"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.
I've seen you a couple of times
Guess I've seen you three times
Walking circles around me
When you stand in front of my eyes
I'll make sure I'll look
I'll make sure I'll look
I'll make sure I'll look
Away
Away, away
Away
She like a little Chinese
She is Chinese
Maybe it would be nicer if I said Japanese
She comes around you and me
And when you stand in front of my eyes
I will look
I will look
I will look
Away, away, away
Away, away, away
She looks in distress
She looks impressive
When she is dancing her little home dance on me
Roll, roll, roll away, away, away, away
Guess I've seen you three times
Walking circles around me
When you stand in front of my eyes
I'll make sure I'll look
I'll make sure I'll look
I'll make sure I'll look
Away
Away, away
Away
She like a little Chinese
She is Chinese
Maybe it would be nicer if I said Japanese
She comes around you and me
And when you stand in front of my eyes
I will look
I will look
I will look
Away, away, away
Away, away, away
She looks in distress
She looks impressive
When she is dancing her little home dance on me
Roll, roll, roll away, away, away, away
Lyrics submitted by MarsTheStrange, edited by scottdoesntknow628
3 Times Lyrics as written by Chan Marshall
Lyrics © Hipgnosis Songs Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I'm not sure what Chan meant when she wrote this, but I interpret it as how we're so preoccupied with what other's think about us in everything we do that we can't face it. Whether it be an attraction to someone and we can't look them in the eye when we see them or maybe we see someone different from us, and we worry ourselves with what we say about them.
I don't know, maybe it's just me.
"i'll make sure i look,...away" i imagine that being what autumninlove said about not being able to face this person.the part where she sings "She comes around you and me" makes me think it could be someone besides her lover,someone cheats or considers it and the end is never seeing this person again.hence the title 3 times.walking circles around me.. this person is watching her?
I take this as she is chastising an ex-lover who has left her for someone else; maybe a boyfriend who is with a new woman and now she is seeing them together. "She's like a little Chinese / She is Chinese" – that says to me that she is attacking the other woman, possibly making fun of the way she looks as a defense mechanism ("maybe it would be nicer if I said Japanese"). It also sounds like she is seeing them together now ("she comes around you and me" ), but doesn't want to look at it because it hurts her ("I will, I will, I will look away").
I think it's less about a relationship, and more about gossip and how politically incorrect things can be in casual conversation, yet we'll just ignore it and turn our head, as if it's not a big deal.
The specific example that plays out in my head when I hear this song is that of Chan talking to somebody about this Asian girl, the topic of their gossip. I think that they try to seem casual once the Asian girl gets physically closer to them, as if they weren't just talking about her.
Just my interpretation. Not nearly as deep as all of yours, but whatever. Sometimes things just aren't as deep as we'd like them to be, perhaps.
<br /> I think we'd both agree that she's acknowledging the fact that she is mocking someone here (a woman, the "Chinese"); I just see the reason for it being that this woman replaced her in a relationship or something.<br /> <br /> The vision I've always had in my head when I hear this song is that a relationship has ended, and now she's seeing her ex-lover with another woman (I've seen you a couple of times), and she's so raw that her experience of it is almost as if they are taunting her (Walking circles around me, I'll look away / She looks impressive when she's dancing her little home dance on me). Maybe the other woman broke up the relationship? (She comes around you and me). <br /> <br /> I really don't think we'll ever know what it's about unless she discusses it, which I doubt will ever happen. Your interpretation is fascinating though; definitely an entirely different vision of what the lyrics mean. I like the idea a lot.
She loves the guy. The guy fucked her but changed her for another girl that she says is like a "chinese, is impressive and is in distress" etc...Probably they work at the same place, so she cant stand to look at him.