"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.
Big girl in the red dress
She's just trying to impress us
And she's got the barley fever
But she doesn't make a sound
She's just hanging around
She's just hanging around
Down the Court road early
With the Hustlers big and burly
There's a million of 'em selling
And the buyers can be found
They're just hanging around
They're just hanging around
Christ, he told his mother
Christ, he told her not to bother
'Cause he's alright in the city
'Cause he's high above the ground
He's just hanging around (hanging around)
He's just hanging around (hanging around)
He's just hanging around (hanging around)
He's just hanging around (hanging around)
One of 'em comes closer
He's got a monkey on his shoulder
And the monkey's getting grinner
But his eyes are on the ground
He's just hanging around
He's just hanging around
I'm moving in the Coleherne
With the leather all around me
And the sweat is getting steamy
But their eyes are on the ground
They're just hanging around
They're just hanging around
Christ, he told his mother
Christ, he told her not to bother
'Cause he's alright in the city
'Cause he's high above the ground
He's just hanging around (hanging around)
He's just hanging around (hanging around)
He's just hanging around (hanging around)
He's just hanging around (hanging around)
Christ, he told his mother
Christ, he told her not to bother
'Cause he's alright in the city
'Cause he's high above the ground
He's just hanging around (hanging around)
He's just hanging around (hanging around)
He's just hanging around (hanging around)
He's just hanging around (hanging around)
He's just hanging around (hanging around)
He's just hanging around (hanging around)
She's just trying to impress us
And she's got the barley fever
But she doesn't make a sound
She's just hanging around
She's just hanging around
Down the Court road early
With the Hustlers big and burly
There's a million of 'em selling
And the buyers can be found
They're just hanging around
They're just hanging around
Christ, he told his mother
Christ, he told her not to bother
'Cause he's alright in the city
'Cause he's high above the ground
He's just hanging around (hanging around)
He's just hanging around (hanging around)
He's just hanging around (hanging around)
He's just hanging around (hanging around)
One of 'em comes closer
He's got a monkey on his shoulder
And the monkey's getting grinner
But his eyes are on the ground
He's just hanging around
He's just hanging around
I'm moving in the Coleherne
With the leather all around me
And the sweat is getting steamy
But their eyes are on the ground
They're just hanging around
They're just hanging around
Christ, he told his mother
Christ, he told her not to bother
'Cause he's alright in the city
'Cause he's high above the ground
He's just hanging around (hanging around)
He's just hanging around (hanging around)
He's just hanging around (hanging around)
He's just hanging around (hanging around)
Christ, he told his mother
Christ, he told her not to bother
'Cause he's alright in the city
'Cause he's high above the ground
He's just hanging around (hanging around)
He's just hanging around (hanging around)
He's just hanging around (hanging around)
He's just hanging around (hanging around)
He's just hanging around (hanging around)
He's just hanging around (hanging around)
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
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.
Head > Heels
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Head > Heels” is a track that aims to capture what it feels like to experience romance that exceeds expectations. Ed Sheeran dedicates his album outro to a lover who has blessed him with a unique experience that he seeks to describe through the song’s nuanced lyrics.
American Town
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
Lyrics are wrong. Should be "Christ he's old as mother, christ he;'s old enough to bother."