"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.
Fool enough to almost be it
Cool enough to not quite see it
Doomed
Pick your pocket, full of sorrow
Run away with me tomorrow
June
We'll try and ease the pain
Somehow, we'll feel the same
Well, no one knows
Where our secrets go
I send a heart to all my dearies
When your life is so, so dreary
Dream
I'm rumored to the straight and narrow
While the harlots of my perils
Scream
And I fail
When I can, I will
Try to understand
That when I can, I will
Mother, weep the years I'm missing
All our time can't be given
Back
Shut my mouth and strike the demons
Cursed you and your reasons
Out of hand and out of season
Out of love and out of feeling
So bad
When I can, I will
Words defy the plans
But when I can, I will
Fool enough to almost be it
Cool enough to not quite see it
Dull enough to always feel this
Always old, I'll always feel this
No more promise, no more sorrow
No longer will I follow
Can anybody hear me?
I just want to be me
When I can, I will
Try to understand
That when I can, I will
Cool enough to not quite see it
Doomed
Pick your pocket, full of sorrow
Run away with me tomorrow
June
We'll try and ease the pain
Somehow, we'll feel the same
Well, no one knows
Where our secrets go
I send a heart to all my dearies
When your life is so, so dreary
Dream
I'm rumored to the straight and narrow
While the harlots of my perils
Scream
And I fail
When I can, I will
Try to understand
That when I can, I will
Mother, weep the years I'm missing
All our time can't be given
Back
Shut my mouth and strike the demons
Cursed you and your reasons
Out of hand and out of season
Out of love and out of feeling
So bad
When I can, I will
Words defy the plans
But when I can, I will
Fool enough to almost be it
Cool enough to not quite see it
Dull enough to always feel this
Always old, I'll always feel this
No more promise, no more sorrow
No longer will I follow
Can anybody hear me?
I just want to be me
When I can, I will
Try to understand
That when I can, I will
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
Holiday
Bee Gees
Bee Gees
@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
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.
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.
Siamese Dream just proves how much of a musical genius Billy Corgan is. Mayonaise is my favourite song of all time. This song hits me harder than a ton of bricks. When I saw it live, it was the happiest day of my life. Full of passion, sadness, and utter genius. I miss the Pumpkins with all my heart. But soon I will forever have The Smashing Pumpkins etched upon this canvas that I call my body, but they will forever be etched upon my musical soul.
That last sentence was very poetic.
This is my favorite SP song. It's talking about young love that never bloomed. There were stolen kisses and secret glances and loving gestures, and both made each other very happy for a time, but the love never bloomed, it ended with hard feelings, and this song is expressing regret, and wishing it could have changed. Beautiful.
Although Billy admitted in Story-Tellers that the lyrics to Mayonaise were just "bullshit lyrics" to him when he wrote them, I think he manages to somehow subconsciously channel a feeling with this song. The music seems very wistful to me and the lyrics definately compliment that. To me, this song is the sound of adolescence. It captures the uncertainty, boredom, innocence, and dreariness of growing up. It echoes a line in Muzzle, "And I knew the emptiness of youth". That to me is what this song is all about. It's a young Billy trying to break free.
My personal fav. I believe this is widely considered the best Pumpkins song. Why it never was made a single I will never know, but I thought it was at least 10x better than Rocket.
Billy Corgan is often brilliant with his lyrics of describing feelings of emotion...in his case it's often (failure, disappointment, disillusion etc.)
I think these lyrics are autobiographical. The first couple of lines refer to his reputation as a famous musician (cool). the minute you start thinking of yourself as cool -- then you're doomed. Cool enough (famous musician) to almost be it -- again, cool (successful, confident etc.)...but actually, Doomed.
The public thinks of him as successful and cool. He's rumored to the straight and narrow...(public image successful musician)... while the harlots of his perils scream... (in reality, his failed relationships, all his faults ...scream their reality.
actually i should have said..."cool enough to not quite see it, doomed"<br /> so many people patting him on the back as a successful musician that he didn't see his own failings, that his real personal life wasn't very successful....in fact he was doomed.
Absolutely gorgeous song... the height of Billy's song and lyric writing
funny you say that cos billy siad the they are bullshit lyrics <br /> he just made em up at random <br /> to ryme and make little sense<br /> same with 1979 to begin with he says
This song always hits me right here oh-so perfectly. It's probably one of my favorite SP songs off of one of my favorite albums ever, and it's also on my lil' imaginary dream acoustic set list, for whenever I master the art of playing guitar and singing at the same time and finally hit the local coffeehouse :)
This song is simply the best!!!!!!! It is my favorite song EVER!
Agreed!
First off, I'd like to say this is one of my favorite songs ever, and some of the most beautiful music I've ever heard. It's a wall of guitar noise, but it's gorgeous. How does that work?
Anyway, I think it's about trying drug addiction myself. "Pick your pockets full of sorrow, and run away with me tomorrow" sounds to me like something a dealer would tell a new user (though I've never used drugs and have never had any contact with a dealer). "And I fail, but when I can, I will" says to me "I can't kick it now, but as soon as I work up the courage, I will". The "Mother weep for years I'm missing" verse starts off as remorse about addiction, but at the end of it the narrator realizes he or she can't get over their addiction. I do think the song ends on a happy note, though... the narrator realizes the drug is making him something he isn't, that he just wants to be himself and not be controlled by the drug, and plans to kick his habit. I don't know, just a few thoughts, because as we all know Corgan's lyrics are ambiguous. And always amazing, too. I also think the song structure represents drug use. The quiet introduction is shooting up, the loud bit is the drug screwing with your mind, and so forth.
I read somewhere online that it is about his grandmother, who was Polish or German or something, and in whatever language it was, mayonnaise is spelled as mayonaise. If you havent heard the acoustic version of this song, go to the new smashing pumpkins audio archive website(if it is up) and listen to it in the earphoria section. it is just beautiful. i love this song.