"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 knew this girl when I was young
She took her spikes from everyone
One night she swallowed up the lake
That's how you sing amazing grace
Amazing grace
Amazing grace
It sounds like razors in my ears
That bell's been ringing now for years
Someday I'll give it all away
That's how you sing amazing grace
Amazing grace
Amazing grace
Oh, can you hear that sweet sweet sound
Yeah, I was lost but now I'm found
Sometimes there's nothing left to save
That's how you sing amazing grace
Amazing grace
Amazing grace
That's how you sing amazing grace
She took her spikes from everyone
One night she swallowed up the lake
That's how you sing amazing grace
Amazing grace
Amazing grace
It sounds like razors in my ears
That bell's been ringing now for years
Someday I'll give it all away
That's how you sing amazing grace
Amazing grace
Amazing grace
Oh, can you hear that sweet sweet sound
Yeah, I was lost but now I'm found
Sometimes there's nothing left to save
That's how you sing amazing grace
Amazing grace
Amazing grace
That's how you sing amazing grace
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"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"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"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"
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
Amazing
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran tells a story of unsuccessfully trying to feel “Amazing.” This track is about the being weighed down by emotional stress despite valiant attempts to find some positivity in the situation. This track was written by Ed Sheeran from the perspective of his friend. From the track, we see this person fall deeper into the negative thoughts and slide further down the path of mental torment with every lyric.
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.
This song comes from the deepest, darkest place. It's a minimal universe, ever expanding. The hymn Amazing Grace is about salvation and the song lifts several lines directly from it, but the song adds more depth to the meaning of the term.
"Amazing grace" here is the achievement of a transcendence from normal Earthy experience to something profoundly beautiful. In the first verse the girl achieves this by having the high of all highs (always thought it was "Swallowed up the land..."). The spike reference in the first verses obviously relates to heroin, but I think the subject of the song goes beyond that.
The second verse is much harder to interpret. It seems to be about someone who has been suffering from tinnitus for years; perhaps when the time comes when the incessant ringing finally stops is when the transcendence will take place. The "give it all away" line suggests that this may be attained by suicide.
The last verse quotes from the hymn and to me seems to describe the actual "Amazing grace" being experienced, whatever led to it. It seems to be a shareable experience ("Can you hear..."?), perhaps falling in love (some say that falling in love with someone is like returning "home" - I was lost but now I'm found). I always heard it as "Sometimes there's nothing left to say" which to me relates simply to the comfortable silence enjoyed by lovers.
Amazing song.