"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.
This city is haunted by the ghost of failure
I am one and you are one
We've spent this whole time on the run
From a lie that I told
That you closed your eyes and you chose to believe
So now you ask me for honesty
Just to take a second, breathe
I'm not good enough for you
You were never good enough to me
No one's ever good enough to be
Or have something so naïve
When I broke my hand on your car
When you told me you were leavin'
And I begged for your forgiveness
My broken fingers bleedin'
My heavy heart repeatin', afraid
Just stay here with me
Then you took your clothes off instead
And you danced around my room
Don't worry, you said,
'Cause the end is coming soon
And we'll meet again someday
And we'll toast these stunning ruins
For the bride I'll never be
And the groom
Now I picture you like snowflakes
Like desperate pouring rain
Like the beating of the drum
In the parade of the insane
You are the whisper in my ear
When I wake and no one's here
There's just the echo of your name
So now you ask me for honesty
I close my eyes, breathe
I'm the one who always is
So ready to leave
To be a distant memory
To be a ship disappearing in the sea
And I crashed upon your rocks
When I heard your voice singing
And I begged for your love
With my busted ears ringing
My hopeful heart repeating
You are more than the promise of the sea
Then you took your clothes off instead
And you danced around my room
Don't worry, you said,
'Cause the end is coming soon
And we'll meet again someday
And we'll toss the cursed ruins
Of the bride I'll never be
And the groom
I am one and you are one
We've spent this whole time on the run
From a lie that I told
That you closed your eyes and you chose to believe
So now you ask me for honesty
Just to take a second, breathe
I'm not good enough for you
You were never good enough to me
No one's ever good enough to be
Or have something so naïve
When I broke my hand on your car
When you told me you were leavin'
And I begged for your forgiveness
My broken fingers bleedin'
My heavy heart repeatin', afraid
Just stay here with me
Then you took your clothes off instead
And you danced around my room
Don't worry, you said,
'Cause the end is coming soon
And we'll meet again someday
And we'll toast these stunning ruins
For the bride I'll never be
And the groom
Now I picture you like snowflakes
Like desperate pouring rain
Like the beating of the drum
In the parade of the insane
You are the whisper in my ear
When I wake and no one's here
There's just the echo of your name
So now you ask me for honesty
I close my eyes, breathe
I'm the one who always is
So ready to leave
To be a distant memory
To be a ship disappearing in the sea
And I crashed upon your rocks
When I heard your voice singing
And I begged for your love
With my busted ears ringing
My hopeful heart repeating
You are more than the promise of the sea
Then you took your clothes off instead
And you danced around my room
Don't worry, you said,
'Cause the end is coming soon
And we'll meet again someday
And we'll toss the cursed ruins
Of the bride I'll never be
And the groom
Lyrics submitted by hisjanedoe
Bride & Groom Lyrics as written by Mikel Frans Jollett
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
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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"
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Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
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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.
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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.
This one is one is my favorite off the album. Mikel's using a siren metaphor as a stand in for the past relationship he had with his ex. Siren's are mythical beautiful creatures of the sea that lulled sailors into rocky coasts to their deaths. The relationship was dangerous and destructive but it still holds a kind of power over him that he can't quite shake. It was beautiful and something that he mourns.