"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 Brooklyn girls, they make me desperate
The London girls, they make me desperate
The Irish girls, they make me desperate
Jamaican girls make me desperate
Desperate, I'm desperate
Why won't you hold me
Desperate, I'm desperate
For the next moment
Desperate, I'm desperate
I feel so lonely
Desperate, I'm desperate
For the next moment
Go to the church but the preacher he just preach at me
Go to the club but the women all ignore me
Want a relationship, I want to have a family
I schizophrenic, paranoid, tell me what is wrong with me
Desperate, I'm desperate
Why won't you hold me
Desperate, desperate
For the next moment
Desperate, I'm desperate
I feel so lonely
Desperate, I'm desperate
For the next moment
Go for a job but they don't like the look of me
Say, "Grow some hair, this is not 1970."
Want Rosie O'Donnell, she think I'm too kinky
She don't like perverts, why ain't I a yuppy
Desperate, I'm desperate
Why won't you hold me
Desperate, I'm desperate
For the next moment
Desperate, I'm desperate
I feel so lonely
Desperate, I'm desperate
For the next moment
All of these things that I say
Are just so many ways that I use
To get through to you
I'm just crazy without you and
Desperate, I'm desperate
Why won't you hold me
Desperate, desperate
For the next moment
Desperate, I'm desperate
I feel so lonely
Desperate, desperate
For the next moment
So desperate for Freddie's black trombone
Oh, you don't know what he does with that trombone
Late at night in the van on the way home from a gig
Desperate you make me jump around
I reach up to the sky and take it off the ground
Desperate, you make me dance and sing
Oh come on to me, baby, and do the right thing
The Brooklyn girls make me desperate
The London girls make me desperate
The Irish girls make me desperate
Jamaican girls make me desperate
Desperate
The London girls, they make me desperate
The Irish girls, they make me desperate
Jamaican girls make me desperate
Desperate, I'm desperate
Why won't you hold me
Desperate, I'm desperate
For the next moment
Desperate, I'm desperate
I feel so lonely
Desperate, I'm desperate
For the next moment
Go to the church but the preacher he just preach at me
Go to the club but the women all ignore me
Want a relationship, I want to have a family
I schizophrenic, paranoid, tell me what is wrong with me
Desperate, I'm desperate
Why won't you hold me
Desperate, desperate
For the next moment
Desperate, I'm desperate
I feel so lonely
Desperate, I'm desperate
For the next moment
Go for a job but they don't like the look of me
Say, "Grow some hair, this is not 1970."
Want Rosie O'Donnell, she think I'm too kinky
She don't like perverts, why ain't I a yuppy
Desperate, I'm desperate
Why won't you hold me
Desperate, I'm desperate
For the next moment
Desperate, I'm desperate
I feel so lonely
Desperate, I'm desperate
For the next moment
All of these things that I say
Are just so many ways that I use
To get through to you
I'm just crazy without you and
Desperate, I'm desperate
Why won't you hold me
Desperate, desperate
For the next moment
Desperate, I'm desperate
I feel so lonely
Desperate, desperate
For the next moment
So desperate for Freddie's black trombone
Oh, you don't know what he does with that trombone
Late at night in the van on the way home from a gig
Desperate you make me jump around
I reach up to the sky and take it off the ground
Desperate, you make me dance and sing
Oh come on to me, baby, and do the right thing
The Brooklyn girls make me desperate
The London girls make me desperate
The Irish girls make me desperate
Jamaican girls make me desperate
Desperate
Lyrics submitted by nikkus34
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
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.
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.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.