"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.
Hey out there, are you hearing my call
It's a cry for help but all you see
Are these craters and these walls
I've erected in my room
I'd like you to see, I'm a performer with skills
Don't make fun of me with my whistles and
My bullhorns and my bells
And I'll hope you'll see it soon
Getting ‘bout as much attention as a
Circus on the moon
I'm here with the elephants, I'm cleaning up mess
I'm trying to be special, but to you
I'm just like all the rest
Look what they've got me doing
Got a high wire act I can show you my skills
Trapeze and a bar across my heart, across my ills
Escape through a trap door and I'll go on my way
Try as I do, I just can't connect anyway
Getting ‘bout as much attention as a
Circus on the moon
Standing tall and lone in my circus on the moon
I'm a perfect little foil for the
Prognosticators of doom
I'll bet you in a minute they'll be
Searching my room
Watch out for the deluge I believe it's
Coming soon
And I'll bet you five bucks we'll see the
Stars come out at noon
You can bet all you got I'll get your
Attention soon
Getting ‘bout as much attention as a
Circus on the moon
I'm a stalwart trapeze artist on my
(Circus on the moon)
I'm a lonely tightrope walker in my
(Circus on the moon)
An accomplished virtuoso in my (circus on the)
Waving at you sweetly from my
(Circus on the moon)
Standing tall and lone in my circus on the moon
Three million miles away I'm staring at you in
My circus on the moon
It's a cry for help but all you see
Are these craters and these walls
I've erected in my room
I'd like you to see, I'm a performer with skills
Don't make fun of me with my whistles and
My bullhorns and my bells
And I'll hope you'll see it soon
Getting ‘bout as much attention as a
Circus on the moon
I'm here with the elephants, I'm cleaning up mess
I'm trying to be special, but to you
I'm just like all the rest
Look what they've got me doing
Got a high wire act I can show you my skills
Trapeze and a bar across my heart, across my ills
Escape through a trap door and I'll go on my way
Try as I do, I just can't connect anyway
Getting ‘bout as much attention as a
Circus on the moon
Standing tall and lone in my circus on the moon
I'm a perfect little foil for the
Prognosticators of doom
I'll bet you in a minute they'll be
Searching my room
Watch out for the deluge I believe it's
Coming soon
And I'll bet you five bucks we'll see the
Stars come out at noon
You can bet all you got I'll get your
Attention soon
Getting ‘bout as much attention as a
Circus on the moon
I'm a stalwart trapeze artist on my
(Circus on the moon)
I'm a lonely tightrope walker in my
(Circus on the moon)
An accomplished virtuoso in my (circus on the)
Waving at you sweetly from my
(Circus on the moon)
Standing tall and lone in my circus on the moon
Three million miles away I'm staring at you in
My circus on the moon
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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"
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
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,
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.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
Strikes me as a would-be Columbine situation. Kid seems still in touch with reality, though, so it's probably just talk.