"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.
Go
We headed out of Kansas in a flatbed Ford
Just a couple hundred dollars, you an' me an' the Lord
We didn't know where we were goin'
We just knew we had to go
Anywhere was better than "Truvy's Hair and Nails"
An' workin' at a single pump Texaco
And maybe it's crazy and we should've planned better
Saved a little money from the little we'd made
Guess we shoulda waited for a better moment
Never taken that chance and played it safe
Sometimes you've got to dance with danger
An' sometimes you've got to face your fears
What's your life if you ain't gonna live it?
Nothing but a few short years
All right
Well, I got a job in Pittsburgh working in a steel mill
And if they hadn't gone busted, I guess we'd be there still
We had a desperate situation laying in our laps
Girl, I thought that you were kidding
When you looked at me and said
"Let's just throw a dart at that old road map"
And maybe it's crazy and we should've planned better
Saved a little money from the little we'd made
Guess we shoulda waited for a better moment
Never taken that chance and played it safe
Sometimes you've got to dance with danger
An' sometimes you've got to face your fears
An' what's your life if you ain't gonna live it?
Nothing but a few short years
Here we are by our little Coleman camper, dancing by the light of the KOA
Ain't it somethin' how we made it and we'd give it all back
Just to chase a promise of a brand new day?
And maybe it's crazy and we should've planned better
Saved a little money from the little we'd made
Guess we shoulda waited for a better moment
Never taken that chance and played it safe
Sometimes you've got to dance with danger
An' sometimes you've got to face your fears
An' what's your life if you ain't gonna live it?
Nothing but a few short years
A few short years
Yeah, baby
We headed out of Kansas in a flatbed Ford
Just a couple hundred dollars, you an' me an' the Lord
We didn't know where we were goin'
We just knew we had to go
Anywhere was better than "Truvy's Hair and Nails"
An' workin' at a single pump Texaco
And maybe it's crazy and we should've planned better
Saved a little money from the little we'd made
Guess we shoulda waited for a better moment
Never taken that chance and played it safe
Sometimes you've got to dance with danger
An' sometimes you've got to face your fears
What's your life if you ain't gonna live it?
Nothing but a few short years
All right
Well, I got a job in Pittsburgh working in a steel mill
And if they hadn't gone busted, I guess we'd be there still
We had a desperate situation laying in our laps
Girl, I thought that you were kidding
When you looked at me and said
"Let's just throw a dart at that old road map"
And maybe it's crazy and we should've planned better
Saved a little money from the little we'd made
Guess we shoulda waited for a better moment
Never taken that chance and played it safe
Sometimes you've got to dance with danger
An' sometimes you've got to face your fears
An' what's your life if you ain't gonna live it?
Nothing but a few short years
Here we are by our little Coleman camper, dancing by the light of the KOA
Ain't it somethin' how we made it and we'd give it all back
Just to chase a promise of a brand new day?
And maybe it's crazy and we should've planned better
Saved a little money from the little we'd made
Guess we shoulda waited for a better moment
Never taken that chance and played it safe
Sometimes you've got to dance with danger
An' sometimes you've got to face your fears
An' what's your life if you ain't gonna live it?
Nothing but a few short years
A few short years
Yeah, baby
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings
A Few Short Years Lyrics as written by Bobby Wayne Tomberlin Mel Jr. Tillis
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
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Fast Car
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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.
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"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
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Mountain Song
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Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
Plastic Bag
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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.