"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.
Load the car and write the note
Grab your bag and grab your coat
Tell the ones that need to know
We are headed north
One foot in and one foot back
But it don't pay to live like that
So I cut the ties and I jumped the tracks
For never to return
Ah Brooklyn, Brooklyn take me in
Are you aware the shape I'm in?
My hands they shake, my head it spins
Ah Brooklyn, Brooklyn take me in
When at first I learned to speak
I used all my words to fight
With him and her and you and me
Ah, but it's just a waste of time
Yeah, it's such a waste of time
That woman she's got eyes that shine
Like a pair of stolen polished dimes
She asked to dance, I said it's fine
I'll see you in the morning time
Ah Brooklyn, Brooklyn take me in
Are you aware the shape I'm in?
My hands they shake, my head it spins
Ah Brooklyn, Brooklyn take me in
Three words that became hard to say
I and love and you
What you were then I am today
Look at the things I do
Ah Brooklyn, Brooklyn take me in
Are you aware the shape I'm in?
My hands they shake, my head it spins
Ah Brooklyn, Brooklyn take me in
Brooklyn, Brooklyn take me in
Are you aware the shape I'm in?
Oh, my hands they shake, my head it spins (spins)
Ah Brooklyn, Brooklyn take me in
Dumbed down and numbed by time and age
Your dreams that catch the world the cage
The highway sets the traveler's stage
All exits look the same
Three words that became hard to say
I and love and you
I and love and you
I and love and you
Grab your bag and grab your coat
Tell the ones that need to know
We are headed north
One foot in and one foot back
But it don't pay to live like that
So I cut the ties and I jumped the tracks
For never to return
Ah Brooklyn, Brooklyn take me in
Are you aware the shape I'm in?
My hands they shake, my head it spins
Ah Brooklyn, Brooklyn take me in
When at first I learned to speak
I used all my words to fight
With him and her and you and me
Ah, but it's just a waste of time
Yeah, it's such a waste of time
That woman she's got eyes that shine
Like a pair of stolen polished dimes
She asked to dance, I said it's fine
I'll see you in the morning time
Ah Brooklyn, Brooklyn take me in
Are you aware the shape I'm in?
My hands they shake, my head it spins
Ah Brooklyn, Brooklyn take me in
Three words that became hard to say
I and love and you
What you were then I am today
Look at the things I do
Ah Brooklyn, Brooklyn take me in
Are you aware the shape I'm in?
My hands they shake, my head it spins
Ah Brooklyn, Brooklyn take me in
Brooklyn, Brooklyn take me in
Are you aware the shape I'm in?
Oh, my hands they shake, my head it spins (spins)
Ah Brooklyn, Brooklyn take me in
Dumbed down and numbed by time and age
Your dreams that catch the world the cage
The highway sets the traveler's stage
All exits look the same
Three words that became hard to say
I and love and you
I and love and you
I and love and you
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Poshboy almost has it, but I see a couple very important different ways to interpret the lyrics.
I relate very much to this song, given a recent breakup with (who i thought was) the love of my life. When I met her I was struck by how brilliant, beautiful, and talented she was... but as we aged through our relationship and I grew to love her and her to love me, it became increasingly obvious that something was off..I knew when we met that she was recovering from a 3 year relationship (her first attempt at love) that ended abruptly when her boyfriend left her.
It took me months to open her up--a process that owes itself entirely to my patience, energy, and belief in the woman she could be--but when I finally did, I realized that she was determined to maintain the distance that guaranteed her own emotional safety. Despite my best efforts to assure her that our relationship didnt have to end like her past--that WE controlled our own fate!--she eventually broke up with me because she just couldnt bring herself to let her guard down and believe in me the way she had romantically been swept away when she was young and naive and first attempting this thing we call love. What she didnt realize was that she was doing to me exactly what had happened to her. She had been broken by her first experience with love, and continues to allow that negative experience to disrupt any chance at a second attempt. And now, I look at myself and realize she, in turn, has left me broken.
While Poshboy is very close, this is how I would interpret the song:
First two stanzas, rightly interpreted, are about leaving his past behind and traveling to someplace new. He writes the notes to those who he feels would worry about his disappearance, but is too (ashamed, cowardly, or just plain broken?) to talk to them personally.
"Brooklyn brooklyn take me in..."
He's praying with all his might that the new city to which he travels will allow him to escape his past and rescue him from his current state of being.
"When at first I learned to speak. I used all my words to fight. With him and her and you and me. Ah, but it's just a waste of time. Yeah it's such a waste of time."
