"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 will go to another place, nowhere special just another town
You should come to the other place, make it special and make no loss
Make it special and make mo loss
Cover the cost, cover the cost,
Cover the cost, cover the cost, cover the cost, cover the cost
Cover the cost, cover the cost, cover the cost, cover the cost
These extra expenses make brilliant senses
All you have to do is take your chances
Cover the cost, cover the cost, cover the cost, cover the cost
These extra expenses make brilliant senses
Extra extra
These are the things that make it better
Are you ready for the city? is the city ready for you?
Don't you know you have to choose? the city is here for you to use
Are you ready for the city? is the city ready for you?
Don't you know you have to choose? the city is here for you to use
Are you ready for the city? is the city ready for you?
Don't you know you have to choose? the city is here for you to use
Oh you have to cover the cost, cover the cost, cover the cost, cover the cost
Cover the cost, cover the cost, cover the cost, cover the cost
Are you ready for the city? city is here for you to use
Is the city ready for you? city is here for you to use
Don't you know you have to choose? city is here for you to use
City is here for you to use, city is here for you to use
Cover the cost, cover the cost, cover the cost, cover the cost
Cover the cost, cover the cost, cover the cost, cover the cost
You should come to the other place, make it special and make no loss
Make it special and make mo loss
Cover the cost, cover the cost,
Cover the cost, cover the cost, cover the cost, cover the cost
Cover the cost, cover the cost, cover the cost, cover the cost
These extra expenses make brilliant senses
All you have to do is take your chances
Cover the cost, cover the cost, cover the cost, cover the cost
These extra expenses make brilliant senses
Extra extra
These are the things that make it better
Are you ready for the city? is the city ready for you?
Don't you know you have to choose? the city is here for you to use
Are you ready for the city? is the city ready for you?
Don't you know you have to choose? the city is here for you to use
Are you ready for the city? is the city ready for you?
Don't you know you have to choose? the city is here for you to use
Oh you have to cover the cost, cover the cost, cover the cost, cover the cost
Cover the cost, cover the cost, cover the cost, cover the cost
Are you ready for the city? city is here for you to use
Is the city ready for you? city is here for you to use
Don't you know you have to choose? city is here for you to use
City is here for you to use, city is here for you to use
Cover the cost, cover the cost, cover the cost, cover the cost
Cover the cost, cover the cost, cover the cost, cover the cost
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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"
Mental Istid
Ebba Grön
Ebba Grön
This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
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.
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.
grrr, curse those futureheads for not putting lyrics in their album insert-deal
Yeah I struggled with this one. Was going to do He Knows as well but there are bits that I can't figure out. All the other lyric sites have it wrong, too.
It's about life and how you can do anything (city is here for you to use) as long as your willing to take the consequences (cover the cost).
In the Futureheads Dvd, Barry explains how it's about his younger brother Dave &how he was like shy when they were in the big city since he was so young when they started. yadda, yadda, yadda. Some thing along those lines.
Aside from that...I love this song. &I love it even more because during a show Barry pointed &looked at me during the part of the song, "Are you ready for the city? Is the city ready for you?..." Ah, that was a fun night.
They felt the (???) make it better
The (???) should be things
things that*