"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.
Then you were dead
Subsistin' on that same old bread
It's the memory that hides
The whole wide world
It's the gas he'd's love of america
It's the memory that hides
Take your photographs back
For the love of all gods
Our gas he'd marches on
Our gas he'd marches on
He's a bonified man
A star amongst his clan
And the only one that let me ride
It's the memory that dies
Our gas he'd was right
When they lanced his skull
There was puss and light
It's the memory that dies
So take your photographs back
For the love of all gods
Our gas he'd marches on
Our gas he'd marches
It's the memory that dies
And make your photographs black
For the love of all gods
Our gas he'd marches on
Our gas he'd marches on
Gas he'd is on the radio, radio, radio
Subsistin' on that same old bread
It's the memory that hides
The whole wide world
It's the gas he'd's love of america
It's the memory that hides
Take your photographs back
For the love of all gods
Our gas he'd marches on
Our gas he'd marches on
He's a bonified man
A star amongst his clan
And the only one that let me ride
It's the memory that dies
Our gas he'd was right
When they lanced his skull
There was puss and light
It's the memory that dies
So take your photographs back
For the love of all gods
Our gas he'd marches on
Our gas he'd marches
It's the memory that dies
And make your photographs black
For the love of all gods
Our gas he'd marches on
Our gas he'd marches on
Gas he'd is on the radio, radio, radio
Lyrics submitted by Caverna[RR], edited by mark111230, brycej3, EternalTearsOfSorrow, giftedmadness
Gas Hed Goes West Lyrics as written by Chad David Taylor Chad Alan Gracey
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
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Ebba Grön
Ebba Grön
This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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Hayalperest
Hayalperest
This song seemingly tackles the methods of deception those who manipulate others use to get victims to follow their demands, as well as diverting attention away from important issues. They'll also use it as a means to convince people to hate or kill others by pretending acts of terrorism were committed by the enemy when the acts themselves were done by the masters of control to promote discrimination and hate. It also reinforces the idea that these manipulative forces operate in various locations, infiltrating everyday life without detection, and propagate any and everywhere.
In general, it highlights the danger of hidden agendas, manipulation, and distraction, serving as a critique of those who exploit chaos and confusion to control and gain power, depicting a cautionary tale against falling into their traps. It encourages us to question the narratives presented to us and remain vigilant against manipulation in various parts of society.
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.
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
I was reading Stephen King's "The Stand" at the same time I was playing this album over and over, so this song gave me a strong impression of the journey of "The Trashcan Man" from that story.
That character was a half-dead radiation-poisoned pyromaniac schizophrenic who survives what is essentially the Apocalypse. He is part of the "bad side", travels West across America and ends up getting destroyed in a nuclear explosion, so the phrases of "gas hed" (Fire), "Memory that dies" (post-apocalypse), "exemplified his clan", "marches on" and "lanced his head with light" (vaporised by a nuke) had a lot of strong correlations.
I doubt that's the original meaning of the lyrics, but that's what they mean to me now.