"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.
Some chickens crossed the road
Straying far from the hen
Five reached the side one step below Zen
One was a female, four were mad men
Who moved on, moved on, moved on
Joined hands and moved on
Standing in line and falling asleep
Building a fence while we're counting the sheep
We'd let you help out but our project's too deep
Move on, move on, move on
Stay awake, just move on
You have to understand that when it comes to making music
We meshed the styles of five alive and intertwined and fused it
Life comes from life and through our strife we strove to make the sound true
Compelled to spell it out, (No Doubt!) in search of what we must do
Our house was to small so we had to move
The neighbors had much doubts so we had to prove
That our soulful dimensions were true to the groove
We moved on, moved on, moved on
To our house in the middle of our street
Water the music, plant the seeds in the pot
Music is life flowing through, is it not?
Don't forget your roots, but also don't rot
Move on, move on, move on
Plant the seeds and move on
You have to understand that when it comes to making music
We meshed the styles of five alive and intertwined and fused it
Life comes from life and through our strife we strove to make the sound true
Compelled to spell it out, (No Doubt!) in search of what we must do
Don't be afraid
Let your feelings show
Wear your heart on your sleeve
And let yourself glow, yeah
Don't be afraid
Let your feelings show, oh
Wear your heart on your sleeve
Your heart on you sleeve
And let yourself glow, yeah
Ooh, yeah yeah yeah yeah, ha
Don't be afraid
Let your feelings, yeah
Your heart
And let yourself glow, yeah
Don't be afraid
Don't be afraid, yeah yeah yeah
Straying far from the hen
Five reached the side one step below Zen
One was a female, four were mad men
Who moved on, moved on, moved on
Joined hands and moved on
Standing in line and falling asleep
Building a fence while we're counting the sheep
We'd let you help out but our project's too deep
Move on, move on, move on
Stay awake, just move on
You have to understand that when it comes to making music
We meshed the styles of five alive and intertwined and fused it
Life comes from life and through our strife we strove to make the sound true
Compelled to spell it out, (No Doubt!) in search of what we must do
Our house was to small so we had to move
The neighbors had much doubts so we had to prove
That our soulful dimensions were true to the groove
We moved on, moved on, moved on
To our house in the middle of our street
Water the music, plant the seeds in the pot
Music is life flowing through, is it not?
Don't forget your roots, but also don't rot
Move on, move on, move on
Plant the seeds and move on
You have to understand that when it comes to making music
We meshed the styles of five alive and intertwined and fused it
Life comes from life and through our strife we strove to make the sound true
Compelled to spell it out, (No Doubt!) in search of what we must do
Don't be afraid
Let your feelings show
Wear your heart on your sleeve
And let yourself glow, yeah
Don't be afraid
Let your feelings show, oh
Wear your heart on your sleeve
Your heart on you sleeve
And let yourself glow, yeah
Ooh, yeah yeah yeah yeah, ha
Don't be afraid
Let your feelings, yeah
Your heart
And let yourself glow, yeah
Don't be afraid
Don't be afraid, yeah yeah yeah
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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"
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
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.
American Town
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.
This is the line for me that makes the song ironic in relation to what GS is doing now:
Life comes from life and through our strife we strove to make the sound true
That's exactly what No Doubt did, musically they were always moving forwards putting in some serious effort into the songs, lyrics, musicianship and arrangements. Gwen Stefani sold out when the image started coming before the sound. It's no longer musically true, it's musically BS