"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.
She looked so pretty, pity, perfect stranger
Sold connections for the buy in major
Lobby fucking with the bird board terf board
Need a licence to observe
And i swear they'd never lie
Just shows how much that
She goes, she goes, she goes
Round round round round
She goes, she goes
Ugly race day and a rain face loser
Printing money on parole beats loser
Your hands stuck in your pocket
Digress, confess you offered
But you burnt the house down
Just like the movies
She goes, she goes, she goes round and round
She goes, she goes, yeah
Pretty past you forgot my story
Lost a kitten on the road to glory
I know i could have been there
But i wasn't so it doesn't matter
Patch me another line
We'll laugh about it
He knows, he knows, he knows nothing now
He knows, he knows, he knows nothing now
Seagulls, seagulls, seagulls fly around
She knows, she goes, yeah
Sold connections for the buy in major
Lobby fucking with the bird board terf board
Need a licence to observe
And i swear they'd never lie
Just shows how much that
She goes, she goes, she goes
Round round round round
She goes, she goes
Ugly race day and a rain face loser
Printing money on parole beats loser
Your hands stuck in your pocket
Digress, confess you offered
But you burnt the house down
Just like the movies
She goes, she goes, she goes round and round
She goes, she goes, yeah
Pretty past you forgot my story
Lost a kitten on the road to glory
I know i could have been there
But i wasn't so it doesn't matter
Patch me another line
We'll laugh about it
He knows, he knows, he knows nothing now
He knows, he knows, he knows nothing now
Seagulls, seagulls, seagulls fly around
She knows, she goes, yeah
Lyrics submitted by cyber_daemon
Repeat Lyrics as written by Phil Jamieson
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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Blink-182
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No Surprises
Radiohead
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Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
American Town
Ed Sheeran
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Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
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.