"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.
(Keep calm, keeping it calm, keeping it calm)
(Keep calm, keeping it calm, keeping it calm)
(Keeping it calm)
(Fuck, here we go again)
Heat lighting flash, but don't blink
Misleading
Tranquility ruse
You're gonna happen again
That's what I think
Follow the evidence
Look it dead in the eye
You are darkness
Trying to lull us in, before the havoc begins
Into a dubious state of serenity
Acting all surprised when you're caught in the lie
We know better
It's not unlike you
It's not unlike you
We know your nature
Blame it all on the bastards when you're blowing out
Shame on you
Shame on you, now
No amount of wind could to begin to cover up your petulant stench and demeanor
Calm as cookies and cream, so it seems
We're not buying your dubious state of serenity
Acting all surprised when you're caught in the lie
We know better
It's not unlike you
It's not unlike you
We know your nature
Calm before the torrent comes
Calm before the torrent comes
Calm before the torrent comes
Calm before the tempest comes to reign all over
Disputing intentions invites devastation
A tempest must be true to its nature
A tempest must be just that
A tempest must be just that
A tempest must be just that
A tempest must be just that
A tempest must be just that
A tempest must be just that
A tempest must be just that
A tempest must be just that
Control, your delusion
Insane and striking at random
Victim of your certainty
And therefore your doubt's not an option
Blameless, the tempest will be just that
So try as you may, feeble, your attempt to atone
Your words to erase all the damage cannot
A tempest must be just that
A tempest must be just that
A tempest must be just that
A tempest must be just that
(Keep calm, keeping it calm, keeping it calm)
(Keeping it calm)
(Fuck, here we go again)
Heat lighting flash, but don't blink
Misleading
Tranquility ruse
You're gonna happen again
That's what I think
Follow the evidence
Look it dead in the eye
You are darkness
Trying to lull us in, before the havoc begins
Into a dubious state of serenity
Acting all surprised when you're caught in the lie
We know better
It's not unlike you
It's not unlike you
We know your nature
Blame it all on the bastards when you're blowing out
Shame on you
Shame on you, now
No amount of wind could to begin to cover up your petulant stench and demeanor
Calm as cookies and cream, so it seems
We're not buying your dubious state of serenity
Acting all surprised when you're caught in the lie
We know better
It's not unlike you
It's not unlike you
We know your nature
Calm before the torrent comes
Calm before the torrent comes
Calm before the torrent comes
Calm before the tempest comes to reign all over
Disputing intentions invites devastation
A tempest must be true to its nature
A tempest must be just that
A tempest must be just that
A tempest must be just that
A tempest must be just that
A tempest must be just that
A tempest must be just that
A tempest must be just that
A tempest must be just that
Control, your delusion
Insane and striking at random
Victim of your certainty
And therefore your doubt's not an option
Blameless, the tempest will be just that
So try as you may, feeble, your attempt to atone
Your words to erase all the damage cannot
A tempest must be just that
A tempest must be just that
A tempest must be just that
A tempest must be just that
Lyrics submitted by Mellow_Harsher
7empest Lyrics as written by Daniel Carey Adam Jones
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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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"
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.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“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.
The main layer of this song is a conflict between your inner emotions and what you show outside. It’s the typical situation when you do your best to remain calm, but the tempest inside you starts raging to the point when you can’t contain it anymore, so you just explode. And even if that was one extreme situation, people around you suddenly say it’s typical and they knew all the time that you’re a violent type and whatever happened was just waiting to happen. Not sure what it was, but they were sure it will happen. Then you try to calm down again and handle this, but you know it’s a vicious circle and at some point they will make you explode again. But there’s another level. The title itself brings Shakespeare to mind and again connects to the seven stages of life described in one of his works. More so, the way it’s spelled kind of suggests something like an online nick, maybe used by a kid in a game somewhere. This may point to the stage in life described as schoolboy. However, Maynard was contradicting Shakespeare’s classical view in previous songs and here it looks the same. This schoolboy is not whining or creeping emotionless – he’s the tempest. He hates being pushed around and hearing how everybody knows him better, know his nature. They are poisoning him like the deceivers mentioned in Fear Inoculum and he’s raging inside to fight it. But he doesn’t know how yet, so for now he can only be like the tempest and respond with anger.
@serkeloth that was a great explanation much further than I can see and have studied on it. My argument isn't w you but w the relaying of the message to people w out any sight passed their eyes and can break down the bare bones of any subsurface cog of the wheel of reality and it just seemed too distorted to relate more clearly but their awesome and that's just my opinion on the content, depth and lyrics of that song...which I am fixing to listen to once again. Bc it's art that's relevant to an actual invisible to the eye reality chks. ✌️