"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.
Give me a second I
I need to get my story straight
My friends are in the bathroom getting higher than the Empire State
My lover she's waiting for me just across the bar
My seat's been taken by some sunglasses asking 'bout a scar, and
I know I gave it to you months ago
I know you're trying to forget
But between the drinks and subtle things
The holes in my apologies, you know
I'm trying hard to take it back
So if by the time the bar closes
And you feel like falling down
I'll carry you home
Tonight
We are young
So let's set the world on fire
We can burn brighter than the sun
Tonight
We are young
So let's set the world on fire
We can burn brighter than the sun
Now I know that I'm not
All that you got
I guess that I, I just thought
Maybe we could find new ways to fall apart
But our friends are back
So let's raise a cup
'Cause I found someone to carry me home
Tonight
We are young
So let's set the world on fire
We can burn brighter than the sun
Tonight
We are young
So let's set the world on fire
We can burn brighter than the sun
Carry me home tonight (na na na na na na)
Just carry me home tonight (na na na na na na)
Carry me home tonight (na na na na na na)
Just carry me home tonight (na na na na na na)
The moon is on my side (na na na na na na)
I have no reason to run (na na na na na na)
So will someone come and carry me home tonight (na na na na na na)
The angels never arrived (na na na na na na)
But I can hear the choir (na na na na na na)
So will someone come and carry me home (na na na na na na)
Tonight
We are young
So let's set the world on fire
We can burn brighter than the sun
Tonight
We are young
So let's set the world on fire
We can burn brighter than the sun
So if by the time the bar closes
And you feel like falling down
I'll carry you home tonight
I need to get my story straight
My friends are in the bathroom getting higher than the Empire State
My lover she's waiting for me just across the bar
My seat's been taken by some sunglasses asking 'bout a scar, and
I know I gave it to you months ago
I know you're trying to forget
But between the drinks and subtle things
The holes in my apologies, you know
I'm trying hard to take it back
So if by the time the bar closes
And you feel like falling down
I'll carry you home
Tonight
We are young
So let's set the world on fire
We can burn brighter than the sun
Tonight
We are young
So let's set the world on fire
We can burn brighter than the sun
Now I know that I'm not
All that you got
I guess that I, I just thought
Maybe we could find new ways to fall apart
But our friends are back
So let's raise a cup
'Cause I found someone to carry me home
Tonight
We are young
So let's set the world on fire
We can burn brighter than the sun
Tonight
We are young
So let's set the world on fire
We can burn brighter than the sun
Carry me home tonight (na na na na na na)
Just carry me home tonight (na na na na na na)
Carry me home tonight (na na na na na na)
Just carry me home tonight (na na na na na na)
The moon is on my side (na na na na na na)
I have no reason to run (na na na na na na)
So will someone come and carry me home tonight (na na na na na na)
The angels never arrived (na na na na na na)
But I can hear the choir (na na na na na na)
So will someone come and carry me home (na na na na na na)
Tonight
We are young
So let's set the world on fire
We can burn brighter than the sun
Tonight
We are young
So let's set the world on fire
We can burn brighter than the sun
So if by the time the bar closes
And you feel like falling down
I'll carry you home tonight
Lyrics submitted by Backspacer
We Are Young Lyrics as written by Andrew Dost Jeff Bhasker
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Hipgnosis Songs Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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The Night We Met
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This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Dreamwalker
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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
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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.
Punchline
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Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
I love the song and it was just well-interpreted. It's a feel good song with a downside. I have been carried home (drunk) in the past after having a ball the presvious night. But those were almost always when I was single and young and had little responsibility. With life comes changes, and although I still plan to be carried home (drunk) in the future when my kids are not with me, there can be a downside. It's a cool song. I think it's a song whose foundation speaks of moderation....finding just the right mix of fun and responsiblity. It can be done.