"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.
Losing a whole year
Losing a whole year
I remember you and me used to spend
The whole goddamned day in bed
Losing a whole year
Hiding in your room we'd lay like dogs
And the phone would ring like a joke that's left unsaid
Losing a whole year
Rich daddy left you with a parachute
Your voice sounds like money and your face is cute
But your daddy left you with no love
You touch everything with a velvet glove and
Now you want to try your life of sin
You want to be down with the down and in
Always copping my truths
I kind of get the feeling like I'm being used
And now I realize that you never heard
One goddamned word I ever said
Losing a whole year
Losing a whole year
I took your stuff and put it in the basement
When I found out what the smile on your face meant
I seen you pop that check
Craning your neck at my car wreck
And it always seems the juice used to flow
In the car, in the kitchen, you were good to go
Now we're stuck with the tube
A sink full of dishes and some aqua lube
And I remember you and me used to spend
The whole goddamn day in bed
Hey, bye
Losing a whole year
If it's not the defense then you're on the attack
When you start talking I hear the Prozac
Convinced you found your place
With the pierced queer teens in cyber space
When you were yourself there was tasted sweet
Sours into a routine deceit
Well this drama is a bore
And I don't want to play no more
Whoa why, whoa why
Losing a whole year
I remember you and me used to spend
The whole goddamn day in bed
Hey, bye
Hey, bye
Losing a whole year
I remember you and me used to spend
The whole goddamned day in bed
Losing a whole year
Hiding in your room we'd lay like dogs
And the phone would ring like a joke that's left unsaid
Losing a whole year
Rich daddy left you with a parachute
Your voice sounds like money and your face is cute
But your daddy left you with no love
You touch everything with a velvet glove and
Now you want to try your life of sin
You want to be down with the down and in
Always copping my truths
I kind of get the feeling like I'm being used
And now I realize that you never heard
One goddamned word I ever said
Losing a whole year
Losing a whole year
I took your stuff and put it in the basement
When I found out what the smile on your face meant
I seen you pop that check
Craning your neck at my car wreck
And it always seems the juice used to flow
In the car, in the kitchen, you were good to go
Now we're stuck with the tube
A sink full of dishes and some aqua lube
And I remember you and me used to spend
The whole goddamn day in bed
Hey, bye
Losing a whole year
If it's not the defense then you're on the attack
When you start talking I hear the Prozac
Convinced you found your place
With the pierced queer teens in cyber space
When you were yourself there was tasted sweet
Sours into a routine deceit
Well this drama is a bore
And I don't want to play no more
Whoa why, whoa why
Losing a whole year
I remember you and me used to spend
The whole goddamn day in bed
Hey, bye
Hey, bye
Lyrics submitted by DonutDH, edited by heisenberg69
Losing a Whole Year Lyrics as written by Stephan Jenkins Kevin Cadogan
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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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"
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.
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
Amazing
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran tells a story of unsuccessfully trying to feel “Amazing.” This track is about the being weighed down by emotional stress despite valiant attempts to find some positivity in the situation. This track was written by Ed Sheeran from the perspective of his friend. From the track, we see this person fall deeper into the negative thoughts and slide further down the path of mental torment with every lyric.
such an emotional song video's pretty cool too.
Its about how he was with this one girl for so long and things seemed so great; he was oblivious and so wrapped around her that things would be going on around him and he wouldnt care.
when they broke up he finally realized how she used him for money, sex, etc, was never actually ever there for him, and he lost an entire year wasting it on this girl.
and all those things he thought were cute and mysterious about that girl, he now realizes were just hiding the truth. she always hid things and would be quick to defend herself and kept her secret buried. it was fine in the beginning but after time and time of drama he's sick of it and is just done.
So, yeah, this song isn't about the Great Gatsby. I don't really see Daisy finding her place "with the pierced queer teens in cyberspace." Whether the book was an inspiration for some of the lines, who knows, maybe. This song is about a rich trust-fund ("parachute") girl who's had a sheltered life and is rebelling. "Now you want to try a life of sin/you want to be down with the down and in." The "copping my truths" thing could be that she had adopted his outlook and is trying to join his scene while it is fun and convenient for her, but he realizes later she was just using him to piss of her Daddy. He is thinking about how great it was in the beginning, how much amazing sex they had and what a strong connection he'd thought they shared. He now realizes it was all fake, "And now I realize that you never heard/One goddamned word I ever said." He feels like he wasted the whole year they were together. The last part makes me think maybe she hasn't totally let go of the relationship and is still screwing with his head, and he has decided that he is done with her and all her drama "I don't want to play no more."
I watched a documentary on Third Eye Blind.
The singer said the song was about a boy and girl who were together. They started out in love, but she never knew what real love was, because she hadn't grew up with love. Her dad bought her, "love". So, she starts a life with this boy, and they break up within a year, because she changes. She's not the sweet girl he once knew. She starts hanging around other people, and taking meds, but they used to spend their time together. The singer specifically states (in the interview, part of the documentary) that the part in the song that says, "I Took your stuff and put it in the basement ,When I found out what the smile on your face meant, I've seen you pop that check , Craning your neck at my car wreck" means that he put her stuff away, because she was never there, and she got the check from her father, so she smiles cause now that she has money, she's leaving again, and says the "car wreck" he is referring to is their break-up. Because he lost her, she doesn't love him anymore.
the instrumental breaks in 11/8 (alternating bars of 5 and 6) are REALLY cool. Third Eye Blind are such a great band-- on the surface they're catchy '90s alternative, but on the next level they've got some of the best lyrics i've ever seen, some of the most talented musicians i've ever heard, and some of the coolest musical concepts you could possibly work into the genre.
Has anyone else noticed the allusions to The Great Gatsby? This song reminds me of the relationship between Nic Carraway and Jordan Baker.
Now that u mentiooned the Great Gatsby...i see it - but it reminds me more of Gatsby and Daisy...in the book Gatsby also makes a reference to Nick saying"her voice sounds like money" about Daisy...
When they talk about a life of sin - remember Daisy hits Myrtle with the car? And runs off... theres a lot of references about Gatsby in this ....gtg tho later!
Wow, that's amazing! The Great Gatsby is one of my favorite books, and i'm so glad that you found that allusion, because now i love t3b even more!
yeah, rocketqueenz, i think i got the relationships confused... but then i also see nick as the narrator, kind of naive yet tired w/ the whole glamourus lifestyle. hmm, maybe this only makes sense to me. I don't think Gatsby ever got tired of chasing after Daisy. IT'S A MIX OF ALL OF THEM! wow, 3eb, wow.
yeah ur rite uknowthe1....this song is so f'n good! i luv 3eb so much,...next year i wanna show this song to my teacher who i read great gatsby with n see what he says about it
I haven't read the Great Gatsby or whatever, so I dunno about THAT meaning. But I think it's about this couple who don't have sex anymore and they've wasted a whole year.
"it always seems the juices used to flow in the car, in the kitchen, you were good to go but now we're stuck with the tube"
'Tube' I think, referring to a dildo.
"Tube" means bong
"Tube" referes to Lube--as in LUBRICATION. Her juices no longer flow, she no longer gets wet, ready for sex. So, they have to use a tube of lube to help her.
"Tube" referes to Lube--as in LUBRICATION. Her juices no longer flow, she no longer gets wet, ready for sex. So, they have to use a tube of lube to help her.
"Tube" most certainly does not refer to lube.. "Aqualube" is the lube and he wouldn't have said "lube" twice. "Tube" is slang for TV and I think that's what it means here. TV and dirty dishes are the unsexy realities you deal with when the passion is gone from the relationship.