"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.
She says
It helps with the lights out
Her rabid glow
Is like braille to the night
She swears
I'm a slave to the details
But if your life is such a big joke
Why should I care?
The clock is set for nine
But you know you're gonna make it eight
So that you two can take some time
Teach each other to reciprocate
She feels that my sentimental side
Should be held with kids gloves
But she doesn't know
That I left my urge in the icebox
She swears
I'm just prey for the female
Well then hook me up and throw me baby cakes
'Cause I like to get hooked
The clock is set for nine
But you know you're gonna make it eight
All the people that you've loved
They're all bound to leave some keepsakes
I've been swinging all the time
Think it's time I learned your way
I picture you and me together
In the jungle it will be okay
I'll bring you when my lifeboat
Sails through the night
That is supposing that
You don't sleep tonight
It's like learning a new language
Helps me catch up on my mind
If you don't bring up those lonely parts
This could be a good time
It's like learning a new language
You come here to me
We'll collect those lonely parts
And set them down
You come here to me
She says brief things
Her love's a pony
My love's subliminal
She says brief things
Her love's a pony
My love's subliminal
It helps with the lights out
Her rabid glow
Is like braille to the night
She swears
I'm a slave to the details
But if your life is such a big joke
Why should I care?
The clock is set for nine
But you know you're gonna make it eight
So that you two can take some time
Teach each other to reciprocate
She feels that my sentimental side
Should be held with kids gloves
But she doesn't know
That I left my urge in the icebox
She swears
I'm just prey for the female
Well then hook me up and throw me baby cakes
'Cause I like to get hooked
The clock is set for nine
But you know you're gonna make it eight
All the people that you've loved
They're all bound to leave some keepsakes
I've been swinging all the time
Think it's time I learned your way
I picture you and me together
In the jungle it will be okay
I'll bring you when my lifeboat
Sails through the night
That is supposing that
You don't sleep tonight
It's like learning a new language
Helps me catch up on my mind
If you don't bring up those lonely parts
This could be a good time
It's like learning a new language
You come here to me
We'll collect those lonely parts
And set them down
You come here to me
She says brief things
Her love's a pony
My love's subliminal
She says brief things
Her love's a pony
My love's subliminal
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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”
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.
Head > Heels
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Head > Heels” is a track that aims to capture what it feels like to experience romance that exceeds expectations. Ed Sheeran dedicates his album outro to a lover who has blessed him with a unique experience that he seeks to describe through the song’s nuanced lyrics.
does anyone here first remember what it was like when you heard interpol in 2002?? remember the insane hold 'turn on the bright lights' had over you, arresting you during your waking hours, stirring you in your sleep?
this song is the deep, dark, secret heart of 'turn on the bright lights', the sound of your past and future loves whispering through thick black bass notes spewing like oil. sigh. i miss the old interpol :(