"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.
Stand up
We shall not be moved
Except by a child with no socks and shoes
If you've got more to give than you've got to prove
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
Stand up
We shall not be moved
Except by a woman dying from a loss of food
If you've got more to give than you've got to prove
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
We still don't understand thunder and lightning
Flashback to when we didn't fund the dam
Didn't fund the damn levee
No wonder man
Now our whole damn cities torn us under man
Underwater but we still don't understand
We see hurricane spills overrun the land
Through gaps you couldn't fill with a hundred tons of sand
No we still don't understand
We've seen planes in the windows of buildings
Crumbled in
We've seen flames sending chills through London
And we've sent planes to kill them
And some of them are children
But still we crumble under buildin'
Underfunded but we still don't understand
Under God but we kill like the son of Sam
But if you feel like I feel about the son of man
We will overcome
Stand up
We shall not be moved
Except by a child with no socks and shoes
If you've got more to give than you've got to prove
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
I said put your hands up and I'll copy you
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
If you've got more to give than you've got to prove
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
We shall not be moved
Except by a child with no socks and shoes
Except by a woman dying from a loss of food
Except by a freedom fighter bleeding on the cross for you
We shall not be moved
Except by a system that's rotting through
Neglecting the victims and ordering the cops to shoot
High treason now we need to prosecute
So stand up (Stand up)
We shall not be moved
And we wont fight a war over fossil fuel
Times like this that you want to plot a coup
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
Stand up (Stand up)
We shall not be moved
Unless we are taking a route we have not pursued
So if you've got a dream and a lot to do
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
I said put your hands up and I'll copy you
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
If you've got a dream and a lot to do
Put your hands up
Now shake, shake a Polaroid dream
Nightmare negatives develop on the screen
We sit back and wait on the government team
Criticize they but who the f**k are we
The people want peace
But the leaders want war
Neighbors don't speak peak through the front door
House representatives preach stay the course
Its time for a leap of faith
Once more
Put your hands up high if you haven't imagined
Hope that the pen strokes higher than the cannon
Balls to the wall nose to the grindstone
My interrogation techniques leave ya mind blown
Places your bets lets peak to the enemy
Don't let them pretend that we seek blood
And whose we anyway kimosabai
Mighty warlord want to be street thug
A threat for a threat leaves the whole world terrified
Blow for blow never settles the score
Word for word its time to be clarified
We the people did not want war!
So stand up (Stand up)
We shall not be moved
Except by a child with no socks and shoes
If you've got more to give than you've got to prove
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
Stand up (Stand up)
We shall not be moved
Unless we are taking a route we have not pursued
So if you've got a dream and a lot to do
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
I said put your hands up and I'll copy you
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
If you've got a dream and a lot to do
Put your hands up
We shall not be moved
Except by a child with no socks and shoes
If you've got more to give than you've got to prove
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
Stand up
We shall not be moved
Except by a woman dying from a loss of food
If you've got more to give than you've got to prove
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
We still don't understand thunder and lightning
Flashback to when we didn't fund the dam
Didn't fund the damn levee
No wonder man
Now our whole damn cities torn us under man
Underwater but we still don't understand
We see hurricane spills overrun the land
Through gaps you couldn't fill with a hundred tons of sand
No we still don't understand
We've seen planes in the windows of buildings
Crumbled in
We've seen flames sending chills through London
And we've sent planes to kill them
And some of them are children
But still we crumble under buildin'
Underfunded but we still don't understand
Under God but we kill like the son of Sam
But if you feel like I feel about the son of man
We will overcome
Stand up
We shall not be moved
Except by a child with no socks and shoes
If you've got more to give than you've got to prove
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
I said put your hands up and I'll copy you
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
If you've got more to give than you've got to prove
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
We shall not be moved
Except by a child with no socks and shoes
Except by a woman dying from a loss of food
Except by a freedom fighter bleeding on the cross for you
We shall not be moved
Except by a system that's rotting through
Neglecting the victims and ordering the cops to shoot
High treason now we need to prosecute
So stand up (Stand up)
We shall not be moved
And we wont fight a war over fossil fuel
Times like this that you want to plot a coup
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
Stand up (Stand up)
We shall not be moved
Unless we are taking a route we have not pursued
So if you've got a dream and a lot to do
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
I said put your hands up and I'll copy you
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
If you've got a dream and a lot to do
Put your hands up
Now shake, shake a Polaroid dream
Nightmare negatives develop on the screen
We sit back and wait on the government team
Criticize they but who the f**k are we
The people want peace
But the leaders want war
Neighbors don't speak peak through the front door
House representatives preach stay the course
Its time for a leap of faith
Once more
Put your hands up high if you haven't imagined
Hope that the pen strokes higher than the cannon
Balls to the wall nose to the grindstone
My interrogation techniques leave ya mind blown
Places your bets lets peak to the enemy
Don't let them pretend that we seek blood
And whose we anyway kimosabai
Mighty warlord want to be street thug
A threat for a threat leaves the whole world terrified
Blow for blow never settles the score
Word for word its time to be clarified
We the people did not want war!
