"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.
Oh
Got my good side at the ready
If the other one is on the mend
Feel it in my bones when you break my back
Break it just to watch me bend
Anyway, for once you admit it
No matter what your good book says
Never lookin' back 'cause I ain't no saint
Just another teenage head
You gotta, wait for the feeling and you wait for the feeling
And you wait, and you shiver and you shake
Crawlin' back and forth from the black and white
Over and over again
Over and over and over again
Ain't no turning back 'cause I'm walkin' a line
Walkin' a line, walkin' a line
Ain't no turning back 'cause I'm walkin' a line
Walkin' a line, walkin' a line for you
Maybe if you swear you'll save me
Maybe save myself instead
Swear across my heart and I hope to die
Maybe we could just play dead
Runnin' out of time but I'm ready
Run out when I run this red
See you on the chase, I will track you down
Even though you're miles ahead
You gotta, wait for the feeling and you wait for the feeling
And you wait, and you shiver and you shake
Crawlin' back and forth from the black and white
Over and over again
Over and over and over again
Ain't no turning back 'cause I'm walkin' a line
Walkin' a line, walkin' a line
Ain't no turning back 'cause I'm walkin' a line
Walkin' a line, walkin' a line
Ain't no turning back 'cause I'm walkin' a line
Walkin' a line, walkin' a line
Ain't no turning back 'cause I'm walkin' a line
Walkin' a line, walkin' a line for you
Ain't no turning back 'cause I'm walkin' a line
Walkin' a line, walkin' a line
Ain't no turning back 'cause I'm walkin' a line
Walkin' a line, walkin' a line for you
Ain't no turning back 'cause I'm walkin' a line
Walkin' a line, walkin' a line
Ain't no turning back 'cause I'm walkin' a line
Walkin' a line for you
Ain't no turning back 'cause I'm walkin' a line
Walkin' a line, walkin' a line
Ain't no turning back 'cause I'm walkin' a line
Walkin' a line, walkin' a line
Ain't no turning back 'cause I'm walkin' a line
Walkin' a line, walkin' a line
Ain't no turning back 'cause I'm walkin' a line
Walkin' a line, walkin' a line
Ain't no turning back, no there ain't no turning back
No there ain't no turning back, no there ain't no turning back
Ain't no turning back, 'cause I'm walkin' a line
Walkin' a line for you
Got my good side at the ready
If the other one is on the mend
Feel it in my bones when you break my back
Break it just to watch me bend
Anyway, for once you admit it
No matter what your good book says
Never lookin' back 'cause I ain't no saint
Just another teenage head
You gotta, wait for the feeling and you wait for the feeling
And you wait, and you shiver and you shake
Crawlin' back and forth from the black and white
Over and over again
Over and over and over again
Ain't no turning back 'cause I'm walkin' a line
Walkin' a line, walkin' a line
Ain't no turning back 'cause I'm walkin' a line
Walkin' a line, walkin' a line for you
Maybe if you swear you'll save me
Maybe save myself instead
Swear across my heart and I hope to die
Maybe we could just play dead
Runnin' out of time but I'm ready
Run out when I run this red
See you on the chase, I will track you down
Even though you're miles ahead
You gotta, wait for the feeling and you wait for the feeling
And you wait, and you shiver and you shake
Crawlin' back and forth from the black and white
Over and over again
Over and over and over again
Ain't no turning back 'cause I'm walkin' a line
Walkin' a line, walkin' a line
Ain't no turning back 'cause I'm walkin' a line
Walkin' a line, walkin' a line
Ain't no turning back 'cause I'm walkin' a line
Walkin' a line, walkin' a line
Ain't no turning back 'cause I'm walkin' a line
Walkin' a line, walkin' a line for you
Ain't no turning back 'cause I'm walkin' a line
Walkin' a line, walkin' a line
Ain't no turning back 'cause I'm walkin' a line
Walkin' a line, walkin' a line for you
Ain't no turning back 'cause I'm walkin' a line
Walkin' a line, walkin' a line
Ain't no turning back 'cause I'm walkin' a line
Walkin' a line for you
Ain't no turning back 'cause I'm walkin' a line
Walkin' a line, walkin' a line
Ain't no turning back 'cause I'm walkin' a line
Walkin' a line, walkin' a line
Ain't no turning back 'cause I'm walkin' a line
Walkin' a line, walkin' a line
Ain't no turning back 'cause I'm walkin' a line
Walkin' a line, walkin' a line
Ain't no turning back, no there ain't no turning back
No there ain't no turning back, no there ain't no turning back
Ain't no turning back, 'cause I'm walkin' a line
Walkin' a line for you
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
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"
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
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.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
Its quite a heavy, powerful song imo. Fun to play. :D