"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.
We go from tearing up dollies to jumping in trollies
Now it's just worries while you order in curries
You don't call your friends this has to end
Don't bend you'll break how much can you take.
Anwell you fucked it up.
Anwell you drank too much.
Anwell you left me in the lurch.
Anwell you puked in church.
But who gives a shit anyway just some wans with too much time on their hands?
Fuck 'em.
Fuck 'em.
Because We Need You Here.
You Do Very Much.
Like Good Loving
Boy We Can't Get Enough.
Anwell it's hard to look straight
Put that foot now on the brake
Take what you will and you're going too fast
Past all the towns and the pigs just flashed
Running around stone cracked with drink
Next day what will the people think
Running around like in the horrors
Next day what will they whisper
Fucking what's the deal with him
Fucking look at the state of him
Fucking shut that mouth on him
Fucking throw that book at him
Fucking does it sloppily
No girlfriend well not properly
On his parent's property
When's he going to buy some property?
But who gives a shit anyway just some pricks with too much money on their hands?
Fuck 'em.
Fuck 'em.
Because We Need You Here.
You Do Very Much.
Like Good Loving
Boy We Can't Get Enough.
X X O tic tac toe
work is who you are you know
X X O tic tac toe
home is just a place to go
where the boys are dying and the girls are crying
they go out driving don't come back alive and
what good are you to anyone dead and gone
Get along gone?
No no no Kurt Cobain
Stick around now for Regaine
Is loving your life on the wane
There's love in your life now on the way
Now I don't want to get polemic
This here is an epidemic.
I have to let you know.
your friends love you
my friends love you
the girls love you
your folks love
They love you.
They love you.
We Need You Here.
You Do Very Much.
Like Good Loving
Boy We Can't Get Enough.
Now it's just worries while you order in curries
You don't call your friends this has to end
Don't bend you'll break how much can you take.
Anwell you fucked it up.
Anwell you drank too much.
Anwell you left me in the lurch.
Anwell you puked in church.
But who gives a shit anyway just some wans with too much time on their hands?
Fuck 'em.
Fuck 'em.
Because We Need You Here.
You Do Very Much.
Like Good Loving
Boy We Can't Get Enough.
Anwell it's hard to look straight
Put that foot now on the brake
Take what you will and you're going too fast
Past all the towns and the pigs just flashed
Running around stone cracked with drink
Next day what will the people think
Running around like in the horrors
Next day what will they whisper
Fucking what's the deal with him
Fucking look at the state of him
Fucking shut that mouth on him
Fucking throw that book at him
Fucking does it sloppily
No girlfriend well not properly
On his parent's property
When's he going to buy some property?
But who gives a shit anyway just some pricks with too much money on their hands?
Fuck 'em.
Fuck 'em.
Because We Need You Here.
You Do Very Much.
Like Good Loving
Boy We Can't Get Enough.
X X O tic tac toe
work is who you are you know
X X O tic tac toe
home is just a place to go
where the boys are dying and the girls are crying
they go out driving don't come back alive and
what good are you to anyone dead and gone
Get along gone?
No no no Kurt Cobain
Stick around now for Regaine
Is loving your life on the wane
There's love in your life now on the way
Now I don't want to get polemic
This here is an epidemic.
I have to let you know.
your friends love you
my friends love you
the girls love you
your folks love
They love you.
They love you.
We Need You Here.
You Do Very Much.
Like Good Loving
Boy We Can't Get Enough.
Lyrics submitted by John25
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
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.
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.
Head > Heels
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Head > Heels” is a track that aims to capture what it feels like to experience romance that exceeds expectations. Ed Sheeran dedicates his album outro to a lover who has blessed him with a unique experience that he seeks to describe through the song’s nuanced lyrics.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“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.