"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.
Clarity
Clarity
Clarity, figure all this out, I ain't gona take a charity
Marry me, wish everyone could shake
And play the tambourine
I know I love you I ain't tryna let those words slip
Pure bliss, I knew that we would stay together, we in cursive
Infatuation, when every single move you make is fascinatin'
Gravitatin' towards anything that gives a sense of happiness
Activist, love activeness
Sendin' my love for girls who got some cuts at their wrists
Hope you found what you lookin' for
I hope you found what you lookin' for
You take away the pain and I thank you for that
If I ever get the chance, bet I'm paying you back
I'ma be waiting for that, I'ma be waiting for that
Misery, you represent love, you the epitome
So wish for me, I'll come out of nowhere, your epiphany
Disconnect from everybody
Who don't understand my vision yet
In a jet is where my mind is so I light another cigarette
To calm me down
So calm me down
Everybody who can save me now is not around, chopper down
Busy today, but can you tell me how tomorrow sounds?
In between, purgatory ain't as bad as it would seem to be
Live a dream, that's so cliche
But I can't tell you what it means to me
You take away the pain and I thank you for that
If I ever get the chance, bet I'm paying you back
I'ma be waiting for that, I'ma be waiting for that
And so it is to the printing press
To the recorder of man's deeds
The keeper of his conscience
The courier of his news
That we look for strength and assistance
Confident that with your help
Man will be what he was born to be
Free and independent
Clarity
Clarity, figure all this out, I ain't gona take a charity
Marry me, wish everyone could shake
And play the tambourine
I know I love you I ain't tryna let those words slip
Pure bliss, I knew that we would stay together, we in cursive
Infatuation, when every single move you make is fascinatin'
Gravitatin' towards anything that gives a sense of happiness
Activist, love activeness
Sendin' my love for girls who got some cuts at their wrists
Hope you found what you lookin' for
I hope you found what you lookin' for
You take away the pain and I thank you for that
If I ever get the chance, bet I'm paying you back
I'ma be waiting for that, I'ma be waiting for that
Misery, you represent love, you the epitome
So wish for me, I'll come out of nowhere, your epiphany
Disconnect from everybody
Who don't understand my vision yet
In a jet is where my mind is so I light another cigarette
To calm me down
So calm me down
Everybody who can save me now is not around, chopper down
Busy today, but can you tell me how tomorrow sounds?
In between, purgatory ain't as bad as it would seem to be
Live a dream, that's so cliche
But I can't tell you what it means to me
You take away the pain and I thank you for that
If I ever get the chance, bet I'm paying you back
I'ma be waiting for that, I'ma be waiting for that
And so it is to the printing press
To the recorder of man's deeds
The keeper of his conscience
The courier of his news
That we look for strength and assistance
Confident that with your help
Man will be what he was born to be
Free and independent
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
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"
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
Magical
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
Amazing
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran tells a story of unsuccessfully trying to feel “Amazing.” This track is about the being weighed down by emotional stress despite valiant attempts to find some positivity in the situation. This track was written by Ed Sheeran from the perspective of his friend. From the track, we see this person fall deeper into the negative thoughts and slide further down the path of mental torment with every lyric.