"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.
An' I can count it on my fingers
I have all my reasons not to feel
I'm numb as rigor mortis
Scared by monkey faces drowned in shark fins
But I don't feel like feeling, I don't feel like feeling
I don't feel like feeling, feeling like you
Now I'm in the mirror, now it's getting clear
I fear that I'm in now, I'm into plastics
Now I've made a mask, it looks like fish heads
But I don't feel like feeling, I don't feel like feeling
I don't feel like feeling, feeling like you
I don't feel like feeling, I don't feel like feeling
I don't feel like feeling, feeling like you
Face pollution, face pollution
Face pollution, face pollution
(Feel)
Face pollution, face pollution
Face pollution, face pollution
(Feel)
I have all my reasons not to feel
I'm numb as rigor mortis
Scared by monkey faces drowned in shark fins
But I don't feel like feeling, I don't feel like feeling
I don't feel like feeling, feeling like you
Now I'm in the mirror, now it's getting clear
I fear that I'm in now, I'm into plastics
Now I've made a mask, it looks like fish heads
But I don't feel like feeling, I don't feel like feeling
I don't feel like feeling, feeling like you
I don't feel like feeling, I don't feel like feeling
I don't feel like feeling, feeling like you
Face pollution, face pollution
Face pollution, face pollution
(Feel)
Face pollution, face pollution
Face pollution, face pollution
(Feel)
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It could be about plastic surgery, but I also think it might be about having to put on a face for his audiences, the media, the music industry etc....
Just my thoughts
Oh come on! No one has posted about this song!? It's fuckin awesome! The guitar is so sweet. One of my favorites.
I have no idea what he's ranting about but the riffs in this song are sweet, and Chris Cornell seems to have an animal thing in his lyrics... there seem to always be dogs or pigs or snakes or, in this case, fish, sharks and monkeys
I would say something like his opinion of how people try to make themselves beautiful by either putting make-up on or getting plastic surgery (I fear that I'm in you, Now I'm into plastics, Now I've made a mask). He doesn't want to be that (But I don't feel like feeling, feeling like you)
the feeling of being thrown in a pool of shark, people just trying to rip you off in a smart way, and not wanting to be affected by it, keeping your calm, to not denigrate yourself and become like them, but stay out of trouble and keep your conscience clean.
i think he is addressing his audience saying he doesn't want to be our slave and it is making him numb, making him cry, perhaps the face pollution is his worn out face or his tears, but he says 'I fear that I'm in you', fears he is one of us fears he is part of us. He then says that he has been changed by us to be like us 'now that i'm into plastics', 'Now I;ve made a mask'. I think the mask could be him hiding his insecurities to become one of us but he doesn't feel like being part of us. He doesn;t want to be one with us...
I don't feel like feeling
I don't feel like feeling like you
i really think those lines have separate meanings and that the previous line is not just an incomplete version of the second.
thats what i got from it.
In my opinion a huge rant against plastic surgery, It just makes the name so obvious.
maybe its about acne? plastic surgery sounds good too but consider these:"now im in the mirror/now its getting clear" "i can count it on my fingers" could be counting the zits. makes sense with the title "Face Pollution" too. well itsa great song especially when he yells FACE POLLUTION! yeah thats what grunge is all about, nay, rock itself. nay is a funny word. yeah thats all i got to say about that.
It's about the early 90's black metal scene of norway. They of course wore corpse-paint, which is black and white paint on their faces when they perform (first introduced by KISS of course). Black Metal emphasises feeling a lot, but in a melodramatic way, i.e. by wearing corpse-paint. rigor mortis is a black metal band
This song is a perfect fusion of punk and metal-the definition of grunge. It's about make-up. All hail Ben Shepherd!