"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.
YALA
YALA
Go low, go slow
Run like a polo
A banana pole like you're
Climbing up a yoyo
Go low, go slow
Run like a polo
A banana pole like you're
Climbing up a yoyo
Yea yea, YALA
Yea yea, YALA
Bombs go off when I enter the building
YALA
YALA
YALA
YALA
I drink some Contreau keep it in my poncho
Light up like Castro
Blow up and get go
Pro when I set, go
Grow like an afro
Play like Ronaldo
Hard like I'm death row
Weight in kilo
Light as a pillow
Dance on my tip-toe
Like I tae-box though
Yeah we come, come, come
Yeah we come with some some
Get a glass of rum
With a gun and some pun pun
Oh fun, fun, fun
Let's get 'em undone
Take a hit on the bong
It's been so long since we hung
Go low, go slow
Run like a polo
A banana pole like you're
Climbing up a yoyo
Go low, go slow
Run like a polo
A banana pole like you're
Climbing up a yoyo
YALA
YALA
Anti war war
M.I.A. underscore
I get the law law
Searching for me on tour
Bankin' offshore
Take a trip to Singapore
I need to earn like
I'm Julianne Moore
For the hour poor
Don't wanna ignore
That's why I say shit
So they can explore
My baby, I amore
My mommy I adore
I tried to stay pure
Can't take it anymore
Come, come, come
When we coming some some
Yea a glass around
Yea I got me some pom pom
Fun fun fun
Yea it's getting undone
We've been here, we move on
It's been so long since we hung
Go low, go slow
Run like a polo
A banana pole like you're
Climbing up a yoyo
Go low, go slow
Run like a polo
A banana pole like you're
Climbing up a yoyo
Yea yea yea, go
Yea yea yea, go
Bombs go off when I enter the building
YALA
YALA
YALA
I'm rolling solo
You can't take a photo
I'mma keep it raw raw
I'm rolling solo
You can't take a photo
I'mma keep it raw raw
YALA
YALA
Yeah we come, come, come
Yeah we come with some some
Get a glass of rum
With a gun and some pun pun
Oh fun, fun, fun
Let's get 'em undone
Take a hit on the bong
It's been so long since we hung
YOLO?
I don't even know anymore
What that even mean though
If you only live once why we keep doing the same shit?
Back home where I come from, we keep being born
Again and again and then again and again
That's why they invented karma
YALA
Go low, go slow
Run like a polo
A banana pole like you're
Climbing up a yoyo
Go low, go slow
Run like a polo
A banana pole like you're
Climbing up a yoyo
Yea yea, YALA
Yea yea, YALA
Bombs go off when I enter the building
YALA
YALA
YALA
YALA
I drink some Contreau keep it in my poncho
Light up like Castro
Blow up and get go
Pro when I set, go
Grow like an afro
Play like Ronaldo
Hard like I'm death row
Weight in kilo
Light as a pillow
Dance on my tip-toe
Like I tae-box though
Yeah we come, come, come
Yeah we come with some some
Get a glass of rum
With a gun and some pun pun
Oh fun, fun, fun
Let's get 'em undone
Take a hit on the bong
It's been so long since we hung
Go low, go slow
Run like a polo
A banana pole like you're
Climbing up a yoyo
Go low, go slow
Run like a polo
A banana pole like you're
Climbing up a yoyo
YALA
YALA
Anti war war
M.I.A. underscore
I get the law law
Searching for me on tour
Bankin' offshore
Take a trip to Singapore
I need to earn like
I'm Julianne Moore
For the hour poor
Don't wanna ignore
That's why I say shit
So they can explore
My baby, I amore
My mommy I adore
I tried to stay pure
Can't take it anymore
Come, come, come
When we coming some some
Yea a glass around
Yea I got me some pom pom
Fun fun fun
Yea it's getting undone
We've been here, we move on
It's been so long since we hung
Go low, go slow
Run like a polo
A banana pole like you're
Climbing up a yoyo
Go low, go slow
Run like a polo
A banana pole like you're
Climbing up a yoyo
Yea yea yea, go
Yea yea yea, go
Bombs go off when I enter the building
YALA
YALA
YALA
I'm rolling solo
You can't take a photo
I'mma keep it raw raw
I'm rolling solo
You can't take a photo
I'mma keep it raw raw
YALA
YALA
Yeah we come, come, come
Yeah we come with some some
Get a glass of rum
With a gun and some pun pun
Oh fun, fun, fun
Let's get 'em undone
Take a hit on the bong
It's been so long since we hung
YOLO?
I don't even know anymore
What that even mean though
If you only live once why we keep doing the same shit?
Back home where I come from, we keep being born
Again and again and then again and again
That's why they invented karma
Lyrics submitted by m_bianchini, edited by tennistennis
Y.A.L.A. Lyrics as written by Jasper Helderman Mathangi Arulpragasam
Lyrics © CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, CTM Publishing, Peermusic Publishing, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
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"
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
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”
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.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
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.
You only live once.