"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.
I had so much to say
But no words to speak
The feelings were strong
But I was only weak
So there we were again
Tragic and absurd
Choking on every line
And every final word
A few pages from an old diary
A dusty shelf, an unread history
All these words and memories
Are all of you that's really left for me
And a fading memory
Can't cloud the pain
When the voice is gone
The words still remains
And the years that fall away
Can't stop the rains
When illusion's gone
The truth still remains
A few lines from life's long soliloquy
A dying voice in one part harmony
All these words and memories
Are all of you that's really left for me
And a fading memory
Can't cloud the pain
When the voice is gone
The words still remains
And the years that fall away
Can't stop the rains
When illusion's gone
The truth still remains
A final moment of clarity
A touch, a look, a last apology
All these words and memories
Are all of you that's left for me
And a fading memory
Can't cloud the pain
When the voice is gone
The words still remains
And the years that fall away
Can't stop the rains
When illusion's gone
The truth still remains
Where is the way
where is direction
the ever open arms
of over protection
Where is the hope
where is laughter
the wild winter dreams
of happy ever after
Deep in the night
Underneath the darkest skies
Searching for some sign or some distant light
Searching yet unheard
Repeating every line
And every final word
They remain, they remain
You still remain
All these words and memories
And everything you were to me
They remain, they remain
You still remain
And here I am again
Tragic and absurd
Repeating every line
And every final word
But no words to speak
The feelings were strong
But I was only weak
So there we were again
Tragic and absurd
Choking on every line
And every final word
A few pages from an old diary
A dusty shelf, an unread history
All these words and memories
Are all of you that's really left for me
And a fading memory
Can't cloud the pain
When the voice is gone
The words still remains
And the years that fall away
Can't stop the rains
When illusion's gone
The truth still remains
A few lines from life's long soliloquy
A dying voice in one part harmony
All these words and memories
Are all of you that's really left for me
And a fading memory
Can't cloud the pain
When the voice is gone
The words still remains
And the years that fall away
Can't stop the rains
When illusion's gone
The truth still remains
A final moment of clarity
A touch, a look, a last apology
All these words and memories
Are all of you that's left for me
And a fading memory
Can't cloud the pain
When the voice is gone
The words still remains
And the years that fall away
Can't stop the rains
When illusion's gone
The truth still remains
Where is the way
where is direction
the ever open arms
of over protection
Where is the hope
where is laughter
the wild winter dreams
of happy ever after
Deep in the night
Underneath the darkest skies
Searching for some sign or some distant light
Searching yet unheard
Repeating every line
And every final word
They remain, they remain
You still remain
All these words and memories
And everything you were to me
They remain, they remain
You still remain
And here I am again
Tragic and absurd
Repeating every line
And every final word
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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"
Mental Istid
Ebba Grön
Ebba Grön
This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
I Can't Go To Sleep
Wu-Tang Clan
Wu-Tang Clan
This song is written as the perspective of the boys in the street, as a whole, and what path they are going to choose as they get older and grow into men. (This is why the music video takes place in an orphanage.) The seen, and unseen collective suffering is imbedded in the boys’ mind, consciously or subconsciously, and is haunting them. Which path will the boys choose? Issac Hayes is the voice of reason, maybe God, the angel on his shoulder, or the voice of his forefathers from beyond the grave who can see the big picture and are pleading with the boys not to continue the violence and pattern of killing their brothers, but to rise above. The most beautiful song and has so many levels. Racism towards African Americans in America would not exist if everyone sat down and listened to this song and understood the history behind the words. The power, fear, pleading in RZA and Ghostface voices are genuine and powerful. Issac Hayes’ strong voice makes the perfect strong father figure, who is possibly from beyond the grave.
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
i think its about someone missing their significant other who has passed away. They read a diary and it triggers the memory of them dying, they then talk about where you go when you die. the next 2 verses seem to talk about them searching for someone new to light their candle, but with no luck. so their at home still looking at things they remember
I recently had my daughter listen to this song and write an essay about it in order to get out of punishment for bringing home a bad grade in English. She did an excellent job, but this made me go back and listen to the song again and do my own interpretations.<br /> <br /> I don’t think that you can really dig in to this song with the lyrics alone. The music has its own story and enhances the emotion of the lyrics. The first 4 lines of the song describe feelings that the author cannot express with words, and I think that the music provides what is missing for him.<br /> <br /> I do agree that the main subject is someone who is gone, probably dead, but I do not feel that it is a significant other/spouse. There are hints that suggest a parent or a grandparent; these are the people that we usually have regret because of unspoken words. An old diary, a dusty shelf, and unread history… these all suggest someone older than the author, someone who has a past that was not necessarily made (or shared) with him. Another clue is the line “open arms of over protection”. I think our parents at one time or another have overprotected us all, and as we get older and we lose those people, we yearn for the protection that we felt from them.<br /> <br /> The majority of the song is filled with regret and frustration. He has the regret of not speaking or expressing himself prior to this loss, and he has the frustration from the pain caused by his regrets. Even though he has memories, including words (both spoken and written), and images of this person… he feels like they are an illusion, which cannot hide the truth that this person is gone. The spoken words that he sings of could very well have been the last words that he heard from this person.<br /> <br /> He begins to look for all of the things that this person taught and promised him (the way, the direction, the hope, the laughter), and he is possibly looking for a sign that his memories are real.<br /> <br /> In the end he realizes that his memories are real, and that because of his memories that person still remains. <br /> <br /> The last 4 lines of the lyrics now mean something opposite from their original meaning. The doubt that he had about his memories is now what has become tragic and absurd.<br /> <br /> We should all learn from this and realize that the loved ones we have lost do live on in our hearts and in our memories, even though they are physically gone, there is nothing that can change our memories of the past that we share with them.<br />
This sounds like a song about a man who has finally left an abusive and troubled relationship, with his ex-spouse. He looks back on that period in his life with mixed emotions, but the realization that there is no love there anymore, just an empty heart, and emotionaless memories of that love.<br /> <br /> That's my take on it, but perhaps I'm inserting too much of my own experience into it? :)
@Dissposition : This song is about the death of Jim Matheos' father, according to two interviews he gave on the subject. Very difficult and emotional subject, and it connects with me on a deep personal level even though my own father is still living.