"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.
For 27 years I've been trying
To believe and confide in
Different people I found
Some of them got closer than others
And some wouldn't even bother
And then you came around
I didn't really know what to call you
You didn't know me at all
But I was happy to explain
I never really knew how to move you
So I tried to intrude through
The little holes in your veins
And I saw you
But that's not an invitation!
That's all I get
If this is communication
I disconnect
I've seen you, I know you, but I don't know
How to connect
So I disconnect
You always seem to know where to find me
And I'm still here behind you
In the corner of your eye
I'll never really learn how to love you
But I know that I love you
Through the hole in the sky
Where I see you
And that's not an invitation!
That's all I get
If this is communication
I disconnect
I've seen you, I know you
But I don't know
How to connect
So I disconnect
Well, this is an invitation!
It's not a threat
If you want communication
That's what you get
I'm talking and talking
But I don't know
How to connect
And I hold
A record for being patient
With your kind of hesitation
I need you, you want me
But I don't know
How to connect
So I disconnect
I disconnect
To believe and confide in
Different people I found
Some of them got closer than others
And some wouldn't even bother
And then you came around
I didn't really know what to call you
You didn't know me at all
But I was happy to explain
I never really knew how to move you
So I tried to intrude through
The little holes in your veins
And I saw you
But that's not an invitation!
That's all I get
If this is communication
I disconnect
I've seen you, I know you, but I don't know
How to connect
So I disconnect
You always seem to know where to find me
And I'm still here behind you
In the corner of your eye
I'll never really learn how to love you
But I know that I love you
Through the hole in the sky
Where I see you
And that's not an invitation!
That's all I get
If this is communication
I disconnect
I've seen you, I know you
But I don't know
How to connect
So I disconnect
Well, this is an invitation!
It's not a threat
If you want communication
That's what you get
I'm talking and talking
But I don't know
How to connect
And I hold
A record for being patient
With your kind of hesitation
I need you, you want me
But I don't know
How to connect
So I disconnect
I disconnect
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i think it has to deal with a girl who is looking for her person. some men gave her the time, others didn't... but then she found him. or so she thought. he meant a bunch to her, she wanted to show him that they could be more... but he wouldn't commit. so she waited patiently, she loved him the ways she could. he never asked her though, to be in a relationship... so she just made excuses for him, and got to know him, and her feelings for him grew and grew and she finally told him... but he was not connecting with her. although he kept her around, he still would see her, furthering her love for him... but she couldn't tell him - because he did not reciprocate those feelings. so she quietly loved him. and maybe one day she told him (I'm talking, I'm talking and I hold the record for being patient with your kind of hesitations) and maybe he he said he had hesitations about their relationship. she said - hey i like you, (and invitation) i am here, i want you... but he just wouldn't commit... so she was patient for as long as she could, but couldn't wait any longer - maybe for self preservation - and so she had to say goodbye. she had to disconnect.
anyways... that's my little interpretation...
are we in agreement then? it seems obvious to me that this is an expression of the heartache caused by an online affair/romance... I adore The Cardigans. this is a great song (among many) and the meaning, to me, was worth speaking :)
I think it's about someone with Avoidant Personality Disorder, or some kind of social phobia. She's had this communication problem for 27 years, where she sees even invitations as threats, and she's still disconnecting even though she's found someone who has the patience to help her and be with her.
Yeah I also think it might be something about personality disorder /she found "God" (meaning the own mind) the peace
I think it's about two people in love but one can't get through to the other because he/she doesnt let her/him get close enough. And after so many tries to get a person to open up and communicate you just give up and disconnect. This song really expresses my feelings towards some people in my life....
This song is about "GOD"/the truth.
I need you, you want me But I don't know How to connect So I disconnect
"She doesn't know how to connect with god, so she disconnects."
I didn't really know what to call you You didn't know me at all But I was happy to explain
Sounds like she is looking for herself. And doesn't know anything for sure anymore.
it's kinda obvious what this song is for about. and it really captures what the people who aren't people-people feel. (if you can get that.)
As 'hotsoupwoman' says, I also think this song is about someone with some kind of social phobia, Aspergers or something else that includes social disorders. The sentence "I don't know how to connect, so I disonnect" illustrate this in such a good way. And so do their very first sentence - for 27 years she been trying to confide in other peoples, but it doesn't seems like she is doing it that well, consider her own sigh. <br /> <br /> "Some of them got closer than others<br /> and someone wouldn't even bother <br /> and then you came around"<br /> <br /> I do see this lyrics as a description of a social indisposed person which make her feel all this "disconnecting" in session with others. Someone walk in the door just to leave next month, and others wouldn't even care, except when this person enter her life ('then you came around'). I think this may be a person who finally understand her and her communication, however she still not really get the receipe of connecting.<br /> <br /> "Well this is an invitation<br /> it's not a threat<br /> If you want communication<br /> that's what you get"<br /> <br /> Invitations is, in this persons eye, almost a threat. I think this is what social indisposed peoples often gets impression of, and it's why this lyric reminds of such humans.<br /> <br /> At last;<br /> "I'm talking, I'm talking<br /> but I don't know<br /> how to connect<br /> so I disconnect<br /> <br /> I disconnect"<br /> <br /> They do move their talk on and on, but still without a feeling of progress - or connection. Therefore they rather decide to disconnect. And so they do...<br /> <br /> It's a very nice song. I really like the lyrics in that way I construe it.
i just think its about hesitancy, fair'n'square... 2 ppl love each other, tho they dont know it, or maybe they do but fear to go into the open with it. i love this song because it reminds me how my own big mistake happened, and i think this is how the girl i had in mind think about it now. At least thats what i hope... noone knows :)
This is not about a online romance, it's simply about two people not being able to communicate though they love each other and though he (?) is the one who got closest to her (?) . And that's why Nina says she disconnects her attempts. Simple as that.
To me, this is about The Cardigans breaking up after "Gran Turismo."
"[I]t became 'something a bit unnatural' to be 25 years old and spend 24 hours a day with four people of the opposite sex that she neither was related to or was romantically involved with. She moved to the U.S. and made a solo-career."
--source:cardigans.com/
This song was the first track on "Long Gone Before Daylight," which was the first album in five years since "Gran Turismo." This fact really convinces me even more that this song is indeed about the band breaking up. But it's probably mixed with other things too.