"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.
Well, you've got your diamonds and you've got your pretty clothes
And the chauffeur drives your car
You let everybody know
But don't play with me, 'cause you're playing with fire
Your mother she's an heiress, owns a block in Saint John's Wood
And your father'd be there with her
If he only could
But don't play with me, 'cause you're playing with fire
Your old man took her diamonds and tiaras by the score
Now she gets her kicks in Stepney
Not in Knightsbridge anymore
So don't play with me, 'cause you're playing with fire
Now you've got some diamonds and you will have some others
But you'd better watch your step, girl
Or start living with your mother
So don't play with me, 'cause you're playing with fire
So don't play with me, 'cause you're playing with fire
And the chauffeur drives your car
You let everybody know
But don't play with me, 'cause you're playing with fire
Your mother she's an heiress, owns a block in Saint John's Wood
And your father'd be there with her
If he only could
But don't play with me, 'cause you're playing with fire
Your old man took her diamonds and tiaras by the score
Now she gets her kicks in Stepney
Not in Knightsbridge anymore
So don't play with me, 'cause you're playing with fire
Now you've got some diamonds and you will have some others
But you'd better watch your step, girl
Or start living with your mother
So don't play with me, 'cause you're playing with fire
So don't play with me, 'cause you're playing with fire
Lyrics submitted by spliphstar
Play With Fire Lyrics as written by Nanker Phelge
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Abkco Music Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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Little Feat
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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.
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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”
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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.
Magical
Ed Sheeran
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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.
Head > Heels
Ed Sheeran
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“Head > Heels” is a track that aims to capture what it feels like to experience romance that exceeds expectations. Ed Sheeran dedicates his album outro to a lover who has blessed him with a unique experience that he seeks to describe through the song’s nuanced lyrics.
Her mother was a goldigger so her father got rid of her and took everything away from her. She's just like her mother and the singer of the song is warning her that he's not going to be taken for a fool, except the way it's sung kinda makes me think he'd do more to her than take away her money if she messes with him.
No one could ever explain this cryptic lyric ... \n"Now she gets her kicks in Stepney;\nNot in Knightsbridge anymore."
@Chi-Chief The song was recorded in 1965. From 1960-63, the Kray twins (the notorious London gangsters) ran a fashionable club-cum-casino in Wilton Place, Knightsbridge, called Esmeralda's Barn. When it closed, the action shifted to their Kentucky Club at 108 Mile End Road, Stepney, East London. Could be coincidence, but I see it as a nod to the Krays: ...now she gets her kicks in Stepney, not in Knightsbridge anymore.
@Chi-Chief I was thrilled when I heard "Stepney" - the borough I lived in when the song came out. It was a poor, unfashionable neighborhood - the opposite of Knightsbridge... So I assumed it meant she enjoyed slumming, maybe having rough sex, perhaps buying drugs...
Yeah, or he's like some poor guy, who is sorta a rebel, and knows he'll never have a chance with a rich girl. She shouldn't even try, because he's labeled a bad seed, and well....that's just on way...maybe a little of both.
The true lyric is “owns a block in St Johns Wort. Not wood. Amazing to me so many sites quote this lyric wrong
i always envision a psychopath in vietnam with a combat flamethrower torching some trees in the jungle when i hear this song. i think it was from a 'hunter' episode. anyhow, some rich girl is using her aristocratic clout to push people around with her nose up in the air. but one tormented soul knows that he has seen horrors that she cannot even begin to fathom. to know the future, to see its paths stream out into the infinite. if she even dares to patronize this man, there will be hell to pay 'cause you're playing with fire.'