"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.
Ride, when we ride, we ride
It's 'til the day that we die ('til we die)
When we ride, we ride
It's 'til the day that we die
It's real late
'Bout a quarter to one
I'm thinking of everything that we've become
And I hate it
I thought we could make it
But I'm ready to dead this
Just wanna forget about it
I saw her pictures
And the letters she sent
You had me thinking
You were out we your friends
I'm so foolish
Play me like I'm stupid
'Cause I thought it was just you and i, oh
Now I look back on the time that we spent and I
See it in my mind playing over and over again
'Cause, boy, right now, you got me breaking down
And I just can't figure out why
But this is what you say (we ride)
Oh
When we ride, we ride
It's 'til the day that we die ('til we die)
We used to say
When we ride, we ride
It's 'til the day that we die
We ride
When we ride, we ride
It's 'til the day that we die ('til we die)
(But, I remember what you used to say)
When we ride, we ride
It's 'til the day that we die
Visions in my mind of the day that we met
You showed me things that I'll never forget
Took me swimming in the ocean
You had my head up in the clouds
Made me feel like I'm floating (yeah)
You think I'm playing when you know it's the truth
Nobody else can do it quite like I do
All my kisses (kisses)
And my loving (and my loving)
But ain't nobody better than us, yeah-yeah
Now I look back on the time that we spent and I
See it in my mind playing over and over again
'Cause, boy, right now, you got me breaking down
And I just can't figure out why
You said (we ride)
Mm
When we ride, we ride
It's 'til the day that we die ('til we die)
We used to say
When we ride, we ride
It's 'til the day that we die
We ride
When we ride, we ride
It's 'til the day that we die ('til we die)
(But, I remember what you used to say)
When we ride, we ride
It's 'til the day that we die
I guess it's over, indefinitely
But you and I know it's not that easy to let go (to let go)
Of everything (of everything) that we planned
And start all over again, hey
Just blame yourself 'cause you blew it
I won't forget how you do it
My sweet baby, this is where the game ends now
Somehow, wanna believe you and me, we can figure it out (oh-oh)
We ride (yeah)
When we ride, we ride
It's 'til the day that we die ('til we die)
When we ride, we ride
It's 'til the day that we die
Don't I make you say, boy
I wish that you could hold me when I'm lonely
When I need someone to talk to, you would phone me
Just like everything you told me
(When we ride we ride it's 'til the day that we die)
Boy, you forgot about the promises you made me
And now we'll let the memories just fade away
But I remember what you used to say
(When we ride, we ride it's 'til the day that we die)
We ride
When we ride, we ride
It's 'til the day that we die ('til we die)
We used to say
When we ride, we ride
It's 'til the day that we die
We ride
When we ride, we ride
It's 'til the day that we die ('til we die)
(But, I remember what you used to say)
When we ride, we ride
It's 'til the day that we die
We ride
It's 'til the day that we die ('til we die)
When we ride, we ride
It's 'til the day that we die
It's real late
'Bout a quarter to one
I'm thinking of everything that we've become
And I hate it
I thought we could make it
But I'm ready to dead this
Just wanna forget about it
I saw her pictures
And the letters she sent
You had me thinking
You were out we your friends
I'm so foolish
Play me like I'm stupid
'Cause I thought it was just you and i, oh
Now I look back on the time that we spent and I
See it in my mind playing over and over again
'Cause, boy, right now, you got me breaking down
And I just can't figure out why
But this is what you say (we ride)
Oh
When we ride, we ride
It's 'til the day that we die ('til we die)
We used to say
When we ride, we ride
It's 'til the day that we die
We ride
When we ride, we ride
It's 'til the day that we die ('til we die)
(But, I remember what you used to say)
When we ride, we ride
It's 'til the day that we die
Visions in my mind of the day that we met
You showed me things that I'll never forget
Took me swimming in the ocean
You had my head up in the clouds
Made me feel like I'm floating (yeah)
You think I'm playing when you know it's the truth
Nobody else can do it quite like I do
All my kisses (kisses)
And my loving (and my loving)
But ain't nobody better than us, yeah-yeah
Now I look back on the time that we spent and I
See it in my mind playing over and over again
'Cause, boy, right now, you got me breaking down
And I just can't figure out why
You said (we ride)
Mm
When we ride, we ride
It's 'til the day that we die ('til we die)
We used to say
When we ride, we ride
It's 'til the day that we die
We ride
When we ride, we ride
It's 'til the day that we die ('til we die)
(But, I remember what you used to say)
When we ride, we ride
It's 'til the day that we die
I guess it's over, indefinitely
But you and I know it's not that easy to let go (to let go)
Of everything (of everything) that we planned
And start all over again, hey
Just blame yourself 'cause you blew it
I won't forget how you do it
My sweet baby, this is where the game ends now
Somehow, wanna believe you and me, we can figure it out (oh-oh)
We ride (yeah)
When we ride, we ride
It's 'til the day that we die ('til we die)
When we ride, we ride
It's 'til the day that we die
Don't I make you say, boy
I wish that you could hold me when I'm lonely
When I need someone to talk to, you would phone me
Just like everything you told me
(When we ride we ride it's 'til the day that we die)
Boy, you forgot about the promises you made me
And now we'll let the memories just fade away
But I remember what you used to say
(When we ride, we ride it's 'til the day that we die)
We ride
When we ride, we ride
It's 'til the day that we die ('til we die)
We used to say
When we ride, we ride
It's 'til the day that we die
We ride
When we ride, we ride
It's 'til the day that we die ('til we die)
(But, I remember what you used to say)
When we ride, we ride
It's 'til the day that we die
We ride
Lyrics submitted by xox_pandie_xox
We Ride Lyrics as written by Makeba Riddick Mikkel Eriksen
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Royalty Network, Songtrust Ave, Peermusic Publishing, Hipgnosis Songs Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
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"
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
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.
She's not that good, sorry mate! :)
Is Rihanna trying to make it a running thing with this song and the last song she released? The last song she released (in Australia) was about her doing the dirty on her partner. Now she's released a song about it being done to her.
Is it meant to be a continuing thing? - "I did it to him, now it's his revenge"