"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.
Mouth of dust and ruptured windpipe
Fairytales for lying cheats
They'll lashing out like wolves in barbed-wire
Ring the bells and stop the fires, now...
The red white and the blue has always been what led you
If you don't do something they'll steal it all from under you
Board decisions, bored children
Watch the world through gun-sight eyes
I hijack train-wrecks, sell the wheels
No way out unless you steal it all
The red white and the blue has always been what led you
If you don't do something they'll steal it all from under you
You beat us black and blue
We're coming back to fight you
Fairytales for lying cheats
They'll lashing out like wolves in barbed-wire
Ring the bells and stop the fires, now...
The red white and the blue has always been what led you
If you don't do something they'll steal it all from under you
Board decisions, bored children
Watch the world through gun-sight eyes
I hijack train-wrecks, sell the wheels
No way out unless you steal it all
The red white and the blue has always been what led you
If you don't do something they'll steal it all from under you
You beat us black and blue
We're coming back to fight you
Lyrics submitted by boss_2k
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
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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.
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
Magical
Ed Sheeran
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How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
i think this song is about the entire history of power and politics: the red white and blue ALWAYS led you, or at least politics since UK has been a world power. then the song talks about how generations of people have become swept up in this system and know nothing different, "steal it all from you" refers to stealing a person's identity and freedom of mind. the last two lines sum up the message and resolution to do something and not be swallowed up in a greedy, power-hungry world.