"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.
People raise your voices, don't get caught in that mess
Like a fly in a spider's web, is it true more is less
Herded like a happy flock to the big T.V. slaughter
"Why don't you break that leash," said the heifer to the sheep
It's a new generation
It's a hallucination
It's a mystic vibration
It's just intimidation
It's the will of the people
It's the church with the steeple
It's the sacred devotion
To an unhealthy notion
People raise your voices, don't get into that trap
If your friends and your neighbors push
Why don't you push them back
Don't you think the time has come
To stand up and be heard
Ain't no use to try and wait
For the magic word
It's a new generation
It's an infatuation
It's a beautiful body
Both erotic and deadly
It's the fear of the future
It's just surgeons and sutures
It's a spandex obsession
It's a lasting impression
Do you feel the power
Do you feel the power
Baptized in electronic water
Prodigal sons and beautiful daughters
With smiles and bows and rosy cheeks
And the righteous bath
Death to the freaks
Do you feel the power
Do you feel the power
From the man whose voice sounds reassuring
Completely firm and so alluring, Like's he's lived a thousand times before
And seen the world from shore to shore
With the calmness and tranquility that oozes credibility
With the wisdom and the confidence that seem to scream out common sense
And it makes you feel just like a babe
Daddy holding you tight and safe
Hush babe everything's all right, Daddy's gonna stay with you tonight
Now he's got you by the balls, he can sell you anything at all
From morality to diamond rings to genocide to magazines
From religion to cosmology to the end of a democracy
It's a new generation
It's a divine inspiration
Always ready to follow
Ever willing to swallow
All the doctor's prescriptions
All the mystic inscriptions
It's the spandex obsession
It's a lasting impression
It's the calm meditation
Of a tranquilized nation
It's a hallucination
It's a new generation
Like a fly in a spider's web, is it true more is less
Herded like a happy flock to the big T.V. slaughter
"Why don't you break that leash," said the heifer to the sheep
It's a new generation
It's a hallucination
It's a mystic vibration
It's just intimidation
It's the will of the people
It's the church with the steeple
It's the sacred devotion
To an unhealthy notion
People raise your voices, don't get into that trap
If your friends and your neighbors push
Why don't you push them back
Don't you think the time has come
To stand up and be heard
Ain't no use to try and wait
For the magic word
It's a new generation
It's an infatuation
It's a beautiful body
Both erotic and deadly
It's the fear of the future
It's just surgeons and sutures
It's a spandex obsession
It's a lasting impression
Do you feel the power
Do you feel the power
Baptized in electronic water
Prodigal sons and beautiful daughters
With smiles and bows and rosy cheeks
And the righteous bath
Death to the freaks
Do you feel the power
Do you feel the power
From the man whose voice sounds reassuring
Completely firm and so alluring, Like's he's lived a thousand times before
And seen the world from shore to shore
With the calmness and tranquility that oozes credibility
With the wisdom and the confidence that seem to scream out common sense
And it makes you feel just like a babe
Daddy holding you tight and safe
Hush babe everything's all right, Daddy's gonna stay with you tonight
Now he's got you by the balls, he can sell you anything at all
From morality to diamond rings to genocide to magazines
From religion to cosmology to the end of a democracy
It's a new generation
It's a divine inspiration
Always ready to follow
Ever willing to swallow
All the doctor's prescriptions
All the mystic inscriptions
It's the spandex obsession
It's a lasting impression
It's the calm meditation
Of a tranquilized nation
It's a hallucination
It's a new generation
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
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.
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.
Amazing
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran tells a story of unsuccessfully trying to feel “Amazing.” This track is about the being weighed down by emotional stress despite valiant attempts to find some positivity in the situation. This track was written by Ed Sheeran from the perspective of his friend. From the track, we see this person fall deeper into the negative thoughts and slide further down the path of mental torment with every lyric.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
I don't know what crystal ball Elfman had in his possession, but this is clearly a prophetic vision of the Bush administration.
The themes of sheople willingly submitting their intellect to sacrifice at the 57-channel altar ring true as ever in the age of Palin.
Snowball666 is a moron. It's about Nazi Germany. Idiot.
I really like this line: <i>"Why don't you break that leash," said the heifer to the sheep </i>
People love to feel superior; seeing the mote in their brother's eye before the beam in their own.