"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.
Who saves the savior?
x8
It's endlessly searching
Just another lost cause, so far from hell
So far from hell
So far from hell
This wasn't part of the plan
Waves that come out of our hands
With the strangers in black
While they're standing out back
While they look to the sky
Some call this dying in vain
Where's the God that you claim to hate?
Oh the blood has been shed
(The bloods been shed)
When all that's left are the stains
Sick of trying to find an escape
No trace of God left in the evil place
Who saves the savior?
Who saves the savior?
Who saves?
I spin around around the fire
Spitting images of the same mistakes
(But we never change)
Blinded by her illusions
There's no turning back
As we dance above the stage
(dance)
Some call this dying in vain
Where's the God that you claim to hate?
Oh the blood has been shed
(The blood's been shed)
When all that's left are the stains
Sick of trying to find an escape
No trace of God left in this evil place
You can clean me up
But I'm still not the same, not the same
I'm just a stain you couldn't wash away
Couldn't wash away
Who saves the savior?
Who saves?
Who saves the savior?
Who saves?
Where's the God you claim to hate
Where's the God
While they look to the sky (Look to the sky)
While they look to the sky (Look to the sky)
Our eyes shift to the ground
While they look to the sky (Look to the sky)
While they look to the sky (Look to the sky)
Our eyes shift to the ground
x8
It's endlessly searching
Just another lost cause, so far from hell
So far from hell
So far from hell
This wasn't part of the plan
Waves that come out of our hands
With the strangers in black
While they're standing out back
While they look to the sky
Some call this dying in vain
Where's the God that you claim to hate?
Oh the blood has been shed
(The bloods been shed)
When all that's left are the stains
Sick of trying to find an escape
No trace of God left in the evil place
Who saves the savior?
Who saves the savior?
Who saves?
I spin around around the fire
Spitting images of the same mistakes
(But we never change)
Blinded by her illusions
There's no turning back
As we dance above the stage
(dance)
Some call this dying in vain
Where's the God that you claim to hate?
Oh the blood has been shed
(The blood's been shed)
When all that's left are the stains
Sick of trying to find an escape
No trace of God left in this evil place
You can clean me up
But I'm still not the same, not the same
I'm just a stain you couldn't wash away
Couldn't wash away
Who saves the savior?
Who saves?
Who saves the savior?
Who saves?
Where's the God you claim to hate
Where's the God
While they look to the sky (Look to the sky)
While they look to the sky (Look to the sky)
Our eyes shift to the ground
While they look to the sky (Look to the sky)
While they look to the sky (Look to the sky)
Our eyes shift to the ground
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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"
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.
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.
This song is about attempting suicide and dying. Seems that the POV is waiting for their "god" to appear at death but is also seeing visions of hell ("spin around the fire") and demons ("strangers dressed in black") as they die ("no turning back/dance above the stage").