"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.
It's late enough all you kids should be home
The policeman says as he takes your beer for his own
You remember wondering what his wife
Thought about his occupation
He knows that you were just chasing a dream
To the town line and then back and over again
So he winks at you girls
And he tells you all he'll see you later
I was stealing kisses from a boy
Now I'm begging affection from a man
In my housedress don't you know who I am
Don't you know who I am
Standing in your kitchen
It's late enough your husband's dinner is cold
So you wrap it up and leave it for him on the stove
It's probably the traffic again
Or another important meeting
And you haven't talked to one adult all day
Except your neighbor who drives you crazy
When he finally gets in he's sure
Not in the mood for talking
And hours become days, and days become years
And you could burn down this town
If they made matches from fear
But you're no worse off than anybody else
Hey don't you even know
Don't you even know yourself
So you're standing outside the high school doors
The ones you walked out of twenty years before
And you whisper to all of the girls, run, run, run
I was stealing kisses from a boy
Now I'm begging affection from a man
In my housedress don't you know who I am
Don't you know who I am
Take a look at who I am
Take a look at who I am
I'm stealing kisses
Stealing kisses
The policeman says as he takes your beer for his own
You remember wondering what his wife
Thought about his occupation
He knows that you were just chasing a dream
To the town line and then back and over again
So he winks at you girls
And he tells you all he'll see you later
I was stealing kisses from a boy
Now I'm begging affection from a man
In my housedress don't you know who I am
Don't you know who I am
Standing in your kitchen
It's late enough your husband's dinner is cold
So you wrap it up and leave it for him on the stove
It's probably the traffic again
Or another important meeting
And you haven't talked to one adult all day
Except your neighbor who drives you crazy
When he finally gets in he's sure
Not in the mood for talking
And hours become days, and days become years
And you could burn down this town
If they made matches from fear
But you're no worse off than anybody else
Hey don't you even know
Don't you even know yourself
So you're standing outside the high school doors
The ones you walked out of twenty years before
And you whisper to all of the girls, run, run, run
I was stealing kisses from a boy
Now I'm begging affection from a man
In my housedress don't you know who I am
Don't you know who I am
Take a look at who I am
Take a look at who I am
I'm stealing kisses
Stealing kisses
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could someone please tell me what this song means? i think it has a really deep meaning, but i am having a hard time figuring out what it is exactly!
hello cheer chic157. this song means so much. the meaning is simple: She jumped into a relationship too fast and she regreted it because he acted like she was nothing. She is trying to warn other girls to wait and not to just jump in to something that may seem good when it could be more negative than a positive.
Lori Mckenna is amazing. The emotions in this song are unbelievable. Building on what you said, annoyance, I think this song is about a woman who fell in love too fast and now her husband doesn't pay her any attention, etc (ie she has to "beg affection" from him). He barely notices her anymore and, even though she regrets being with him, she is too scared to do anything else than be with him (I'm sort of guessing on that but its what makes sense to me) and she is sort of hoping that one day he'll give her the love she always wanted.
(And just for the record, Faith Hill's cover can't touch this)
in the faith hill version, it's a very rich housewife, but in the lori mckenna version, i feel it's very different. i think it's a small town, very poor and, based on some of her other songs, she married young. i don't know if she rushed into her marriage or not, but it sounds like, at one point, she and her husband had a lot of fun at one point. But now they have children and he works all day and is miserable. I think she regrets staying in the small town and now it is too late for her to run away. she's bored, miserable and desperate.
Yep. This is how I interpret it as well.
I agree with the above, I think its just about any woman thats sick of her daily life and routine and having a man that takes you for granted. Just being sick of the mundane repetitive life that she has, taking care of the kids, having no actual people her own age to relate to, her husband is too busy doing his own thing to care about her etc etc....
And I agree Faith Hill's version wont ever come close to Lori's.