"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 was twenty and she was eighteen
We were just about as wild as we were green
In the ways of the world
She'd pick me up in that red rag top
We were free of the folks and hiding from the cops
On a summer night
Running all the red lights
We'd park way out in a clearing in a grove
And the night was as hot as a coal-burning stove
We were cooking with gas
Knew it had to last
In the back of that red rag top
She said please don't stop
Well the very first time her mother met me
Her green-eyed girl had been a mother-to-be
For two weeks
I was out of job and she was in school
And life was fast and the world was cruel
We were young and wild
We decided not to have the child
So we did what we did and we tried to forget
And we swore up and down there would be no regrets
In the morning light
But on the way home that night
In the back of that red rag top
She said please don't stop
We took one more trip around the sun
But it was all make believe in the end
And no I can't say where she is today
I can't remember who I was back then
Well you do what you do and you pay for your sins
And there's no such thing as what might have been
That's a waste of time
Drive you out of your mind
I was stopped at a red light just yesterday
Beside a young girl in a cabriolet
And her eyes were green
And I was in an old scene
I was back in that red rag top
On the day she stopped loving me
I was back in that red rag top
On the day she stopped loving me
We were just about as wild as we were green
In the ways of the world
She'd pick me up in that red rag top
We were free of the folks and hiding from the cops
On a summer night
Running all the red lights
We'd park way out in a clearing in a grove
And the night was as hot as a coal-burning stove
We were cooking with gas
Knew it had to last
In the back of that red rag top
She said please don't stop
Well the very first time her mother met me
Her green-eyed girl had been a mother-to-be
For two weeks
I was out of job and she was in school
And life was fast and the world was cruel
We were young and wild
We decided not to have the child
So we did what we did and we tried to forget
And we swore up and down there would be no regrets
In the morning light
But on the way home that night
In the back of that red rag top
She said please don't stop
We took one more trip around the sun
But it was all make believe in the end
And no I can't say where she is today
I can't remember who I was back then
Well you do what you do and you pay for your sins
And there's no such thing as what might have been
That's a waste of time
Drive you out of your mind
I was stopped at a red light just yesterday
Beside a young girl in a cabriolet
And her eyes were green
And I was in an old scene
I was back in that red rag top
On the day she stopped loving me
I was back in that red rag top
On the day she stopped loving me
Lyrics submitted by shyzerDOTcom
Red Ragtop Lyrics as written by Jason Sandbrink White Jason White
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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"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"
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"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"
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Jan11, You are not a terrible person at all. I obviously don't know you but I know a few girls who have had abortions and really regret them like you but they are incredible, strong women. Everyone makes mistakes. I am pro life, but in my opinion, the abortion clinics are way more to blame than the women.
I'm sure nothing I can say will make you feel better, but know I'm praying for you.
This song is great! I'm surprised no one commented on it yet. Peace!
I think its about "young love"---how nothing matters but being together and then "life" and the "real world" get in the way
great song
It's about a girl getting an abortion and being really fucked up about it.
I think this song goes a lot deeper than young love. The first verse speaks for itself, although I think it's a little wistful. It's in the last two verses, though, where the sadness of the song really comes out. I am doing a research paper on abortion, and I've learned that often after an abortion the woman first feels terribly guilty (please don't stop loving me) but then begins to hate the man for not stopping her, which I think is why he says that she stopped loving him. This is such a sad song - it really made me stop and think after I heard it.
this is such a great song, its just incredibly sad.
Jason White wrote this song. You should listen to his version, which is much much better in my opinion. Great song by a great songwriter.
I think this is a awsome song.
The abortion part is really sad
I definitely agree with JimmyKane. Jason White's version is tres awesome.
Which makes me of think of the really complex nature of the issue of hand. His album was called Shades of Gray, and I think that speaks volumes about that song. Even though the act of abortion itself was bad, the person involved obviously wasn't...just a little young and unsure of the consequences of his actions. There's an incredible amount of regret in that song, and you can't help but sympathize.
I got pregnant by my boyfriend of two years when we were 20. We were terrified, hopeless, heartbroken, overwhelmed w/fear that our families would kill us. We had to undo what was already done, and FAST. "So we did what we did and we tried to forget." Words can never do justice for the feelings I had as I laid on that cold table of February 14th, VALENTINE'S DAY. It was as if nothing had ever happened and we were relieved. It wasn't until the time of my due date that the feelings I had repressed ripped through me like a tornado. I quickly spiraled from regretful and depressed to suicide in the course of one weekend.
"Well you do what you do and you pay for your sins And there’s no such thing as what might’ve been That’s a waste of time Drive you outta your mind"
Nothing will ever fill the endless black hole in me. I'm never going to be whole again... I did a terrible and repulsive thing and I'm digusted by the terrible person I think I am.
^ to above poster. you are not a terrible, disgusting person. i am against abortion but i still feel for you. you're life is not over. please don't feel that way about yourself.
anyway i love this song. im only 17 and i think its kinda funny how it came on in this camper me and my girlfriend were in the first time we were about to have sex. not that it happened but idk im always going to think of her when i hear this song.