"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.
You're getting weak in your decisions
The ones that wake you just to say goodnight
And there's nowhere to run from them this time
If there's nothing I can say to break you free of all your fears
Then why am I still here
Well there's that charming face you wear so well
And I know that you don't wanna stay
So why don't you just pack up and come with me
You've gotta hold on now
Don't let your eyes look down
When we're gone from here this won't feel lost at all
And there's not a day that I can say that I've
Been playing every card that I've been dealt
But I know how it feels and how you felt
When the world was at your back and things were never stacked up right
But you put up a fight
There's a light that peers through darkening skies
And I know that you wanna be free
So why don't you spread your wings and fly with me
You've gotta hold on now
Don't let your eyes look down
When we're gone from here this wont feel lost at all
You've gotta hold on now
(You think that I've got it wrong)
Won't let our lives touch ground
(But this is where I belong)
I've been hoping you would just come through
With the days you said that
We'd be on our way back
To the ones we knew so little of this year
You've gotta hold on now
Don't let it all come down
When we're gone from here this wont feel lost at all
Youre wishing me all of the best
I just wish you would drop your regrets
And come back to this place I know
Will be the place you can never let go
The ones that wake you just to say goodnight
And there's nowhere to run from them this time
If there's nothing I can say to break you free of all your fears
Then why am I still here
Well there's that charming face you wear so well
And I know that you don't wanna stay
So why don't you just pack up and come with me
You've gotta hold on now
Don't let your eyes look down
When we're gone from here this won't feel lost at all
And there's not a day that I can say that I've
Been playing every card that I've been dealt
But I know how it feels and how you felt
When the world was at your back and things were never stacked up right
But you put up a fight
There's a light that peers through darkening skies
And I know that you wanna be free
So why don't you spread your wings and fly with me
You've gotta hold on now
Don't let your eyes look down
When we're gone from here this wont feel lost at all
You've gotta hold on now
(You think that I've got it wrong)
Won't let our lives touch ground
(But this is where I belong)
I've been hoping you would just come through
With the days you said that
We'd be on our way back
To the ones we knew so little of this year
You've gotta hold on now
Don't let it all come down
When we're gone from here this wont feel lost at all
Youre wishing me all of the best
I just wish you would drop your regrets
And come back to this place I know
Will be the place you can never let go
Lyrics submitted by L-Kyne
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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.
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
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.
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
I think song gives that special person a boost of confidence.