"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.
London traffic (state of confusion)
London traffic (blocking the streets)
London traffic (going nowhere)
London traffic (polluting the air)
Drive 'round London in a car
Don't really want to go far
So many cars fill the streets
Wonder why we bother at all
London traffic is a problem
London traffic - too many cars
One way systems look very neat
Colored signs direct the streets
No one knows the answer
No one seems to care
Take a look at our city
Take the traffic elsewhere
Leave the city free from traffic
Give the place a chance to survive
Dirt and filth cover London
Give it a chance to breath again
London traffic (blocking the streets)
London traffic (going nowhere)
London traffic (polluting the air)
Drive 'round London in a car
Don't really want to go far
So many cars fill the streets
Wonder why we bother at all
London traffic is a problem
London traffic - too many cars
One way systems look very neat
Colored signs direct the streets
No one knows the answer
No one seems to care
Take a look at our city
Take the traffic elsewhere
Leave the city free from traffic
Give the place a chance to survive
Dirt and filth cover London
Give it a chance to breath again
Lyrics submitted by planetearth
London Traffic Lyrics as written by Bruce Foxton
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
Amazing
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Ed Sheeran tells a story of unsuccessfully trying to feel “Amazing.” This track is about the being weighed down by emotional stress despite valiant attempts to find some positivity in the situation. This track was written by Ed Sheeran from the perspective of his friend. From the track, we see this person fall deeper into the negative thoughts and slide further down the path of mental torment with every lyric.
One of the main problems of older cities in this world is that they weren't designed and built to accommodate automobile traffic. When London was founded in ancient roman times, they could never have imagined the car. In the TV series "The Good Life" (a.k.a. Good Neighbors) which comes from just before this song was released, they occasionally refer to spending over an hour to cross the London bridge. I've heard since then it's only gotten worse. It's a hideously complicated problem and there doesn't really seem to be a solution to it.