"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.
Oh the memories, they come a-streamin'
When I'm walkin' 'round here dreamin'
On a summer's night on Hammer Hill
oh, it's hard to stay with the subject
When you think of something so perfect
As a summer's night on Hammer Hill
I had a friend who was slightly overweight
That means fatass in the seventh grade
I still remember the steamy dressing room
Where they beat him black and blue
Yeah they beat him black and blue
oh, but it's hard to stay mad when there's so much beauty
An open window, someone's playing Tutti Frutti
It's a summer's night on Hammer Hill
I had a friend, a girl who looked sort of like a guy
I can't forget her dark painful eyes
When they burned her with a cigarette lighter
When the cops came they had to untie her
Another girl was free to grow up as cynical writer
oh, but it's hard to stay mad when there's so much beauty
An open window, someone's playing Tutti Frutti
It's a sweet summer's night on Hammer Hill
I wanna die right here
On a sweet summer's night on Hammer Hill
When I'm walkin' 'round here dreamin'
On a summer's night on Hammer Hill
oh, it's hard to stay with the subject
When you think of something so perfect
As a summer's night on Hammer Hill
I had a friend who was slightly overweight
That means fatass in the seventh grade
I still remember the steamy dressing room
Where they beat him black and blue
Yeah they beat him black and blue
oh, but it's hard to stay mad when there's so much beauty
An open window, someone's playing Tutti Frutti
It's a summer's night on Hammer Hill
I had a friend, a girl who looked sort of like a guy
I can't forget her dark painful eyes
When they burned her with a cigarette lighter
When the cops came they had to untie her
Another girl was free to grow up as cynical writer
oh, but it's hard to stay mad when there's so much beauty
An open window, someone's playing Tutti Frutti
It's a sweet summer's night on Hammer Hill
I wanna die right here
On a sweet summer's night on Hammer Hill
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Fast Car
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Plastic Bag
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“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.
I'm a little surprised that I'm the only one (besides timothyreal, in a way) that feels like this song is more about sadness than happiness. There's a stark difference from the first version, and I think there's a reason.
I don't think the "I want to die right here" line is a sentiment of contentment (rhyming is fun! lol) as butters227 suggests. IMO, it's him coming to terms with the realization that the place/time wasn't all it was cracked up to be back then. Especially through the eyes of the boy that gets beat black and blue and the girl that gets tied up and burnt with cigarettes.
The whole song seems to be tinged with sarcasm. "oh, it's hard to stay with the subject/when you think of something so perfect/as a summer's night on hammer hill," and "oh, but it's hard to stay mad when there's so much beauty/an open window, someone's playing "Tutti Frutti"/it's a summer's night on hammer hill." Sounds like something the cynical writer would've written.
Just my thoughts.