"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.
The horseman you have brought deserve me
Somehow they've made it through the floor
The clocks you set, are they reversing?
Before this visit turns conjugal evermore
Maybe tonight, oh-oh-oh-oh
So my half is waiting filed to a pulp
Used insomnia's been cleansing with floods
I got a pain inside that'll rip through the very fabric of time
'Cause I've been with you before, God gave me sin
I've got to get born
Just so you know
There's too many reasons
Too many reasons
Too many ah-ah-ah-ah-ah
Too many ah-ah-ah-ah-ah, ah-ah-ah-ah
Ah-ah-ah-ah, ah-ah
Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah
Ah-ah-ah-ah
Too many re-
You set the silver down to guard me from the weak
You check the spelling for nothing, nothing
You set the silver down to guard me from the weak
You check the spelling for nothing, nothing
You sent yourself the flood
All of this time bedsore containment
Where am I now that the music has faded?
All of this time bedsore containment
Where am I now that the music has faded?
And I'm nowhere near the place
You sent me here to breathe
But I'm drawing closer to the present
And I'll
Find a space with no
Memories
I've got a second chance to inhabit the living
If Goliath wont speak
I'm blinded by heaven
When will your Eden come die?
If the liars that blink
Are bound by the sender
Trinkets you gave have all rusted down
All of this time bedsore containment
Where am I now that the music has faded?
All of this time bedsore containment
Where am I now that the music has faded?
You better steal this chance
To give birth to more
You'll wear those healing damns
Down to the plug
All of this time bedsore containment
Where am I now that the music has faded?
All of this time bedsore containment
Where am I now that the music has faded?
You better steal this chance
To give birth to more
You'll wear those healing damns
Down to the plug
Somehow they've made it through the floor
The clocks you set, are they reversing?
Before this visit turns conjugal evermore
Maybe tonight, oh-oh-oh-oh
So my half is waiting filed to a pulp
Used insomnia's been cleansing with floods
I got a pain inside that'll rip through the very fabric of time
'Cause I've been with you before, God gave me sin
I've got to get born
Just so you know
There's too many reasons
Too many reasons
Too many ah-ah-ah-ah-ah
Too many ah-ah-ah-ah-ah, ah-ah-ah-ah
Ah-ah-ah-ah, ah-ah
Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah
Ah-ah-ah-ah
Too many re-
You set the silver down to guard me from the weak
You check the spelling for nothing, nothing
You set the silver down to guard me from the weak
You check the spelling for nothing, nothing
You sent yourself the flood
All of this time bedsore containment
Where am I now that the music has faded?
All of this time bedsore containment
Where am I now that the music has faded?
And I'm nowhere near the place
You sent me here to breathe
But I'm drawing closer to the present
And I'll
Find a space with no
Memories
I've got a second chance to inhabit the living
If Goliath wont speak
I'm blinded by heaven
When will your Eden come die?
If the liars that blink
Are bound by the sender
Trinkets you gave have all rusted down
All of this time bedsore containment
Where am I now that the music has faded?
All of this time bedsore containment
Where am I now that the music has faded?
You better steal this chance
To give birth to more
You'll wear those healing damns
Down to the plug
All of this time bedsore containment
Where am I now that the music has faded?
All of this time bedsore containment
Where am I now that the music has faded?
You better steal this chance
To give birth to more
You'll wear those healing damns
Down to the plug
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
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”
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.
Magical
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
"I got a pain inside that'll rip through the very fabric of time." when i first heard that line, i thought he said: "I got a penis that'll rip through the very fabric of time." and i thought, "well, it goes with conjugal, but cedric wouldn't just say 'penis,' he'd say something like phalice or throbbing stick or whatever." anyways, excellent closer to an album that could punch any spirit in the balls and then spit on them.