This is a nostalgic moment in which he ruefully remembers a time before his experience with love, back when he was young and carefree, living in absolutes and believing that life was about drawing the boundaries between human distinctions--perhaps a time when, like many of us, he believed humanity to be separate and immune to one anothers decisions and choices. But he recognizes that this line of thinking is a waste of time, and that something else is of much more importance and value to a fufilling life...
"That woman she's got eyes that shine. Like a pair of stolen polished dimes. She asked to dance I said it's fine. I'll see you in the morning time."
Music picks up, and the abrupt transition in subject tells you that THIS is what the song is all about. He's remembering the woman thats made him all that he is today. He remembers her as a elegant being with sparkling eyes, who one day in that all-to-distant past asked him to dance and from then on changed his life forever. He may at some moment even have had expected to see her in the morning like he used to, only now thats clearly not the truth... Brooklyn instead is here to comfort his woes...
And FINALLY: this song's chorus speaks so eloquently the words that remain the refrain to my love life. No matter where I travel to escape my past, I'm left with the feeling of emptiness from the loss of perhaps the greatest woman I've ever known. The words "I love you" are now words that I find almost painful to be spoken. Im like her. Unwilling... or unable... to allow myself to open to another.
"What you were then, I am today. Look at the things I do."
Nice. Only thing I say is that I don't think the music picks up when he mentions HER (it actually returns to the rhythm of 00:054-ish). Instead, it picks up with the "Brooklyn" refrain. The music AND lyrics emphasize his desperation.
I'm very sorry, man. I met a girl once that had those eyes that shine, and everything else too. I knew her for a year before I ever went after her, but once I got to know her it was impossible to deny my attraction. I was unsure for a long time, and honestly tried to bury the way I felt about her due to fear, but eventually she seemed to come after me. And with the way she seemed interested, I had to go after her.<br /> <br /> It's just that she had a bad experience like your girl did. Before much ever happened between us (though I had known her a year and a half, and had around 6 months of getting to really know her), she started distancing herself and was clearly afraid of letting something happen. To boot, I was very unhappy with myself at the time, and I felt like she was the only one that could take me in and make me happy with myself. And I just wanted to make her happy. <br /> <br /> It's just that I had apparently reminded her of her abusive ex-boyfriend, and I never got a chance. I never did anything to her, but she got trapped in her head about it and just shut me out. I watched her slip away from me and seem like she hated me, and I hated myself too. Soon after she told me the truth (not in person, because she didn't trust me), I was still normal on the outside I guess, but I was miserable in my head and when I was alone. I was depressed and just didn't know what to do. I had never met someone that made me feel like she did, and I had never wanted so badly to be validated by someone whom I felt I could make truly happy. I had never been willing to just drop everything and do whatever so I could be with a girl. She was just better than all the girls I had ever met, and I couldn't control myself. I still see her everyday (college... not due to choice), and this all started almost a year ago. Around when you posted this comment was the end of the major depression and me helplessly trying to get a chance with her. I was angry for a few months, but eventually asked for forgiveness. I'm still embarrassed at the way I was pathetic and depressed and said a lot of dumb things to her, but I can't change any of it. We're friends and act normal around each other I guess, but I know that I've given her plenty of reasons to not want to be around me. <br /> <br /> I had no way of handling the fact that she just let go of everything after seemingly validating the idea that I had a reason to really like her. I thought she really liked me. And the idea that I was similar to someone that hurt her so badly just killed me on the inside for a long time. If you're crazy about a girl and she tells you you're similar to a piece of shit, it's hard to just ignore the feeling that you really are one. I really hated myself for awhile. Even if I knew I did nothing (and had a friend back me up that I never did the thing she said I did), it still just made me feel guilty and even angry at her, all when I just wanted to see that smile of hers every day, and be the one that made it the brightest. I felt different about this girl in a way I had never felt, and I was just a dark spot. I haven't really thought of this in months, but your comment rang home a bit. I guess there's a part of me that wishes I could have a chance with her, but I know I can't. I also know that I'll probably never be able to even be a real friend that she wants around. I've accepted that fully, and I've been fine for close to 6 months about all this. <br /> <br /> It's just that there's a part of me that wishes I could have gotten to this day without all the pain. I wish she could trust me and actually want me around, but I know I'm shit to her on some level, even if she would never say that. She was always too nice to call me out. I've never been one to get attached to anyone, perhaps because part of me is afraid, but also because I'm just a particular person. I just wish I knew how to find someone that could make me feel like she did. I wish I could be in love with someone who loved me back. It's hard to be open to someone when you've had something backfire so devastatingly hard on you. It's hard to act like you don't still want that person deep down or that you don't wish you actually meant something to them. It's hard to accept that you won't even mean something to them.
damn...of all the songs I've seen people interpret on here and other sites, this one struck a chord with me. my gratitude, vogelgay.