"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.
Do you remember our best adventure?
Stealing off to climb Westers Hill?
Creeping out of our house at midnight?
Do you remember on the way down after,
I cut my leg right open on that fence?
And I cried and I cried...
It was just a hill we climbed
That night, but it felt like
The top of the world.
"Top of the world, ma!"
I'm on top of the world...
"Our teachers had faith in their lessons, their doctrine,
But these facts are unreliable, these cracks are undeniable,"
you said.
"Do you feel the warmth beneath your feet?
That's cos the earth is so very old...
They should have warned us years ago.
We should have been told that secret kept
By Mum and Dad
Which covered everything...
'At first it's dark, and then it's light, and then it's dark again...'
* * *
"You're bleeding, but it's alright,
'Cos we'll stay awake the whole night.
'Cos I found a rock in an ancient place,
And it's older than the human race...
So let's build a fire, a homing light
For astronauts and satellites.
For scientists with soldier's hearts,
For pioneers of earthly arts...
You and me, we're dead in the blink of an eye.
We've been and gone...
...we're dead in a blink of the earth's eye."
Stealing off to climb Westers Hill?
Creeping out of our house at midnight?
Do you remember on the way down after,
I cut my leg right open on that fence?
And I cried and I cried...
It was just a hill we climbed
That night, but it felt like
The top of the world.
"Top of the world, ma!"
I'm on top of the world...
"Our teachers had faith in their lessons, their doctrine,
But these facts are unreliable, these cracks are undeniable,"
you said.
"Do you feel the warmth beneath your feet?
That's cos the earth is so very old...
They should have warned us years ago.
We should have been told that secret kept
By Mum and Dad
Which covered everything...
'At first it's dark, and then it's light, and then it's dark again...'
* * *
"You're bleeding, but it's alright,
'Cos we'll stay awake the whole night.
'Cos I found a rock in an ancient place,
And it's older than the human race...
So let's build a fire, a homing light
For astronauts and satellites.
For scientists with soldier's hearts,
For pioneers of earthly arts...
You and me, we're dead in the blink of an eye.
We've been and gone...
...we're dead in a blink of the earth's eye."
Lyrics submitted by theboy1988
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
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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.
Just A Little Lovin'
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Punchline
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American Town
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Ed Sheeran
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jamie lenman said that this song was written from the fictional perspective of two brothers, one talking to the other about an adventure they once had i believe the brother that is being told the story is dead or sying