"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.
Lying like needles on forest earth
Euphoric rush trees bend to pray for us
I'm sputtering like cold machines?
Late for the birth ritual
Ritual
Ritual
Ritual
You can drive my tail to watch the circus
A birth ritual, a birth of idiots
Now I woke up blessed and good strives for heartache
Marked for the death ritual
Ritual
Ritual
As you start the song and face this garden
I light a cigarette before the execution
Now you see your crime for every miracle
Add another drug at every birth ritual
I took the drug to make me stay
And now everything dies in shyness
The snake retreats admits defeat
And waits for the birth ritual
Ritual
Ritual
As you start the song and face this garden
I light a cigarette before the execution
Now you see your crime for every miracle
Add another drug at every birth ritual
Shining light
Child's highs
Mark his sides
Bright until the newness wears off
As you start the song and face this garden?
I light a cigarette before the execution
Now you see your crime for every miracle
Add another drug at every birth ritual
Ritual
Ritual
Ritual
Euphoric rush trees bend to pray for us
I'm sputtering like cold machines?
Late for the birth ritual
Ritual
Ritual
Ritual
You can drive my tail to watch the circus
A birth ritual, a birth of idiots
Now I woke up blessed and good strives for heartache
Marked for the death ritual
Ritual
Ritual
As you start the song and face this garden
I light a cigarette before the execution
Now you see your crime for every miracle
Add another drug at every birth ritual
I took the drug to make me stay
And now everything dies in shyness
The snake retreats admits defeat
And waits for the birth ritual
Ritual
Ritual
As you start the song and face this garden
I light a cigarette before the execution
Now you see your crime for every miracle
Add another drug at every birth ritual
Shining light
Child's highs
Mark his sides
Bright until the newness wears off
As you start the song and face this garden?
I light a cigarette before the execution
Now you see your crime for every miracle
Add another drug at every birth ritual
Ritual
Ritual
Ritual
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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"
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
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.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
I think this is kind of about mortality and how after birth, your whole life is leading towards your death no matter how long you try to make it or whatever you accomplish.
Kind of like Pink Floyd talks about in the song "Time" or Iron Maiden in "The Clairvoyant"
No matter what the lyrics mean, this song completely and absolutely rocks \m/
@Alice_in_Soundweezer Totally agree ,I saw some really early B+W footage from an early gig in Seattle the other day featuring this track and it was incredible..Chris Cornell England loves and misses you ,RIP x