"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.
Will these dreams still follow me
On of dark obscurity?
Can't you see it up in the sky
As it kicks you in the face and lets you dye
You never have the answers
And now you tell me the facts of life
I really couldn't be bothered with you
Get out of my face and watch me die
Burning inside! Burning inside!
Absolution and a frozen room
Are dreams of men below
I try to grab it but the touch is hot
The mirrors collapses, but the image can not
I'm scared of darkness in a light
I scare myself cause I know I'm right
I see the evil in you're savage eye
As it cuts right through the sky
Burning inside! Burning inside! Burning inside! Burning inside!
Burning inside! Burning inside! Burning inside! Burning inside!
Calling the mantra with a blade in the skin
For the demons within
I feel the pain is the death and decay
But the lesson never fades away
Too little shadows, turn away
Another man through the window pane
Another slave and a victim of fate
Another lesson in hate
Burning inside! Burning inside! Burning inside! Burning inside!
Burning inside! Burning inside! Burning inside! Burning inside!
On of dark obscurity?
Can't you see it up in the sky
As it kicks you in the face and lets you dye
You never have the answers
And now you tell me the facts of life
I really couldn't be bothered with you
Get out of my face and watch me die
Burning inside! Burning inside!
Absolution and a frozen room
Are dreams of men below
I try to grab it but the touch is hot
The mirrors collapses, but the image can not
I'm scared of darkness in a light
I scare myself cause I know I'm right
I see the evil in you're savage eye
As it cuts right through the sky
Burning inside! Burning inside! Burning inside! Burning inside!
Burning inside! Burning inside! Burning inside! Burning inside!
Calling the mantra with a blade in the skin
For the demons within
I feel the pain is the death and decay
But the lesson never fades away
Too little shadows, turn away
Another man through the window pane
Another slave and a victim of fate
Another lesson in hate
Burning inside! Burning inside! Burning inside! Burning inside!
Burning inside! Burning inside! Burning inside! Burning inside!
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
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.
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.
I'm going to go ahead and actually comment on what I think the song means. Yes, Static-x and Burton C. Bell covered the song. Yes they did an awesome job of it. I am a huge Fear Factory fan, more so than Ministry although I just discovered Ministry. I'm pretty sure these lyrics are wrong so i'll put what i believe are the correct ones.
This is just my own personal interpretation on what the song means and trust me I'm not the best at putting my thoughts to words so don't cry about it.
Will these dreams still follow me Out of dark obscurity? Can't you see it up in the sky As it kicks you in the face and sucks you dry
I think that he is wondering whether he will always have dreams of being a rockstar even after he becomes one, or wondering if the lifestyle is really as great as he thought it would be. Also it drains him physically and emotionally getting there.
You never had the answers And now you tell me the facts of life I really couldn't be bothered with you Get out of my face and watch me die
Perhaps here he is saying that the people who used to lecture him on what to do with his life were wrong and to get out of his face and watch fame and the life of being in a famous band kill him.
Absolution and a frozen room Are dreams of men below I try to grab it but the touch is hot The mirrors collapses, but the image can not
Here he is saying that absolution as in a normal job and a frozen room perhaps meaning an office are dreams of men less great than he. Him trying to grab it means that he's tried having a normal life and it wasn't for him. The mirror collapses, but the image can not i think means that it doesn't fit him, but part of him yearns for it.
I'm scared of the darkness in light I scare myself cause I know I'm right I see the evil in your savage eye As it cuts right through the sky
I think here he says that he's afraid of how a normal life would make him feel. In light refers to how other people make it seem great, and he knows he's right because he's felt what it is to be a wage slave. The evil in their eye perhaps meaning how he feels that the people who push him to get a normal job are evil.
Calling the mantra with a blade in the skin For the demons within I feel the pain as we start to decay But the lesson never fades away
Here he says he feels better by self-harming and he's beginning to feel the effects of old age, but he'll continue pushing on being in a band and living this way for a living because the lesson he learned from having a normal life never fades away
Don't need no shadows, turn them away Become a man through the window pane Another slave and a victim of fate Another lesson in hate
I think that by Don't need no shadows, turn them away he means he doesn't need children and can't have them living life in a band. Become a man through the window pane means he's a man looking in on real life like having a normal family and a normal job and he doesn't really get to experience it. Another slave and a victim of fate Another lesson in hate means he's a slave to record labels, contracts, and fame and it's another lesson on why he is so hateful.