"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.
Who saw those dark eyes
Who saw those dark eyes
These years gone by
Deep within
Burn my skin
All those years gone by
On the darkest night
All those years gone by
Who felt those cold hands
Who felt those cold hands
Touch my skin
Deep within
Burn my soul
Fell to the ground where I was found
All those years ago, all those tears ago
All those years ago
Everybody makes mistakes
Everybody makes mistakes
Even me
Just be free
This is a place where in the end
It happens in our world within
Time to go
Time to go
Time to go
Who saw those dark eyes
These years gone by
Deep within
Burn my skin
All those years gone by
On the darkest night
All those years gone by
Who felt those cold hands
Who felt those cold hands
Touch my skin
Deep within
Burn my soul
Fell to the ground where I was found
All those years ago, all those tears ago
All those years ago
Everybody makes mistakes
Everybody makes mistakes
Even me
Just be free
This is a place where in the end
It happens in our world within
Time to go
Time to go
Time to go
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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”
Holiday
Bee Gees
Bee Gees
@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
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."
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
Could it be about rape? Most of the lyrics seem to fit - one of my best friends recently confessed that she was raped by a friend a while back and when I listened to this song afterwards, I was surprised. The evil rapist with the dark eyes and the cold hands, burning the victim's soul...all those years ago.
"This is a place where in the end, it happens in our world within" is more abstract. I think it describes how the victim would see it as a rape that has just happened (a bad thing), in her "world", but that the rapist (in his world) obviously sees it as a normal thing.
The title "Ultraviolence" seems to fit the idea too. Of course it may well be about domestic violence, or drugs, or anything else in that vein, but the song will always remind me of rape and my friend's horrible experience.
I think it's about rape, too. The term "ultraviolence" comes from the novel A Clockwork Orange, and those who have read it (or seen the film), know one of Alex's favorite forms of ultraviolence is rape.
@ratanx I mean, Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook both went to Salford Grammar School as children, which apparently has a bit of a history of sexual abuse. I'm not totally sold on the theory that either of them were abused since they've never commented on anything of that nature, but I wouldn't be surprised if that turned out to be the case, especially considering the time they were going to school then, when abuse in British schools were rife.
Perfect fit for the famous Luka Magnotta murder case from 2012, don\'t you think? And he even used True Faith in the murder video! Clearly, New Order was his favorite band, and to be honest, it\'s great music to commit murder to, let\'s face it.
In a similar way, I always view this song as not about rape but child abuse. The reference to "all those years ago" suggest it was something that happened a long time in the past.
I've seen very early live versions of this song that had the lyric "Who killed my father?"...which fits the child abuse theme, and suggests the song was originally going to be more obvious and explicit.
@MisterMarcus How do you interpret that as having to do with child abuse? I also think it has something to do with some kind of child abuse, whether sexual/emotional/physical, but I can't find anything on the members that seems to prove anything.
I dunno what the song might be about, probably A Clockwork Orange reference considering Doom came out 11 years after PC&L