"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.
A billion words ago
The sailors disappeared
A story for the children
To rock them back to sleep
A million burning books
Like torches in our hands
A fabric of ideals
To decorate our homes
A thousand generations
The soil on which we walk
A mountain of mistakes
For us to climb for pleasure
A hundred clocks are ticking
The line becomes a circle
Spin the wheel of fortune
Or learn to navigate
A choir full of longing
Will call our ships to port
The countless lonely voices
Like whispers in the dark
A choir full of longing
Will call our ships to port
The countless lonely voices
Like whispers in the dark
A second of reflection can
Take you to the moon
The slightest hesitation can
Bring you down in flames
A single spark of passion
Can change a man forever
A moment in a lifetime
Is all it takes to break him
A fraction of a heartbeat
Made us what we are
A brother and a sister
For better or for worse
A billion words ago
They sang a song of leaving
An echo from the chorus
Will call them back again
A choir full of longing
Will call our ships to port
The countless lonely voices
Like whispers in the dark
A choir full of longing
Will call our ships to port
The countless lonely voices
Like whispers in the dark
Tonight we light the fires
We call our ships to port
Tonight we walk on water
And tomorrow we'll be gone
Tonight we light the fires
We call our ships to port
Tonight we walk on water
And tomorrow we'll be gone
Tonight we light the fires
We call our ships to port
Tonight we walk on water
And tomorrow we'll be gone
Tonight
Tonight
The sailors disappeared
A story for the children
To rock them back to sleep
A million burning books
Like torches in our hands
A fabric of ideals
To decorate our homes
A thousand generations
The soil on which we walk
A mountain of mistakes
For us to climb for pleasure
A hundred clocks are ticking
The line becomes a circle
Spin the wheel of fortune
Or learn to navigate
A choir full of longing
Will call our ships to port
The countless lonely voices
Like whispers in the dark
A choir full of longing
Will call our ships to port
The countless lonely voices
Like whispers in the dark
A second of reflection can
Take you to the moon
The slightest hesitation can
Bring you down in flames
A single spark of passion
Can change a man forever
A moment in a lifetime
Is all it takes to break him
A fraction of a heartbeat
Made us what we are
A brother and a sister
For better or for worse
A billion words ago
They sang a song of leaving
An echo from the chorus
Will call them back again
A choir full of longing
Will call our ships to port
The countless lonely voices
Like whispers in the dark
A choir full of longing
Will call our ships to port
The countless lonely voices
Like whispers in the dark
Tonight we light the fires
We call our ships to port
Tonight we walk on water
And tomorrow we'll be gone
Tonight we light the fires
We call our ships to port
Tonight we walk on water
And tomorrow we'll be gone
Tonight we light the fires
We call our ships to port
Tonight we walk on water
And tomorrow we'll be gone
Tonight
Tonight
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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"
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
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”
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.
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
i think its about living for the moment like a lot of people have said but in the negative sense. like "burning books" could mean accidentally destroying parts of the past. and also how many parts of the world and such were accidentally discovered as in "a mountain of mistakes, for us to climb for pleasure"