"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'm walkin' a wire, feels like a thousand ways I could fall
To want is to buy, but to live is to die and you can't take it all
When everything is said and done I won't have one thing left
What happened to everything I've ever known?
All they gave me was this ticket to heaven
But that ticket to heaven said to lie in the bed that you make
Now I'm restless and I'm running from everything
I'm running from everything, I'm afraid it's a little too late
Soft voices lie and innocence dies, now ain't that a shame?
Then all of your dreams and all your money, they don't mean a thing
When everything is said and done you won't have one thing left
What happened to everything I've ever known?
All they gave me was this ticket to heaven
But that ticket to heaven said to lie in the bed that you make
Now I'm restless and I'm running from everything
I'm running from everything, I'm afraid it's a little too late
It's a little too late
All they gave me was this ticket to heaven
But that ticket to heaven said to lie in the bed that you make
Now I'm restless and I'm running from everything
I'm running from everything, I'm afraid it's a little too late
All they gave me was this ticket to heaven
But that ticket to heaven said to lie in the bed that you make
Now I'm restless and I'm running from everything
I'm running from everything, I'm afraid it's a little too late
It's a little too late
To want is to buy, but to live is to die and you can't take it all
When everything is said and done I won't have one thing left
What happened to everything I've ever known?
All they gave me was this ticket to heaven
But that ticket to heaven said to lie in the bed that you make
Now I'm restless and I'm running from everything
I'm running from everything, I'm afraid it's a little too late
Soft voices lie and innocence dies, now ain't that a shame?
Then all of your dreams and all your money, they don't mean a thing
When everything is said and done you won't have one thing left
What happened to everything I've ever known?
All they gave me was this ticket to heaven
But that ticket to heaven said to lie in the bed that you make
Now I'm restless and I'm running from everything
I'm running from everything, I'm afraid it's a little too late
It's a little too late
All they gave me was this ticket to heaven
But that ticket to heaven said to lie in the bed that you make
Now I'm restless and I'm running from everything
I'm running from everything, I'm afraid it's a little too late
All they gave me was this ticket to heaven
But that ticket to heaven said to lie in the bed that you make
Now I'm restless and I'm running from everything
I'm running from everything, I'm afraid it's a little too late
It's a little too late
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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"
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
I Can't Go To Sleep
Wu-Tang Clan
Wu-Tang Clan
This song is written as the perspective of the boys in the street, as a whole, and what path they are going to choose as they get older and grow into men. (This is why the music video takes place in an orphanage.) The seen, and unseen collective suffering is imbedded in the boys’ mind, consciously or subconsciously, and is haunting them. Which path will the boys choose? Issac Hayes is the voice of reason, maybe God, the angel on his shoulder, or the voice of his forefathers from beyond the grave who can see the big picture and are pleading with the boys not to continue the violence and pattern of killing their brothers, but to rise above. The most beautiful song and has so many levels. Racism towards African Americans in America would not exist if everyone sat down and listened to this song and understood the history behind the words. The power, fear, pleading in RZA and Ghostface voices are genuine and powerful. Issac Hayes’ strong voice makes the perfect strong father figure, who is possibly from beyond the grave.
I think this song is about his experienece with religion and how it makes him "restless" and maybe he feels restricted from doing things he wants to do or worried that he will do something that is not allowed because he wants a ticket to heaven
I like what you said about it. I was thinking that it was along the same lines, but more like this:<br /> He believed in a certain religion at some point, and they gave him his "ticket to Heaven," but things happened that made him stop believing. But then somewhere along his life he started believing again, but he thinks that it's too late for him to go back.
One thing is for sure if ya'll are talking about Christianity if you believe you can never be turned away.<br />
good tune
The point that Brad is trying to make out of this song is how some people focus so much on what they got in this life that they forget about they're after life. This man in the song wants into heaven but he's running away from it because he can't take that money into heaven with him.
EXCUSE ME, but I can write about whatever I want. Besides that is what the song is about. If you don't believe me, find the interview and read it.
you can pretty much write anything you want down so chill people....I think it's about a person realizing that everything they once believed in and thought was important isn't nearly as stable or important as they thought. Like realizing that material posessions and things of that nature don't matter,
i think it has to do with the fact that you have to make sacrifices in your life and choosing the best path for you and you'll meet opportunities in your life you can either take or abandon. the ticket to heaven symbolizes the easy way out of all this but you have to do one favor in order to obtain it
I think this song is being misinterpreted, it's less on the heaven and more on doing the right thing. The "Ticket to Heaven" is assumed, everyone wants to go to heaven, so, how does he do that? By "Lie in the bed that you make". He shouldn't run from "Everything" and live his own life. There's no "Ticket to heaven" that you just get given, you have to live your life and lie in the bed that you make. THat probably wasn't too clear but it makes sense t o me :S.
ENjoy this great band, peace out.
It's a metaphor, its like there is a stand that gives out tickets to heaven before you commit suicide. Apparently nothing can convince him to not jump, and his life is in the shitter. It also states that all he has left (because he lost his love, family and job) is a ticket to heaven.
This song, in my opinion, is more along the lines of what AliasNeo said...it can be taken multiple ways, but it doesnt have to necessarily interpret the "ticket to heaven" as religion literally. Awesome song && awesome band!
Iv loved this band since their very first album and this is definantely one of my favorite songs by them. to me this song is about how he was told how he could make it to heaven but in order to do so he has to face the consequences of his actions "lie in the bed that you make" and he's running from those consequences
No it doesn't have anything to do with religion. When this band first got its first big break-the record company put them on the road immediately and they began a grueling schedule and worked there butts off!! I mean they toured non-stop for almost 3 years. The ticket to heaven that the are refering to is the ticket to fame-everybody chases it but when they catch it, they find out later that it has caught them back-and all they can do is sleep in the bed they made-this is what they wanted-and this is what they got-that is also the reference made to to want is to buy but to live is to die now ain't that a shame-this life on the road was killing them-it didn't matter how much money they were making-they never got off the hamster wheel long enough to spend it or enjoy it. One thing you can listen to in their first 3 albums was how hard it was for them to be on the road and not with the ones they love. I visited with them in Louisiana 6 yrs ago and they were wore out-they really were homesick-and that has alot to do with their earlier music.