So stand up (Stand up)
We shall not be moved
Except by a child with no socks and shoes
If you've got more to give than you've got to prove
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
Stand up (Stand up)
We shall not be moved
Unless we are taking a route we have not pursued
So if you've got a dream and a lot to do
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
I said put your hands up and I'll copy you
Put your hands up and I'll copy you
If you've got a dream and a lot to do
Put your hands up
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Page
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Ed Sheeran
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I'm think of this song as somewhat sarcastic, but I could be wrong. As an active volunteer and someone who takes action often, I interpreted a lot of these lyrics differently.
"We shall not be moved Except By a child with no socks and shoes We shall not be moved Except by a woman dying from a loss of food"
To me, the chorus is saying that people are not moved unless it is something terrible and drastic, such as a child in a third world country without any shoes (think about the new TOMS shoes trend) or a humans starving (again, in other countries) because they don't have enough to eat. "Put your hands up and I'll copy you" is saying something about the "do-good" trends and the tendency to want to "save" other countires without realizing the problems and poverty we have in our own country.
"If you've got more to give then you've got to prove" (If you have the money to give then you better donate donate donate, and it better be to a well-known cause in a third world country)
"We still don't understand thunder and lightning Flash back to when we didn't fund the dam Didn't fund the dam levee? No wonder man Now our whole damn city's torn us under man Under water but we still don't understand We see hurricane spills overrun the land Through gaps you couldn't fill with a 100 tons of sand" (Obviously a reference to the hurricane disasters and how little our government did to not only prevent it but also to help the citizens. I think this is also to make us think about the poverty in AMERICA. Did you know most of these families are still homeless? Their houses still in shambles, but they are still living in them because they have no where else to go? They are living without roofs and walls and living in toxic mold and muck.
"We sit back and wait for the government team Criticize they but who the fuck are we" (Again, talking about how little action we as citizens actually take but how much TALKING, COMPLAINING, and CRITICIZING we do)
So that is my two cents :) Could be wrong, but lyrics are open to interpretation, right?
I never really thought of it that way tibeana. I see it as that we won't be moved by little shit like big spending governments, stuff like that. But we're gonna do something about stuff that really matters.
I think you are 100% right. This song is about a citizens inaction.
First off: this whole argument about the war in iraq is, for lack of a better word, retarded. Some feel that the war was necessary, and that we had to prove to the rest of the world that the US is a great and powerful nation. Violence answered with violence does absolutely nothing except make us look weak, and drop us down to the same level as the Al Queda. Iraq, as a country, was not involved with the 9/11 attacks. Al Queda was responsible for that, and they were only hiding out in a mountain cave in iraq simply because they thought no one would find them there. Dropping bombs, murdering hundreds, and causing widespread panic and hate throughout the world was all that was accomplished by the bush administration and the US military. I support the troops and what they stand for, to an extent. I do not support scaring everyone into following the cause, which is all that was done. The american people are stupid, and will follow whatever their "leader" tells them is the truth. If everyone hated Bush so much, and disapproved of what he did, then why in the fuck did people keep voting him into office? Bush claimed that the war was about fossil fuels, when in reality (@godzuki) he was finishing what his father started. The only reason our citizens went along with him is because we're so dependent on fossil fuels. Hence more cars being manufactured that run on gasoline instead of electricity, and building more oil rigs all over the country to continue to rape the planet and kill off any hope we have of stopping global warming. The citizens of the US will do listen to anything they see on tv or read in a newspaper, instead of actually getting the facts before passing judgment.<br /> <br /> Second: the hurricane disasters, earthquakes, etc etc, are the planet rebelling. It can't be controlled or it's actions predicted. As far as helping the people that were harmed, or left homeless, the volunteers who were there did everything they could to help rebuild and repair the damage. If you haven't been to New Orleans and seen the destruction, or haiti and witnessed the poverty for yourself, then no one has any right to pass that kind of judgment on the situation. If you went and volunteered like I did, and saw everything first hand, then you have a right to say what you think. I've been to several different places all over the world, and seen the poverty, murder, children forced into military forces, and overall disregard for human life, and honestly if you have witnessed the things I have then you wouldn't be so high and mighty.<br /> <br /> The Flobots are huge activists for trying to get the US people off of their asses and out there making a difference and being involved in their government. We, as citizens, are so enthralled by celebrity tabloids, fashion trends, and how small we can make an ipod that we have lost sight of what's really important. Everyone has an opinion about the government and its officials, and yet no one stands up and does anything. Opinions will get you nowhere... Stop believing everything you read and following whatever someone on a television screen tells you to believe. Get your own opinion about the issues in this country, and all over the world for that matter, and stop following some asshole behind a desk. Everyone thinks the president will protect us and make sure the US is kept strong, but do you see them out there fighting along side our troops? No...do you see them out there doing something other than chilling at the white house or holding press conferences? No...
