"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.
Some will strut and some will fret
See this an hour on the stage
Others will not but they'll sweat
In their hopelessness and their rage
We're all the same the men of anger
And women of the page
They published your diary
And that's how I got to know you
The key to the room of your own and a mind without end
And here's a young girl
On a kind of a telephone line through time
And the voice at the other end comes like a long lost friend
So I know I'm all right
Life will come and life will go
Still I feel it's all right
Cause I just got a letter to my soul
And when my whole life is on the tip of my tongue
Empty pages for the no longer young
The apathy of time laughs in my face
You say "each life has its place"
The hatches were battened
The thunderclouds rolled and the critics stormed
The battle surrounded the white flag of your youth
If you need to know that you weathered the storm
Of cruel mortality
A hundred years later I'm sitting here living proof
So you know you're all right
(All right)
Life will come and life will go
(Life will come and go)
Still you'll feel it's all right
(All right)
Someone'll get a letter to your soul
(Someone gets your soul)
When your whole life is on the tip of your tongue
Empty pages for the no longer young
The apathy of time laughed in your face
Did you hear me say "each life has its place"
The place where you hold me
Dark in a pocket of truth
The moon had swallowed the sun and the light of the earth
And so it was for you
When the river eclipsed your life
And sent your soul like a message in a bottle to me
And it was my rebirth
So we know we're all right
(All right)
Though life will come and life will go
(Though life will come and life will go)
Still you'll feel it's all right
(All right)
Someone'll will get a letter to your soul
(Someone gets your soul)
Then you know you're all right
(When my whole life is on the tip of my tongue)
Then you feel you're all right
(Empty pages for the no longer young)
And your hear dry you eyes
(You said)
And you know it's all right
(Each life has it's place)
And your hear dry your eyes
(You said)
And you know it's all right
(Each life has it's place)
And it's all right
(It'll be all right)
See this an hour on the stage
Others will not but they'll sweat
In their hopelessness and their rage
We're all the same the men of anger
And women of the page
They published your diary
And that's how I got to know you
The key to the room of your own and a mind without end
And here's a young girl
On a kind of a telephone line through time
And the voice at the other end comes like a long lost friend
So I know I'm all right
Life will come and life will go
Still I feel it's all right
Cause I just got a letter to my soul
And when my whole life is on the tip of my tongue
Empty pages for the no longer young
The apathy of time laughs in my face
You say "each life has its place"
The hatches were battened
The thunderclouds rolled and the critics stormed
The battle surrounded the white flag of your youth
If you need to know that you weathered the storm
Of cruel mortality
A hundred years later I'm sitting here living proof
So you know you're all right
(All right)
Life will come and life will go
(Life will come and go)
Still you'll feel it's all right
(All right)
Someone'll get a letter to your soul
(Someone gets your soul)
When your whole life is on the tip of your tongue
Empty pages for the no longer young
The apathy of time laughed in your face
Did you hear me say "each life has its place"
The place where you hold me
Dark in a pocket of truth
The moon had swallowed the sun and the light of the earth
And so it was for you
When the river eclipsed your life
And sent your soul like a message in a bottle to me
And it was my rebirth
So we know we're all right
(All right)
Though life will come and life will go
(Though life will come and life will go)
Still you'll feel it's all right
(All right)
Someone'll will get a letter to your soul
(Someone gets your soul)
Then you know you're all right
(When my whole life is on the tip of my tongue)
Then you feel you're all right
(Empty pages for the no longer young)
And your hear dry you eyes
(You said)
And you know it's all right
(Each life has it's place)
And your hear dry your eyes
(You said)
And you know it's all right
(Each life has it's place)
And it's all right
(It'll be all right)
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
Holiday
Bee Gees
Bee Gees
@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
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.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
well, this song is about how Virginia Woolf inspired Emily Saliers (the songwriter)...and, ironically, now Emily has inspired us (well, I, for one, am inspired...this song has touched me more deeply than anything else I've listened to in the last couple of years)...this song is both deeply emotional and deeply philosophical
a lot of the song speaks directly about Virginia's life, for instance:
the men of anger (Virginia was sexually abused by her step-brother) and the women of the page (...and, of course, she was a writer)
key to the room of your own (more or less a direct quote from Virginia)
the moon swallowed the sun (Virginia witnessed and wrote about the solar eclipse of, I think it was, 1926?)
the river eclipsed your life (Virginia was mentally ill, and ultimately drowned herself by putting heavy rocks in her pockets and jumping in a river)
anyway, I think the main theme is that, if you can inspire people, or even just one person, even after you've died, you have essentially achieved immortality (as Emily puts it, "weathered the storm of cruel mortality")
and on a more simple level, I think this song is a thank you to Virginia for her inspiration