"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.
Snow is falling from the sky, in the middle of July
Sun was shining in my eyes again last night
Alarm goes off without a sound, the silence is so loud
Something isn't right
Footsteps echo down the hall, no one's there at all
Dial your number but your voice says "I'm not home"
Everything is inside out, I don't know what it's about
It keeps getting stranger by the day
Stranger by the day
It keeps getting stranger by the day
Stranger by the day
Going for a walk outside, to see what I can find
No reflections in the windows I pass by
It feels hotter in the shade, water runs up from the drain
Something's going on
Conversations with a mime, stared at by the blind
Imagination must be working overtime
The world is upside down, everything is turned around
It keeps getting stranger by the day
Stranger by the day
It keeps getting stranger by the day
Stranger by the day, yeah
By the time I reach your door, I can't take anymore
I just happened to be in your neighborhood
I'm the one who gets surprised, I don't believe my eyes
Your alibi's no good
Whatever happened to the world
Whatever happened to the girl I thought I knew
It just can't be true, I guess I'm losing you
Stranger by the day
Stranger by the day
It keeps getting stranger by the day
Stranger by the day
Oh, stranger by the day
Sun was shining in my eyes again last night
Alarm goes off without a sound, the silence is so loud
Something isn't right
Footsteps echo down the hall, no one's there at all
Dial your number but your voice says "I'm not home"
Everything is inside out, I don't know what it's about
It keeps getting stranger by the day
Stranger by the day
It keeps getting stranger by the day
Stranger by the day
Going for a walk outside, to see what I can find
No reflections in the windows I pass by
It feels hotter in the shade, water runs up from the drain
Something's going on
Conversations with a mime, stared at by the blind
Imagination must be working overtime
The world is upside down, everything is turned around
It keeps getting stranger by the day
Stranger by the day
It keeps getting stranger by the day
Stranger by the day, yeah
By the time I reach your door, I can't take anymore
I just happened to be in your neighborhood
I'm the one who gets surprised, I don't believe my eyes
Your alibi's no good
Whatever happened to the world
Whatever happened to the girl I thought I knew
It just can't be true, I guess I'm losing you
Stranger by the day
Stranger by the day
It keeps getting stranger by the day
Stranger by the day
Oh, stranger by the day
Lyrics submitted by Dead People
Stranger by the Day Lyrics as written by Kevin Lynch Ed Brown
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
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"
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.
Magical
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
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.
I've always thought this song was about how something was really wrong: i.e. the girl was cheating on him, but because it mattered so much it caused everything else to go wrong. He feels like everything's turned upside down and messed up. Some of the lyrcis are especially clever: instead of saying one thing, like it's snowing in summer, he sings a much longer, more descriptive line. Possibly helps that it rhymes better! ANyway, great song, I love listening to it loud when I'm on my own.