"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.
Abolish the death penalty
Abolish the death penalty
The death penalty promotes killing
As an acceptable solution to a problem
The death penalty promotes murder
Abolish the death penalty
The death penalty is premeditated, state-sanctioned murder
The death penalty is cruel
Abolish the death penalty
Vengeance no more
Listen to your heart
No more cruelty
Abolish the death penalty
Vengeance no more
Listen to your heart
No more cruelty
Abolish the death penalty
Can you imagine how scared you'd be, you'd be
If you were going to receive the death penalty?
Can you imagine how scared you'd be, you'd be
If you were going to receive the death penalty?
Abolish the death penalty
It is a travesty of justice
Abolish the death penalty
Can you imagine sitting inside a cell
Waiting to be executed?
Waiting for the state to take your life?
Can you imagine how sad you'd be
Having to leave behind
Your parents
Your children
Your husband or wife?
The death penalty is sadistic
Instead of killing people, be altruistic
Do not hate, rehabilitate
Don't let the death penalty be someone's fate
Let's make a peaceful world; I am optimistic
Our approach to justice needs to be holistic
We need a world free from violence
We need unity, equality, justice for all
Vengeance no more
Listen to your heart
No more cruelty
Abolish the death penalty
Vengeance no more
Listen to your heart
No more cruelty
Abolish the death penalty
Can you imagine how scared you'd be, you'd be
If you were going to receive the death penalty?
Can you imagine how scared you'd be, you'd be
If you were going to receive the death penalty?
Abolish the death penalty
It is a travesty of justice
Abolish the death penalty
Abolish the death penalty
The death penalty promotes killing
As an acceptable solution to a problem
The death penalty promotes murder
Abolish the death penalty
The death penalty is premeditated, state-sanctioned murder
The death penalty is cruel
Abolish the death penalty
Vengeance no more
Listen to your heart
No more cruelty
Abolish the death penalty
Vengeance no more
Listen to your heart
No more cruelty
Abolish the death penalty
Can you imagine how scared you'd be, you'd be
If you were going to receive the death penalty?
Can you imagine how scared you'd be, you'd be
If you were going to receive the death penalty?
Abolish the death penalty
It is a travesty of justice
Abolish the death penalty
Can you imagine sitting inside a cell
Waiting to be executed?
Waiting for the state to take your life?
Can you imagine how sad you'd be
Having to leave behind
Your parents
Your children
Your husband or wife?
The death penalty is sadistic
Instead of killing people, be altruistic
Do not hate, rehabilitate
Don't let the death penalty be someone's fate
Let's make a peaceful world; I am optimistic
Our approach to justice needs to be holistic
We need a world free from violence
We need unity, equality, justice for all
Vengeance no more
Listen to your heart
No more cruelty
Abolish the death penalty
Vengeance no more
Listen to your heart
No more cruelty
Abolish the death penalty
Can you imagine how scared you'd be, you'd be
If you were going to receive the death penalty?
Can you imagine how scared you'd be, you'd be
If you were going to receive the death penalty?
Abolish the death penalty
It is a travesty of justice
Abolish the death penalty
Lyrics submitted by Eamon
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"
I Can't Go To Sleep
Wu-Tang Clan
Wu-Tang Clan
This song is written as the perspective of the boys in the street, as a whole, and what path they are going to choose as they get older and grow into men. (This is why the music video takes place in an orphanage.) The seen, and unseen collective suffering is imbedded in the boys’ mind, consciously or subconsciously, and is haunting them. Which path will the boys choose? Issac Hayes is the voice of reason, maybe God, the angel on his shoulder, or the voice of his forefathers from beyond the grave who can see the big picture and are pleading with the boys not to continue the violence and pattern of killing their brothers, but to rise above. The most beautiful song and has so many levels. Racism towards African Americans in America would not exist if everyone sat down and listened to this song and understood the history behind the words. The power, fear, pleading in RZA and Ghostface voices are genuine and powerful. Issac Hayes’ strong voice makes the perfect strong father figure, who is possibly from beyond the grave.
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.
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.