"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.
Have you been walking on a surface that's uncertain?
Have you helped yourself to everything that's empty? yeah!
You can't live this way too long.
There's more than this, more than this.
Have you been standing on your own feet too long?
Have you been looking for a place where you belong?
You can rest, you will find rest.
You can rest, you will find rest.
[Chorus]
Let this old life crumble, let it fade.
Let this new life offered be your saving grace.
Let this old life crumble, let it fade, let it fade.
Have you been holding on to what this world has offered?
Have you been giving in to all these masquerades?
It will be gone, forever gone.
It will be gone, it will be gone
[Chorus]
Let it fade.
Are you carrying the weight too much?, are you running from the call?
Let it fade, Oh yeah.
You can rest, you will find rest.
You can rest you will find rest.
[Chorus]
Let this old life crumble, let it fade.
Have you been standing on your own feet too long?
Have you been looking for a place where you belong?
Have you helped yourself to everything that's empty? yeah!
You can't live this way too long.
There's more than this, more than this.
Have you been standing on your own feet too long?
Have you been looking for a place where you belong?
You can rest, you will find rest.
You can rest, you will find rest.
[Chorus]
Let this old life crumble, let it fade.
Let this new life offered be your saving grace.
Let this old life crumble, let it fade, let it fade.
Have you been holding on to what this world has offered?
Have you been giving in to all these masquerades?
It will be gone, forever gone.
It will be gone, it will be gone
[Chorus]
Let it fade.
Are you carrying the weight too much?, are you running from the call?
Let it fade, Oh yeah.
You can rest, you will find rest.
You can rest you will find rest.
[Chorus]
Let this old life crumble, let it fade.
Have you been standing on your own feet too long?
Have you been looking for a place where you belong?
Lyrics submitted by MusicisTherapy
Let It Fade Lyrics as written by Jeremy Thomas Camp Adam Watts
Lyrics © Capitol CMG Publishing, Walt Disney Music Company
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
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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,
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i love this song.
I love this song, the lyrics are self-explanitory. It's addressing a person who's living for the wrong things. And those worldly things aren't going to be there forever. It's telling that person that there's hope for a brand new start and God wants to give it.
It's saying that their old life is nothing in God's eyes and if you accept his son you'll get a new life. And the new life will be so much more fufilling than what you were living before.
I also think the chorus is adressing us as humans and out ability to forgive, not other people, but ourselves. Personally there are a lot of times that I wonder if I'm worthy of what God has to offer me because of my past. But the chorus is saying let your old life fade in your mind because you have a new one that will be flled wth amazing things.