"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.
Well, just because she feeds me well
And she made me talk dirty in a pink hotel
It doesn't mean she's got eyes for me
She might just want my bones, you see
And hey flathead, don't you get mean
She's the second best killer that I ever have seen
They don't come much more sick than you
I could go on if you want me to
It's just so wrong, so very nice
And I told you once and you killed me twice
I saw you one time at the back of the club
Chewing on glass and a ticket stub
Said I heard you kicked the boy 'til he bled
Then you stood and said, "Oh my God", 'til she said
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Well, everybody knows you're the one to call
When the girls get uglier on the back of the wall
Josephine says you gotta bleeding nose
Taking it with her wherever she goes
And hey flathead, don't check me in
Well, hers is a tonic and mine is a gin
They don't come much more slick than you
I'd drive your car if you ask me to
Said the boy's not right in the head
And you stood and got a kicking instead, 'til she said
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Da, da-da-da-do
And she said the boy's not right in the head
And you stood and said, "Oh my God", 'til she said
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
And she made me talk dirty in a pink hotel
It doesn't mean she's got eyes for me
She might just want my bones, you see
And hey flathead, don't you get mean
She's the second best killer that I ever have seen
They don't come much more sick than you
I could go on if you want me to
It's just so wrong, so very nice
And I told you once and you killed me twice
I saw you one time at the back of the club
Chewing on glass and a ticket stub
Said I heard you kicked the boy 'til he bled
Then you stood and said, "Oh my God", 'til she said
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Well, everybody knows you're the one to call
When the girls get uglier on the back of the wall
Josephine says you gotta bleeding nose
Taking it with her wherever she goes
And hey flathead, don't check me in
Well, hers is a tonic and mine is a gin
They don't come much more slick than you
I'd drive your car if you ask me to
Said the boy's not right in the head
And you stood and got a kicking instead, 'til she said
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Da, da-da-da-do
And she said the boy's not right in the head
And you stood and said, "Oh my God", 'til she said
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
Ba-da-ba, ba-da, da, da, da
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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The Night We Met
Lord Huron
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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"
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
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.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
Does anyone else hear the lyrics a little bit differently? In the first verse I hear:
"Said I heard YOU kicked the boy until he bled AND YOU stood and said oh my God until she said"
In the second verse I hear:
"AND YOU stood and got a kicking instead until she said"
In the very end I hear:
"AND YOU stood and said oh my God until she said"
It's the first one.