"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.
There was a man who killed a state trooper
And drove his pickup truck to Belmar
And slept in a beach house
A dream of the day
When two protons collide
Everything everything changes
When I drive with floodplains on either side of me
And in the back seat my friends point out egrets' nests
High on the telephone poles
Friends fuck each other in the guest room
I feel the ghost of all the parties still happening
Right on this very spot that I am standing
Kids are blissing in the spare room
Light years away
The drug store smilers tower ten feet tall
Over a maze of abandoned cars
Their canceled eyes show through the holes in their sphinx masks
I scramble to the dunes to puke under the pale moon
It is initiation season
So watch out for the cars with no lights on
If you flash them they will swing aroung
And follow you home
And in the lamp light living room
A Portal gently pulls at all the shit that you own
What a relief it is to laugh like this years later
Through tears at someone's kitchen table
Feeling the full weight of all that dark energy
Because there's matter and there's legion else
Unobservable scaffolding for planets and stars
Dry mushrooms taste a lot like communion wafers
To see cathedral ships behind the Bucks County sky when I was thirteen
My man's in a hallucination reverie
He says that there was a man who went and murdered a plainclothes
But he drove so far away from Belmar
Because all of the people there hung glow in the dark masks
On every single screen door
A crown vic in the rear view, oh my god
And drove his pickup truck to Belmar
And slept in a beach house
A dream of the day
When two protons collide
Everything everything changes
When I drive with floodplains on either side of me
And in the back seat my friends point out egrets' nests
High on the telephone poles
Friends fuck each other in the guest room
I feel the ghost of all the parties still happening
Right on this very spot that I am standing
Kids are blissing in the spare room
Light years away
The drug store smilers tower ten feet tall
Over a maze of abandoned cars
Their canceled eyes show through the holes in their sphinx masks
I scramble to the dunes to puke under the pale moon
It is initiation season
So watch out for the cars with no lights on
If you flash them they will swing aroung
And follow you home
And in the lamp light living room
A Portal gently pulls at all the shit that you own
What a relief it is to laugh like this years later
Through tears at someone's kitchen table
Feeling the full weight of all that dark energy
Because there's matter and there's legion else
Unobservable scaffolding for planets and stars
Dry mushrooms taste a lot like communion wafers
To see cathedral ships behind the Bucks County sky when I was thirteen
My man's in a hallucination reverie
He says that there was a man who went and murdered a plainclothes
But he drove so far away from Belmar
Because all of the people there hung glow in the dark masks
On every single screen door
A crown vic in the rear view, oh my god
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
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”
Holiday
Bee Gees
Bee Gees
@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
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.
Holy balls. These guys just keep on getting better. You can tell that second album is going to be a hit.
Friends fuck each other in the guest room I feel the ghost of all the parties still happening Right on this very spot that I am standing Kids are blissing in the spare room, light years away
I've talked to Joseph a bit about this song, and he told me it all relates back to the psychedelic experience. It's about the search for purpose and understanding: relativity (right on this very spot that I am standing kids are blissing in the spare room lightyears away) and new physics, understanding that we're just matter stuck to an "unobservable scaffolding for planets and stars" made of dark matter.
This song just reminds me of a spiritual journey - scrambling to the dunes to puke under the pale moon, laughing years later as you feel the full weight of all that dark energy, propelling everything away from everything else. No matter how much time it's been, you're always followed by your past like a Crown Vic in the rearview.