The Israel massacre on Gaza. (U.S. funds Israel arms)
The war on "terrorism". (killing thousands of INNOCENT people)
U.S. debt that's heading towards 10 trillion........think about a trillion for second. I'm stealing this from an audio, but the empire state building was built with 10 mil bricks, if you had 1 trillion bricks, you could make 100,000 empire state buildings. They print money like alcoholics buy beer. Wanna stimulate the economy? How about giving EVERY American a few thousand dollars????
Flobots make it involving. R.A.T.M. wrote the book.
STAND UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
this is the only kid of hip hop/rap i can stand. the kind thats about something real.. actual issues and not just about bitches and hos and dollas.
that stuff is ridiculous and has given rap a bad reputation in my head. but these guys i can actually take seriously.
A few small changes... Levy is spelled with a y, not an i. "We've seen hurricane spills OVERRUN the land." "But we still crumble in the building" "Put you hands up high if you haven't abandoned, hope that the pen stroke is stronger than the cannon"
A few small changes... Levy is spelled with a y, not an i. "We've seen hurricane spills OVERRUN the land." "But we still crumble in the building" "Put you hands up high if you haven't abandoned, hope that the pen stroke is stronger than the cannon"
lol nice triple post. anyway awesome song. Its anti war and about how our priorities should be solving world hunger and disease, not war.
NBryson is an example of someone who believes anything they are told. The whole message of Flobots is to think for yourself and help others think for themselves... The Nazi germans were told that the jews were evil and rather then question they believed, look at the consequences of their actions. America, question all that is around you! Listen to we are winning that might help.
haha the US government has practically admitted that it went into Iraq cos of fossil fuels under the pretense of taking out a fascist since it had nothing to do with 9/11. Fair enough they did take Mr. Hussein out of power but they screwed an awful lot up. Bush just wanted to finish off the work of his father cos he's a sheep like all British politicians who decided he knew what he was doing.
eriequiet... It is fairly disturbing that you are judging people's innocence without even knowing them. It just shows that our country is going in the wrong direction. I do not support the acts of dictators and terrorists, I just believe there are far more effective ways than killing innocent people. And yes, they are innocent.
eriequiet...first of all, you are horrible at using sarcasm. second, dont get mad at someone for saying what they want our country to be like when you are the one saying "americans need to wake up." thats pretty much the same thing. third, i doubt the children being killed in the bombings had alot of say in where their families moved, but if i were to use your logic it would be fine for them to be killed. i guess they were at the wrong place at the wrong time? they shouldve been as smart as you. and finally, you seem to believe that america should force our way of doing things on other nations. you should realize that they do not have the same ideas of right and wrong as we do. in their eyes your next door neighbor has probably done alot of shit wrong. so you should probably move because them killing you is now justified in your mind.
you contradicted yourself when you said views on politics are purely perspective, when someone elses perspective is different from yours its self centered? we still live in a democracy, so someone stating their mind about the way our government runs(which is what we're supposed to do) has every right to say what he/she wants. stop bitchin' and continue accepting everything you hear from fox news.