"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.
And in this life like weeds, you're just a rock to me
I could have told you all that I love you
And in the places you go, you'll see the place where you're from
I could have told you all that I love you
And in the faces you meet, you'll see the place where you'll die
I could have told you all that I love you
And on the day that you die, you'll see the people you'd met
I could have told you all that I love you
And in the faces you see, you'll see just who you've been
I wish I could have told you all
In this life like weeds, eyes need us to see
Hearts need us to bleed, in this life like weeds
You're a rock to me
I know where you're from, but where do you belong?
In this life like weeds, you're the dirt I'll breath
In this life like weeds, you're a rock to me
All this talkin' all the time and the air fills up, up, up
Until there's nothin' left to breathe
And you think you feel most everything
And we know that our hearts are just made out of strings
To be pulled, strings to be pulled
So you think you've figured out everything
But we know that our minds are just made out of strings
To be pulled, strings to be pulled
All this talkin' all the time and the air fills up, up, up
Until there's nothing left to breathe
Up until there's nothin' left to speak.
Up until the better parts of space
I could have told you all that I love you
And in the places you go, you'll see the place where you're from
I could have told you all that I love you
And in the faces you meet, you'll see the place where you'll die
I could have told you all that I love you
And on the day that you die, you'll see the people you'd met
I could have told you all that I love you
And in the faces you see, you'll see just who you've been
I wish I could have told you all
In this life like weeds, eyes need us to see
Hearts need us to bleed, in this life like weeds
You're a rock to me
I know where you're from, but where do you belong?
In this life like weeds, you're the dirt I'll breath
In this life like weeds, you're a rock to me
All this talkin' all the time and the air fills up, up, up
Until there's nothin' left to breathe
And you think you feel most everything
And we know that our hearts are just made out of strings
To be pulled, strings to be pulled
So you think you've figured out everything
But we know that our minds are just made out of strings
To be pulled, strings to be pulled
All this talkin' all the time and the air fills up, up, up
Until there's nothing left to breathe
Up until there's nothin' left to speak.
Up until the better parts of space
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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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”
Magical
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Amazing
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This song expresses alot of frustration with semantics / linguistics when there is a need to clearly express ones mixed feelings . Amongst all this grappling, and yearning for truth through philosophizing, the air just fills up with words and sounds. Language, audible or written just isn't a good enough tool to express things sometimes, those words just float off into the better parts of space. Thats why there is music to complete the inconsistencies of language.