"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.
They call me Gladiator
A slave to Rome, Hero to the mob
I must entertain to rise
Kill to live or die
The strength I bleed, I take for my freedom
Criminal they say, persecuted
A puppet for the people's amusement
This is my kingdom, the coliseum
Where I will meet the after life
Pain is the level of all of your fears
Survival of my soul to light
I surrender the sun for your life
I challenge the gods to die
He who is about to die we salute you
Fight honorably until the moment you meet your afterlife
Terror bestows my body and mind
Rejoice in dignity, a chance to live in glory and adoratoion for eternity
My sword and shield are the only things real to me
I feel the wrath calling me... to take this life from me
Thrust the gladius, into the flesh it rips
Screams of anguish lost into the dust
Take your last breath vision the sky dark touch the light see the iron mask save your soul
The crows wait to feed
I live for another day, another moment under the sun
Break the silence of the crowd as they cheer for the final blow
Pain is the level of all of your fears
Survival of my soul to light
I surrender the sun for your life
I challenge the Gods to die
A slave to Rome, Hero to the mob
I must entertain to rise
Kill to live or die
The strength I bleed, I take for my freedom
Criminal they say, persecuted
A puppet for the people's amusement
This is my kingdom, the coliseum
Where I will meet the after life
Pain is the level of all of your fears
Survival of my soul to light
I surrender the sun for your life
I challenge the gods to die
He who is about to die we salute you
Fight honorably until the moment you meet your afterlife
Terror bestows my body and mind
Rejoice in dignity, a chance to live in glory and adoratoion for eternity
My sword and shield are the only things real to me
I feel the wrath calling me... to take this life from me
Thrust the gladius, into the flesh it rips
Screams of anguish lost into the dust
Take your last breath vision the sky dark touch the light see the iron mask save your soul
The crows wait to feed
I live for another day, another moment under the sun
Break the silence of the crowd as they cheer for the final blow
Pain is the level of all of your fears
Survival of my soul to light
I surrender the sun for your life
I challenge the Gods to die
Lyrics submitted by cganuelas
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Fast Car
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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.