bitch
For the tears I cried
Take her down now
Don't wanna see her face
Blistered and burnt, can't hide my disgrace
Twenty-seven, everyone was nice
Got to see them, make them pay the price
See their bodies out on the ice
Take my time
Am I evil?
Yes I am
Am I evil, I am man, yes
Watched my mother die
I lost my head
Revenge now I sought
To break with my bread
Takin' no chance
You come with me
I'll split you to the bone
Help set you free
Twenty-seven, everyone was nice
Got to see them, make them pay the price
See their bodies out on the ice
Take my time
Am I evil?
Yes I am
Am I evil, I am man, yes I am
Oh oh
On with the action now, I'll strip your pride
I'll spread your blood around
I'll see you ride
Your face is scarred with steel, wounds deep and neat
Like a double dozen before you
Smell so sweet
Am I evil?
Yes I am
Am I evil, I am man, yes I am
My soul is longing before, await my heir
Sent to avenge my mother, sleep myself
My face is long forgotten, my face not my own
Sweet and timely whore, take me home
Am I evil?
Yes I am
Am I evil? I am man, yes I am
I'm with the action now, I'll strip your pride
I'll spread your blood around, I'll see you ride
Your face is scarred with steel, your spirits dance
Like a double dozen before you, no romance
Am I evil?
Yes I am
Am I evil? I am man
Am I evil?
Yes I am
Am I evil? I am man
Yes I am
Thankless little bitch
For the tears I cried
Take her down now
Don't wanna see her face
Blistered and burnt, can't hide my disgrace
Twenty-seven, everyone was nice
Got to see them, make them pay the price
See their bodies out on the ice
Take my time
Am I evil?
Yes I am
Am I evil, I am man, yes
Watched my mother die
I lost my head
Revenge now I sought
To break with my bread
Takin' no chance
You come with me
I'll split you to the bone
Help set you free
Twenty-seven, everyone was nice
Got to see them, make them pay the price
See their bodies out on the ice
Take my time
Am I evil?
Yes I am
Am I evil, I am man, yes I am
Oh oh
On with the action now, I'll strip your pride
I'll spread your blood around
I'll see you ride
Your face is scarred with steel, wounds deep and neat
Like a double dozen before you
Smell so sweet
Am I evil?
Yes I am
Am I evil, I am man, yes I am
My soul is longing before, await my heir
Sent to avenge my mother, sleep myself
My face is long forgotten, my face not my own
Sweet and timely whore, take me home
Am I evil?
Yes I am
Am I evil? I am man, yes I am
I'm with the action now, I'll strip your pride
I'll spread your blood around, I'll see you ride
Your face is scarred with steel, your spirits dance
Like a double dozen before you, no romance
Am I evil?
Yes I am
Am I evil? I am man
Am I evil?
Yes I am
Am I evil? I am man
Yes I am
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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"
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."
Head > Heels
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Head > Heels” is a track that aims to capture what it feels like to experience romance that exceeds expectations. Ed Sheeran dedicates his album outro to a lover who has blessed him with a unique experience that he seeks to describe through the song’s nuanced lyrics.
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.
Not always. I've seen cases where people have claimed that the cover version of a song is better than the original. I read somewhere that someone said that Selena Gomez and the Scene's version of "As A Blonde" was better than Fefe Dobson's version, and my father has claimed that Johnny Cash's versions of "Hurt" and "Rusty Cage" are better than Nine Inch Nails' and Soundgarden's versions. Darren Shan and Steve Leonard could be asking this question because Larten Crepsley tried to blood him, but he thought Steve was evil and couldn't become a vampire. Darren does become a half vampire, and for a while, he wouldn't drink human blood because he thought that it made you evil. Larten did tell him that humans who believe all the vampire myths we hear about in other media think he is evil, but he knows he's not.