"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.
Cheer up, it might never happen, oh
It might never happen, well, we'll see
As I sit here spitting and churning, oh
It's clear that it's happening right now to me
Make it special
For a loved one
For a stranger
Peace is hard to
Hard to come by
Extraordinary thing
Why not believe in something?
Something's got to be better than nothing
Just because it's the end of the beginning
Doesn't mean it's the beginning of the end
Falling fragile
Broken busted
All for nothing
Sing my heart out
For a stranger
Extraordinary thing
Sing my heart out
For a stranger
Extraordinary thing
It might never happen, well, we'll see
As I sit here spitting and churning, oh
It's clear that it's happening right now to me
Make it special
For a loved one
For a stranger
Peace is hard to
Hard to come by
Extraordinary thing
Why not believe in something?
Something's got to be better than nothing
Just because it's the end of the beginning
Doesn't mean it's the beginning of the end
Falling fragile
Broken busted
All for nothing
Sing my heart out
For a stranger
Extraordinary thing
Sing my heart out
For a stranger
Extraordinary thing
Lyrics submitted by plasticflowers
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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"
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
Ed Sheeran
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.
Amazing
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
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.
i love the instruments in this song. Especially at the beginning.
but as far as what it means.. i wish i knew. i hate when songs haven't been commented on.. because i want to know what this means.
"Just becasue it's the end of the beginning Doesn't mean it's the beginning of the end."
waitingonyou, you totally stole my thunder haha...i love this song so much..its seriously underrated.
personally, i think the song is about a couple, maybe the male is finally opening up to the female but its kind of too late..isnt that how it always is?
I think this song is about an impending break up. It seems like he is saying, "it might never happen" meaning we don't need to break up, and goes on to say "just because it's it end of the beginning, doesn't mean it's the beginning of the end." I think it is about a couple hitting a rough patch, their first hard time, and him trying to keep it from causing the relationship to end. I think he says both stranger and loved one for the same person, because you never really know the person you are with. whatever it means, it is a great song.
I absolutely adore this song. It has an immense melancholic beauty. It makes me think about life in general, with its ups and downs.
i absolutely love this song. the vocals are just so haunting and beautiful.
beautiful song.. it could mean pretty much anything but i think that its maybe about how shocking it is to actually make it in the music buisness and that he's making money off his deepest most heartfelt songs. 'Cheer up, it might never happen' would be those who didnt really believe he'd make it so cheer up & pursue something else. he replies 'well, we'll see' 'spitting and churning' would be all the hard work it takes to make it in music. then finally the hard work results in success .... 'It's clear that it's happening right now to me' he wants to make his songs special as they are truly from the heart as he is a genuine sensitive person. Although they're written for loved ones the people buying & listening to his songs are strangers. 'Make it special For a loved one For a stranger' Financial and emotional peace are hard to come by so it's an extrordinary thing that as a musician he finally becames so succesful. But most of all the whole buisness is extroadanary and so is everything it stands for. it makes u stand back & wonder if being rich and succesful is a completly right moral thing. Selling your heartfelt songs would kind of be like selling your soul. 'Peace is hard to Hard to come by Extraordinary thing' he'll take success as it comes because personal success; whats not to like? it's easier to coast along then to question where u are and how u got there. His new found fame is a new beginning as he says goodbye to obscurity. 'Why not believe in something? Something's got to be better than nothing Just because it's the end of the beginning Doesn't mean it's the beginning of the end' Finally whats the point of being an independent musician without a record label and chart topping songs if it means stuggle and poverty? whats really to show for stubbern individuality? He resolves to just go ahead & sing for all those strangers all though its still a little extraodinary. 'Falling fragile Broken busted All for nothing Sing my heart out For a stranger Extraordinary thing Sing my heart out For a stranger Extraordinary thing'
so i guess this would be a reply to anyone who might say he's gotten to comercial but hey, im proably all wrong:)
i love this song.
i think it's about not giving up hope in any aspect of life.
every song that he has written on the album strange & beautiful means something really deep... and heartfelt to me. this album has gotten me through so much... i dont care how corney this sounds. but..
what I think this song is about, is a person who was, lightweight, recently out of a relationship, there previous partner has had a gf/bf or two, and now, they finally are over them. after everything. and really, its an extrordinary thing to get over love. so... thats what im assuming. but thats just me...
pinkaspinksarah is pretty much right - I read in an interview that this song is about how he is making money off the songs that have come straight from his soul, and that he feels he is performing them to strangers, kind of like by signing a record deal and doing concerts and stuff he's selling his soul to the devil