"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 will not bear to watch
While the animated sadness releases
A cyanide touch for us
So utterly devastating its measure glides
The breath that is born of behemoth size
Unveiled exhumed when everything twists into form
For you to see all in a perilous mourn
With long relentless devotion
Grant of these open wounds and this heartless rip
The drains are waiting for the loss of your blood
Enter all simple solutions
The center of this wasteland
So barren and bleak, so feeble and weak
With a quick flash of ice in your chest
Like falling into a mine field face first
Is this the snap of your filament
Or the grimmest devout?
Is this the snap of your neck
Rung red and hung in this rope?
I will not let this subside
For the still beating heart that is buried inside
The depths of old to the births of war
The weak will beg, swaggering in descent
The weak will beg, of instant revelations
The weak will beg, in risk to repent
The weak will beg for death again and again and again
The shattered screams
Of a people unfulfilled
With the sight, with the sound
The reign of steel, their blood unbound
Is this the snap of your filament
Or the grimmest devout?
Is this the snap of your neck
Rung red and hung in this rope?
I will not let this subside
For the still beating heart that is buried inside
The depths of old to the births of war
The weak will beg, swaggering in descent
The weak will beg, of instant revelation
The weak will beg, in risk to repent
The weak will beg for death again and again and again
The weak will beg, swaggering in descent
The weak will beg, of instant revelations
The weak will beg, in risk to repent
The weak will beg for death again and again and again
And again and again and again
While the animated sadness releases
A cyanide touch for us
So utterly devastating its measure glides
The breath that is born of behemoth size
Unveiled exhumed when everything twists into form
For you to see all in a perilous mourn
With long relentless devotion
Grant of these open wounds and this heartless rip
The drains are waiting for the loss of your blood
Enter all simple solutions
The center of this wasteland
So barren and bleak, so feeble and weak
With a quick flash of ice in your chest
Like falling into a mine field face first
Is this the snap of your filament
Or the grimmest devout?
Is this the snap of your neck
Rung red and hung in this rope?
I will not let this subside
For the still beating heart that is buried inside
The depths of old to the births of war
The weak will beg, swaggering in descent
The weak will beg, of instant revelations
The weak will beg, in risk to repent
The weak will beg for death again and again and again
The shattered screams
Of a people unfulfilled
With the sight, with the sound
The reign of steel, their blood unbound
Is this the snap of your filament
Or the grimmest devout?
Is this the snap of your neck
Rung red and hung in this rope?
I will not let this subside
For the still beating heart that is buried inside
The depths of old to the births of war
The weak will beg, swaggering in descent
The weak will beg, of instant revelation
The weak will beg, in risk to repent
The weak will beg for death again and again and again
The weak will beg, swaggering in descent
The weak will beg, of instant revelations
The weak will beg, in risk to repent
The weak will beg for death again and again and again
And again and again and again
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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"
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
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.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.