"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.
Is that a guitar or a machine gun
Don't make me take it away
You know I think you are a bad one
I can tell by your face
Get down on the ground now
Don't make me do this the hard way
Your just a shadow in the back seat now as they drive you away
And couldn't you see this is no place to be at the wrong time
You know your not the only one here looking for some at the wrong time
Its just that look in your eye
your just not quite uptight enough for our town
And now don't try to fight cause we know that we're right in our town
Our town
And its just you behind the bars now
Staring into space
There's time to think about each sound and its affect on your face
Time to move you to the big cell
Your all in this together now
This is where the really big deals go down
Just like the street behind the White House
Its easy to see this is no place to be at the wrong time
And there's a feeling in here that spreads like a disease that its the wrong time
Just got to look our eyes and it will make you uptight in our town
And the more that you fight the more that we know we're right in our town
Our town
Now don't you worry about your dinner son
its just about the last thing on my mind
You know it ain't going to be a pretty on
What did you expect to find
I got some white bread
some cheese spread and some mayonnaise
I got some white bread
some cheese spread and some mayonnaise
The judge can't see you quite yet
This has been a busy week for us
Friday was a big bust
We're just trying to clean these streets up
Couldn't you see this is no place to be at the wrong time
I think you mother never should have let you out at the wrong time
We catch you looking at us and we're gonna bust you up in our town
And you know everybody's gonna watch you go straight down in out town
Our town
Don't make me take it away
You know I think you are a bad one
I can tell by your face
Get down on the ground now
Don't make me do this the hard way
Your just a shadow in the back seat now as they drive you away
And couldn't you see this is no place to be at the wrong time
You know your not the only one here looking for some at the wrong time
Its just that look in your eye
your just not quite uptight enough for our town
And now don't try to fight cause we know that we're right in our town
Our town
And its just you behind the bars now
Staring into space
There's time to think about each sound and its affect on your face
Time to move you to the big cell
Your all in this together now
This is where the really big deals go down
Just like the street behind the White House
Its easy to see this is no place to be at the wrong time
And there's a feeling in here that spreads like a disease that its the wrong time
Just got to look our eyes and it will make you uptight in our town
And the more that you fight the more that we know we're right in our town
Our town
Now don't you worry about your dinner son
its just about the last thing on my mind
You know it ain't going to be a pretty on
What did you expect to find
I got some white bread
some cheese spread and some mayonnaise
I got some white bread
some cheese spread and some mayonnaise
The judge can't see you quite yet
This has been a busy week for us
Friday was a big bust
We're just trying to clean these streets up
Couldn't you see this is no place to be at the wrong time
I think you mother never should have let you out at the wrong time
We catch you looking at us and we're gonna bust you up in our town
And you know everybody's gonna watch you go straight down in out town
Our town
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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.
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.
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.
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.
A simple song about the threatening cops of towns