"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.
A witch will burn
when she's thrown into the fire
Not her she'll peel and writhe
but never expire
She crawls on webs of lies
I die up inside her
to take what's mine
that bitch the cinnamon spider
I won't try
and every time I tell that lie
I live without guilt
and I won't cry
and I hope you love your life
and live with your guilt
Consumed by hate and guilt
She'll never retire
too old to fix
too dead to ever acquire
slit wrists - talk shit
But she will never inspire
a plan to save herself
the cinnamon spider
I won't try
and every time I tell that lie
I live without guilt
and I won't cry
and I hope you love your life
and live with your guilt
bite heads off those who fail
and try to imply her
forlorn despised
I am the cinnamon spider
I won't try
and every time I tell that lie
I live without guilt
and I won't cry
and I hope you love your life
and live with your guilt
and I am fine
and I'll learn to take what's mine
and live without guilt
Oh yeah
when she's thrown into the fire
Not her she'll peel and writhe
but never expire
She crawls on webs of lies
I die up inside her
to take what's mine
that bitch the cinnamon spider
I won't try
and every time I tell that lie
I live without guilt
and I won't cry
and I hope you love your life
and live with your guilt
Consumed by hate and guilt
She'll never retire
too old to fix
too dead to ever acquire
slit wrists - talk shit
But she will never inspire
a plan to save herself
the cinnamon spider
I won't try
and every time I tell that lie
I live without guilt
and I won't cry
and I hope you love your life
and live with your guilt
bite heads off those who fail
and try to imply her
forlorn despised
I am the cinnamon spider
I won't try
and every time I tell that lie
I live without guilt
and I won't cry
and I hope you love your life
and live with your guilt
and I am fine
and I'll learn to take what's mine
and live without guilt
Oh yeah
Lyrics submitted by Catatonik
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
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.
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."
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
This song reminds me of my mother and how I despise her, although I know that part of her is like me, and I try to deny this part of myself without facing it. ("Forlorn, despised, I am the cinnamon spider"). Also, the spider can represent a mother (or just a female) figure symbolically, and a negative one at that, so this song probobly has something to do with a friend or something whom she hates, and for good reasons, but is truly like her.
I heart this song!!! Ahh, Why havent you guys comment on this yet?! Erg, Oh well I think this song means that At first she is hiding all this shame and guilt upon herself and was living a life full of lies but in the end shes free and she feels fine. Course, I'm not all that great at deciphering songs...grins
You did I much better job than I did. =)
i think it's about how she was letting this guilty creature inside put all the blame on her, and then she realizes that that "her" is doomed (Consumed by hate and guilt She'll never retire too old to fix too dead to ever acquire slit wrists - talk shit But she will never inspire a plan to save herself the cinnamon spider) and decides to just be herself and ditch the guilt. That quote, by the way, is my favorite verse...it's just so...I don't know. I love it.
another great joj song.. lets just hope my parents will survive all this music :D
i think this song is about learning to be yourself even though you are projecting yourself through a fake version of what you wish you were. it ends up being dripping with guilt and self-damaging thoughts that end up destroying the part of you that is real. you are left with the fake version of you. and its been so long pretending to be someone else.. that you believe that the imaginary part of you has died.. when in all actuallity.. its the section of yourself that you believed would be saved from extinction.
i always thought this song was about someone else...kinda like a friend i had who sucked me in to thinking she was great and perfect and i was basically shit, until i learned that she was nothing (too old to fix to dead to ever aquire slit wrists talk shit and she will never inspire a plan to save herself). that basically she was everything i thought i was (i am the cinammon spider etc etc) and the whole learning to take whats mine and live without guilt was when i started to break away from her and build myself up so that i cud accept what i never thought i deserved and not feel guilty about it. but i guess i just feel that way about this song because of my personal experience. thats what i love about joj songs though, the fact that they can apply to so many different things
I think the song could be about her, but maybe there's someone else involved too. Maybe she's warning them what will happen because it happened to her. shrugs I don't know.
I think this song is just about how someone has to come to terms with who they really are inside. You shouldnt hold back or try to hide it.
i LOVE this song hehe ^_^ one of my fave JOJ songs
okay well I've yet to read all of the comments above so I'm sorry if someone has already covered this. I'm probably wrong but this song has always left me the impression that it was about hating someone or a group of people for stupid reasons and then realizing that you do the same thing. Having this guilty feeling that we're all the same.