"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.
They're all gone, she'll rot
Wishing as she swam
that her own moon would be her only friend
But he too is swimming away
an inch more every year and...
Almost forgot, about the other spheres here
It took a few hundred light years
for the bad air to clear
up out of here
Soon now her star will swell
Bloat up, turn bright red
At least that's what we said,
might happen to it
They're all gone, she'll begin
as just elements again
Tumbling in the solar winds
In and out they'll spin
in a different direction
Somewhere else a similar situation
Some random formation,
occuring in the same equation
Building new destruction
"They're all gone", she said
with soar achy fault lines
Still following guidelines
A stones approach
Pushed to swirl in some other new stars light
Soon now too that star will swell,
releasing brand new moons,
Dark matter and toxic fumes
It's just a dusty interstellar saloon
Soon now too that star will swell,
spread out and then shrink up
Some white dwarf will hold your cup half full
Because elsewhere new volcanos erupt
They're all gone, but she'll still be seen
somewhere else melting
Some other eyes absorbing
A new light inside of some new star-ling
Soon now too that light will die,
Soon now too that light will die
but its energy never does
It burns in some other new blood (x3)
Wishing as she swam
that her own moon would be her only friend
But he too is swimming away
an inch more every year and...
Almost forgot, about the other spheres here
It took a few hundred light years
for the bad air to clear
up out of here
Soon now her star will swell
Bloat up, turn bright red
At least that's what we said,
might happen to it
They're all gone, she'll begin
as just elements again
Tumbling in the solar winds
In and out they'll spin
in a different direction
Somewhere else a similar situation
Some random formation,
occuring in the same equation
Building new destruction
"They're all gone", she said
with soar achy fault lines
Still following guidelines
A stones approach
Pushed to swirl in some other new stars light
Soon now too that star will swell,
releasing brand new moons,
Dark matter and toxic fumes
It's just a dusty interstellar saloon
Soon now too that star will swell,
spread out and then shrink up
Some white dwarf will hold your cup half full
Because elsewhere new volcanos erupt
They're all gone, but she'll still be seen
somewhere else melting
Some other eyes absorbing
A new light inside of some new star-ling
Soon now too that light will die,
Soon now too that light will die
but its energy never does
It burns in some other new blood (x3)
Lyrics submitted by CoconutSkins
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Fast Car
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Ed Sheeran
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“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
I think this song might simply be about how the universe and everything in it is on a continuous loop of birth and destruction.
All stars will eventually burn out over time, possibly go supernova, destroying entire solar systems in the process. But even in the midst of total destruction and annihilation, energy can never be destroyed - it can only be transformed. Eventually, all the matter from our sun and planets will meet up with matter from other galaxies somewhere out in space (in some "dusty interstellar saloon") and give birth to new stars and solar systems.
But alas, the light in those stars too will one day fade, and the process begins once again...
And this loop will continue on for as long as the universe exists.
I will give my interpretation at a later date. Just curious: am I the only one who hears Isaac Brock at the beginning of the song? Background vocals, shouts.
Yeah,you can hear him shout in the background about 3 times within the first minute and a half.
Yeah definitely agree with the first poster. It's kind of like a "Dust in the Wind" feel, similar to "New Doomsdays." These guys are pretty focused on death and natural reincarnation.
I like how they personify Earth :)
But I also have this annoying tendency to relate every song to myself, lol, so in another sense this is just about a person rediscovering herself. Just like how experiences and phases of life, like phases of the moon, turn and combine and outlast any one person. And it's all the same beginning, birth, and outcome, death. It's like we're all made up of the same stuff as Earth.
It's a song about the natural cycles the universe goes through. Stars and planets die and explode, but the energy lives on to create new stars and planets. But it could also be an allegory of life. We live our lives creating and losing and creating until we die. We drift away from people and places to become part of something new and different, and even that disintegrates to restart eventually. "The Loop" is about how our lives are very parallel to how the universe works. Also, it's interesting that Issac Brock from Modest Mouse does backing vocals, as multiple Mouse songs are centered around similar concepts: 3rd Planet, Never Ending Math Equation, Gravity Rides Everything, The Stars Are Projectors, Night On The Sun, You'll See and at least a dozen more. So in conclusion, our lives are just as much a cycle of destruction and rebirth as the universe is.
Another note: I am not a pothead.
At
"It's just a dusty interstellar saloon" I've been hearing, "It's just some(?) dusty interstellar solute"
Anyone else hear this?