"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.
Where's that angel with dirty knees who wasn't hard to please when we first met?
She don't act like she needs me now and she don't even seem to be upset.
Maybe I cover too much ground, I've been from town to town since I grew up.
Could my dreams take up too much space? I'll never find a place that's big enough.
The chairs go up on the bar now, and the table lights go black,
So I order one last double and start calling people back.
Marc sounds good, he's been working hard. Couldn't punch a card to save his life.
Says he's glad that he quit the road, he says he's getting old, he missed his wife.
Little Em's been asleep since nine, I'm sure she's doing fine, she always is.
Dad won't answer his phone at night, but I guess that's alright, the place is his.
The chairs are up on the bar now and they're asking me to leave,
So I give the girl a bill and start rolling down my sleeves.
In my pocket directions back across the railroad tracks to where I crash.
Maybe I should wave down a car, I won't be going far, and I have cash.
Think I blocked just a park away, but I can't really say, it's been all night.
How I wish you would call me here, but you just disappeared, it wasn't right.
And the streetlights help a little, but they're barely half alive
I don't feel much like walking and I sure as hell can't drive.
Close your eyes and remember this. It won't be back again, it's almost gone.
Even times that don't seem like much will be your only crutch when you're alone.
Time moves slow when you're seventeen and then it picks up steam at twenty-one.
Pretty soon you'll remember when you could remember when you loved someone
She don't act like she needs me now and she don't even seem to be upset.
Maybe I cover too much ground, I've been from town to town since I grew up.
Could my dreams take up too much space? I'll never find a place that's big enough.
The chairs go up on the bar now, and the table lights go black,
So I order one last double and start calling people back.
Marc sounds good, he's been working hard. Couldn't punch a card to save his life.
Says he's glad that he quit the road, he says he's getting old, he missed his wife.
Little Em's been asleep since nine, I'm sure she's doing fine, she always is.
Dad won't answer his phone at night, but I guess that's alright, the place is his.
The chairs are up on the bar now and they're asking me to leave,
So I give the girl a bill and start rolling down my sleeves.
In my pocket directions back across the railroad tracks to where I crash.
Maybe I should wave down a car, I won't be going far, and I have cash.
Think I blocked just a park away, but I can't really say, it's been all night.
How I wish you would call me here, but you just disappeared, it wasn't right.
And the streetlights help a little, but they're barely half alive
I don't feel much like walking and I sure as hell can't drive.
Close your eyes and remember this. It won't be back again, it's almost gone.
Even times that don't seem like much will be your only crutch when you're alone.
Time moves slow when you're seventeen and then it picks up steam at twenty-one.
Pretty soon you'll remember when you could remember when you loved someone
Lyrics submitted by UnpopularPoet
Streetlights Lyrics as written by Jason Isbell
Lyrics © Downtown Music Publishing, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
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"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"
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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”
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This song and this artist : nothing short of amazing. If you have not heard his contributions to the three albums he recorded with Drive By Truckers you are missing out on some of the best songwriting ever. Download his song "Goddamn lonely love" in whatever media you prefer and you will be a fan after one listen. This artist's songs evoke feeling in the listener. I had to literally stop myself from shedding tears the first time I heard the song mentioned above and this song Streetlights is an example of his ability to bring the listener into understanding what he feels when he tells his stories in song. Three incredible solo albums from this incredibly talented man and his band 'the 400 unit' is a "must" for your ipod or CD collection enjoy it.
I love the intentional drunkism "I think I blocked just a park away."
"So I order one more double and start calling people back." I've been here before. To hear it put across in lyrics was amazing.
A drunkard has been stood up by his girlfriend so he orders more drinks at an empty bar and calls friends to try to get some/any human connection. As he stumbles home after last call, he laments how his girlfriend “disappeared” on him. He can’t rely on anyone (or anything) to provide relief, even the “barely alive” streetlights only “help a little.” The last verse is in stark contrast to the earlier ones. Instead of bemoaning this lonely drunken night, he celebrates it and recognizes that “even times that don’t seem like much” - like tonight - will be his “only crutch” later on. “Time moves slow when you’re 17 and then it picks up steam at 21” is a telling line. The character in the song used to be a kid desperate to get out of his small “slow” town but now finds himself spiraling out of control - and yearns for a slower more centered existence. If he doesn’t find one he’s going to look back on this time as an older man and “remember when he loved someone” as the best memory of his life.