"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 sisters of illusion
Sell delusion at the show
It is said they've wed for wisdom
If it kissed them, they wouldn't even know
Still the marchers walk beside them
Inclined to agree
"If it's written, we believe it will come, you'll see"
The converts come together
They're gathered to begin
And they swear their oaths forever
Slip chips down into the skin
So the keepers are inside them
Provide them what they need
To transmit and to recieve
When they're in, they don't leave
The convent is waiting, it's time to go in
Gather the faithful, let vespers begin
And this is what they say
Sell delusion at the show
It is said they've wed for wisdom
If it kissed them, they wouldn't even know
Still the marchers walk beside them
Inclined to agree
"If it's written, we believe it will come, you'll see"
The converts come together
They're gathered to begin
And they swear their oaths forever
Slip chips down into the skin
So the keepers are inside them
Provide them what they need
To transmit and to recieve
When they're in, they don't leave
The convent is waiting, it's time to go in
Gather the faithful, let vespers begin
And this is what they say
Lyrics submitted by awberg
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
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”
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
American Town
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.
I suppose it may be about a mass, including communion ("chips"). The speaker seems not to like the fact that the rituals of "the faithful" are all they care about and all they find necessary to deal with the reality "so the keepers are inside them, provide them what they need". He considers them naive and he is against their philosophy of "what will be, will be" (this time, it is not a quotation, don't seek for it in the lyrics ;) ), but they happen to be fully comfortable about it. Hence - "candybrain". Makes sense?
The text of The Doctrine Of Eternal Ice is perhaps "what they say", but that will be more challenging...
The topic of these lyrics is pretty clear for me. Basically, it deals with relgion (probably christianism). I'll explain why I came to that conclusion with the interpretation of some verses.
1) "The sisters of illusion" - This refers for me as the foundators of christianism or the respective religion the song talks about. Jesus and his 12 desciples could be a good example. In that case, the "illusions" are nothing but the water turning into wine, of any other "miracle" the Bible explains.
2) "It is said they've wed for wisdom If it kissed them, they wouldn't even know" - The foundators and followers of any religion always say they know the full truth of creation and all the aspects of life and the universe. In other words, they say they know everything (e.g. how humans were created) but in reality they are everything BUT wisdom.
3) "Still the marchers walk beside them Inclined to agree 'If it's written, we believe it will come, you'll see'" - The marchers that "walk beside them" are obviously the believers and followers, they all agree with what the "sisters in illusion" (i.e. the foundators or disciples) say. They also believe in what's being written, in this case the Bible.
4) The second stanza talks more about the believers ("the converts") and how they gather in a convent. "And they swear their oaths forever" - They swear they'll always be faithful. "Slip chips down into the skin" - This could be a metaphor about how the believers become into robots or something similar - "When they're in, they don't leave" - and this could mean how the religious thought and determination never get out.
All above is a personal interpretation, but I'm pretty convinced that's what the writer wanted to say.