"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.
Picture perfect a life that you saw in a magazine
Or maybe a traveling book
Wanted to get on that plane and fly away
cause you are a rock star deep down inside
You walk with a swagger, got nothin' to hide
Cigarette in your mouth, a cuff on your jeans
Your sideburns are perfect, you're a perfect and lean
So you made an oil painting to immortalize
All of the hope and vision in your eyes
In your leisure coat and cowboy hat
North American records and so much to bat for
Please bring me along
Please bring me along
Because I want to see everything you have to offer me
Get a job lifting cement
Oh it's so dry when it rains it gets wet
And the village was great, now it's a suburb
You left behind half of all that you had learnt
Relearn a couple things along the way
The thrift shop so clean all for half what you'd pay
So you try everything on, on for size
Drop top your Camaro and go for a ride
Please bring me along
Please bring me along
Because I want to see everything you have to offer me
And I don't mind to sit here and waste my time
Oh but this world is not mine to define
And I want to shine
Please bring me along
Please take me away
I don't want to stay
And I want to see everything you have to offer me
And I want to see everything you have to offer me
And I want to see everything you have to offer me
I want to see everything the world has to offer me
I want to see everything the world has to offer me
I want to show everything I have to offer it
I want to show everything I have to offer it now
Or maybe a traveling book
Wanted to get on that plane and fly away
cause you are a rock star deep down inside
You walk with a swagger, got nothin' to hide
Cigarette in your mouth, a cuff on your jeans
Your sideburns are perfect, you're a perfect and lean
So you made an oil painting to immortalize
All of the hope and vision in your eyes
In your leisure coat and cowboy hat
North American records and so much to bat for
Please bring me along
Please bring me along
Because I want to see everything you have to offer me
Get a job lifting cement
Oh it's so dry when it rains it gets wet
And the village was great, now it's a suburb
You left behind half of all that you had learnt
Relearn a couple things along the way
The thrift shop so clean all for half what you'd pay
So you try everything on, on for size
Drop top your Camaro and go for a ride
Please bring me along
Please bring me along
Because I want to see everything you have to offer me
And I don't mind to sit here and waste my time
Oh but this world is not mine to define
And I want to shine
Please bring me along
Please take me away
I don't want to stay
And I want to see everything you have to offer me
And I want to see everything you have to offer me
And I want to see everything you have to offer me
I want to see everything the world has to offer me
I want to see everything the world has to offer me
I want to show everything I have to offer it
I want to show everything I have to offer it now
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
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”
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
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.
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.
the lyrics of teh song are great but the guitar in the song is amazing....its sounds so somber ...this is her greatest song in every aspect