"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.
We talked
Together sharpening a knife
Like killing partners for a life
Hey we can hide the bodies on the ride home
Now here we are
We're licking skin to wipe us clean
Strike a match, pour gasoline
Ditch the scene and watch this city burn
Sleep, my lap will be your pillow, steering wheel turn
I'll be reaching for the stars with you (honey)
Who cares if no one else believes?
Yeah, so I, set fire to everyone around
But I told you, I told you, we'd do it
So ha-ha-ha-ha
Ha-ha-ha
Yeah, we walk
We drive
To leave the past and clear the mind
To watch the sunset set its time
I swear you'll find
I'm your ride home
Now close your eyes
It's getting dark and the highway's clear
No sign of life from front to rear
Is it just you my dear
On the ride home?
We're going home
I'll be reaching for the stars with you (honey)
Who cares if no one else believes?
Yeah, so I, set fire to everyone around
But I told you, I told you, we'd do it
So ha-ha-ha-ha
Ha-ha-ha
Yeah, we walk
We talked
Together sharpening a knife
Like killing partners for a life
Hey we can hide the bodies on the ride home
'Cause we're going home
I'll be reaching for the stars with you (honey)
Who cares if no one else believes?
Yeah, so I, set fire to everyone around
But I told you, I told you, we'd do it
So ha-ha-ha-ha (we walk)
Ha-ha-ha
Oh yeah, we walk
We walk
Yeah, we walk
Yeah, we walk
Together sharpening a knife
Like killing partners for a life
Hey we can hide the bodies on the ride home
Now here we are
We're licking skin to wipe us clean
Strike a match, pour gasoline
Ditch the scene and watch this city burn
Sleep, my lap will be your pillow, steering wheel turn
I'll be reaching for the stars with you (honey)
Who cares if no one else believes?
Yeah, so I, set fire to everyone around
But I told you, I told you, we'd do it
So ha-ha-ha-ha
Ha-ha-ha
Yeah, we walk
We drive
To leave the past and clear the mind
To watch the sunset set its time
I swear you'll find
I'm your ride home
Now close your eyes
It's getting dark and the highway's clear
No sign of life from front to rear
Is it just you my dear
On the ride home?
We're going home
I'll be reaching for the stars with you (honey)
Who cares if no one else believes?
Yeah, so I, set fire to everyone around
But I told you, I told you, we'd do it
So ha-ha-ha-ha
Ha-ha-ha
Yeah, we walk
We talked
Together sharpening a knife
Like killing partners for a life
Hey we can hide the bodies on the ride home
'Cause we're going home
I'll be reaching for the stars with you (honey)
Who cares if no one else believes?
Yeah, so I, set fire to everyone around
But I told you, I told you, we'd do it
So ha-ha-ha-ha (we walk)
Ha-ha-ha
Oh yeah, we walk
We walk
Yeah, we walk
Yeah, we walk
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
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
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.
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
I'm going sort of a different direction on this one, mostly because I'm projecting my own feelings into it. I think it's about two friends falling in love.
They each see in the other what no one else sees or appreciates - I have a friend who I'm falling for and I don't see how other girls can possibly have thrown him away and hurt him the way that they have.
They've each seen the other go through one shitty experience and relationship after another, and now finally they've figured out that it's them - together they can go further than either of them have with others. They'll reach for the stars with each other when none of their past lovers would or could.
I think the references to killing and burning and leaving the bodies behind are about moving on from the pain in their pasts.
I think this is an amazing song lyrically and musically. I like how it shows that no matter how crazy things are in your world...everyone has a place they call "home". My take on it, though it could be wrong, is that the person in the song has multiple personalities or "voices" in his head kind of like in OFFICE SPACE the guy that keeps talking about burning the business to the ground and then he does in the end. I think that is about a schizoid that carries out his plans to kill everyone and then drives home. He is talking to the "other person" in his head. This is not a love song but a shade of grey song about how beauty can be seen even in insanity...because even though we have burned the city like "I said we would do" we are going HOME...and most people who pull acts like Columbine take their life, but in this song he says that he killed everyone but "you".
He just wants to be with her with no matter what. He wants to be alone with her and his happiest when its that way and knows its the same with her. He realizes that no one else thinks their relationship could be real but he knows that all that matters is that they are both happy. No one else matters. Convincing to forget the past is another part of the song.
"Hey, we can hide the bodies on the ride home" Past is the metaphor for the bodies. He feels its better to hide the past and not let it get in anyone way.
"We drive To leave the past and clear the mind To watch the sunset at its time I swear you're fine, I'm your ride home"
Now it can be taken symbolically or physically. Driving with this girl in his car. Driving to any destination no matter where or even no destination at all is still perfect. Watching sunsets and gazing at a night sky with her is even better. He wants her to know that he is her ride, the one who will guide her the right way. Symbolically driving means the act of moving foward away from the past and into the future. Clearing minds and leaving the past shows that nothing matters except what they feel now and could feel later. Him saying "I'm your ride home" means that he is the right one for her and fate may have led them together and she should go with him no matter what anyone else says.
I guess i kinda have a different perspective as to what this song is getting at... to me this song has a depressing feel to it, and i kinda feel that the couple is contemplating a radical escape to their lives which are not as they dreamed they would be.. I think the song is about two people who have finally realized that life is not what they thought it was and just wanna be with each other and nothing more... I think the song is directed to the pain and anguish leading up to and planning the eventual suicide of these two lovers so they can be together for ever... The impression that i got...
I think it's a bonnie and clyde type of love story. Not literally, but figuratively. Nobody thought they'd be good together, so they're giving the world the bird and having their own good fun.
I (like most people) bought this CD for "hate me," but i have to say that this is perhaps the best song on the album.
This song to me is about escape. we can (and probably will) debate the mode and motive of escape that he is referring to...but i don't think it really matters.
"We drive to leave the past and clear the mind." how many of us do this? i know i do. there is nothing better than driving on a warm night...just to escape and feel better; that is what this song feels like to me. i think it's about a man asking a woman to trust him and just run away with him, against all odds.
i also have to wonder if it's a reference to drugs...maybe he's introduced her to something new...
anyone else have a take on this song? i'm not familiar with band's background...
I just heard this song, but I think it's about a couple who has to deal with people who don't respect, like them, believe in them, etc.... and the singer is just saying that they should run away and escape it all and it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks/says cause they're happy when they're together.
I agree fivergirl.
I think this song is about him wanting to be alone with her. That everyone else doesnt believe in them or their relationship. And this song is saying just keep on trying that the "bodies" of their past can be thrown away and start something new.
ok, i think this song is about like sorrta a affair type of song. get me? where he says "like killing partners for life" perhaps killing the other persons loved one. "Hey, we can hide the bodies on the ride home" well, its simple, they hide the bodies. its a love song, he loves her to much, where he wants to be with her.. well both of them. get me?
I get what you mean Juiliehatesmondays, but I don't think that Blue October would write about that. I could be wrong, but I agree more with the thing that he wants to be alone with her. You all have good ideas. I think that "I'll be reaching for the stars with you honey. Who cares what no-else believes." I think it's about going against other people's beliefs and just going for a relationship against odds.