"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.
Three neon pyramids above the door
The sign says closed it depends who for
On the tables in the their brown suede shoes
While the band plays the rhythm of a mutant blues
Underground oasis blue lagoon
Dancing the slowly slow beneath a 40 watt moon
Can you do the slowly slow
When your head won't start and your legs won't go
Shuffling round on their brown suede feet
While the band start blowing and turning up the heat
Feeling alright, feeling alright
Just another quiet Saturday night
Well in comes the guy with the metal head
Drinks are served and filled with dread
Up come the lady with the big pink hair
Buy him a drink and pull him up a chair
If you don't fit in you fit in here
Says the lady with the candy floss hair
The loudmouthed guy in the Turkish fez
No one listens to a word he says
Except the man with the metal head
Who stands up slowly eyes full of hatred
The end up rolling in the sand
Into the plastic palm trees around the band
The air is filled with flying chairs
And the screams of the lady with the big pink hair
The band plays on in a higher key
To get above the noise of the revelry
Feeling alright, feeling alright
Just another quiet Saturday night
If you don't fit in you fit in here
If you don't fit in you fit in here
If you don't fit in you fit in here
The sign says closed it depends who for
On the tables in the their brown suede shoes
While the band plays the rhythm of a mutant blues
Underground oasis blue lagoon
Dancing the slowly slow beneath a 40 watt moon
Can you do the slowly slow
When your head won't start and your legs won't go
Shuffling round on their brown suede feet
While the band start blowing and turning up the heat
Feeling alright, feeling alright
Just another quiet Saturday night
Well in comes the guy with the metal head
Drinks are served and filled with dread
Up come the lady with the big pink hair
Buy him a drink and pull him up a chair
If you don't fit in you fit in here
Says the lady with the candy floss hair
The loudmouthed guy in the Turkish fez
No one listens to a word he says
Except the man with the metal head
Who stands up slowly eyes full of hatred
The end up rolling in the sand
Into the plastic palm trees around the band
The air is filled with flying chairs
And the screams of the lady with the big pink hair
The band plays on in a higher key
To get above the noise of the revelry
Feeling alright, feeling alright
Just another quiet Saturday night
If you don't fit in you fit in here
If you don't fit in you fit in here
If you don't fit in you fit in here
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
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.
Magical
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
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.