"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.
I see the people working
And see it working for them
And so I want to join in
But then I find it hurts me
Some say that knowledge is something sat in your lap
Some say that knowledge is something that you never have
I see the people happy
So can it happen for me?
'Cause when I am unhappy
There's nothing that can move me
Some say that knowledge is something that you never have
Some say that knowledge is something sat in your lap
Some say that heaven is hell
Some say that hell is heaven
I must admit, just when I think I'm king
(I just begin)
Just when I think I'm king, I must admit
(I just begin)
Just when I think I'm king
(I just begin)
I've been doing it for years
My goal is moving near
It says, look, I'm over here
Then it up and disappears
Some say that knowledge is something sat in your lap
Some say that knowledge is ho-ho-ho-ho
I want to be a lawyer
I want to be a scholar
But I really can't be bothered
Ooh, just gimme it quick, gimme it, gimme gimme gimme gimme!
Some say that knowledge is ho-ho-ho
Some say that knowledge is ho-ho-ho
Some say that heaven is hell
Some say that hell is heaven
I must admit, just when I think I'm king
(I just begin)
Just when I think I'm king, I must admit
(I just begin)
Just when I think everything's going great
(I just begin)
I get the break
Hey, I'm gonna take it all
(I just begin)
When I'm king
(Just begin)
In my dome of ivory
A home of activity
I want the answers quickly
But I don't have no energy
I hold a cup of wisdom
But there is nothing within
My cup, she never overfloweth
And 'tis I that moan and groaneth
Some grey and white matter
(Give me the karma, mama)
I'm coming up the ladder
I'm coming up the ladder
(A jet to Mecca)
Up the ladder
(Tibet or Jeddah)
(To Salisbury)
(A monastery)
(The longest journey)
(Across the desert)
(Across the weather)
(Across the elements)
(Across the water)
And see it working for them
And so I want to join in
But then I find it hurts me
Some say that knowledge is something sat in your lap
Some say that knowledge is something that you never have
I see the people happy
So can it happen for me?
'Cause when I am unhappy
There's nothing that can move me
Some say that knowledge is something that you never have
Some say that knowledge is something sat in your lap
Some say that heaven is hell
Some say that hell is heaven
I must admit, just when I think I'm king
(I just begin)
Just when I think I'm king, I must admit
(I just begin)
Just when I think I'm king
(I just begin)
I've been doing it for years
My goal is moving near
It says, look, I'm over here
Then it up and disappears
Some say that knowledge is something sat in your lap
Some say that knowledge is ho-ho-ho-ho
I want to be a lawyer
I want to be a scholar
But I really can't be bothered
Ooh, just gimme it quick, gimme it, gimme gimme gimme gimme!
Some say that knowledge is ho-ho-ho
Some say that knowledge is ho-ho-ho
Some say that heaven is hell
Some say that hell is heaven
I must admit, just when I think I'm king
(I just begin)
Just when I think I'm king, I must admit
(I just begin)
Just when I think everything's going great
(I just begin)
I get the break
Hey, I'm gonna take it all
(I just begin)
When I'm king
(Just begin)
In my dome of ivory
A home of activity
I want the answers quickly
But I don't have no energy
I hold a cup of wisdom
But there is nothing within
My cup, she never overfloweth
And 'tis I that moan and groaneth
Some grey and white matter
(Give me the karma, mama)
I'm coming up the ladder
I'm coming up the ladder
(A jet to Mecca)
Up the ladder
(Tibet or Jeddah)
(To Salisbury)
(A monastery)
(The longest journey)
(Across the desert)
(Across the weather)
(Across the elements)
(Across the water)
Lyrics submitted by weezerific:cutlery, edited by Mellow_Harsher
Sat in Your Lap Lyrics as written by Kate Bush
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
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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.
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”
No Surprises
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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.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
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.
The more you know the more you see you don't know.
I think this song is about our search for knowledge and trying to hold on to it. I quickly understood the ( just when I think I'm king part ), the high we get from knowledge, just when we think we're on top of the world, and the min you get something wrong or told that you're wrong you've only just begined.
"...a song about epistemology... This song is about how hard it is to obtain knowledge, and how when you get it, it often isn't as satisfying as you thought it would be ... 'I hold a cup of wisdom, but there is nothing within' ... You achieve some intellectual goal, and you see that it's just a foothill for a bigger mountain of knowledge behind ... 'I've been doing it for years. My goal is moving near. It says, "Look! I'm over here.", Then it up and disappears' ... (perrific.com).
I must admit, just when I think I'm king (I just begin... to write THE DREAMING...
I think this song is about how no one really knows anything. The singer expresses a yearning to know everything, and is upset by the fact that they cannot. They think that if they have certain knowledge then they'll be happy, but because no one has this then the singer is dissatisfied.
SAT IN YOUR LAP concerns alienation and the 'blessing or curse' to (want to) see deeper. The opening lines express exclusion from the ordered, functioning bourgeois world. Projecting ability onto others but not being able to fit into the "triviality of everydayness". It 'hurts' because it is not real enough. Colin Wilson describes two types of Outsider: the one who feels excluded from knowledge; and the one who Knows (the godlike '...I'm King'). The song pendulates between these high and low mental states. (Go see 'The Outsider', Colin Wilson, 1956.)
'When I'm king' everything fits into place and you see knowledge is Sat In Your Lap. But 'when I'm dunce' (see video for SIYL), there is nothing there/within.
SIYL also highlights the dangers of (deluded) knowledge and the knowledge-quest... Adolf Hitler: ‘By means of shrewd lies, unremittingly repeated, it is possible to make people believe that heaven is hell - and hell, heaven ... The greater the lie, the more readily will it be believed’ (Mein Kampf) ... Choose wisely your teachers!
The song regards philosophical enquiry - The Longest Journey - as a religious experience... effort, balance, frustration, realisation... It reminds me of ANNE SEXTON'S "GODS" ...
And maybe the search ends with: "Ha, ha, ha Ho, ho, ho And a couple of tra - la - las That's how we laugh the day away In the Merry Old Land of Oz!"
Kate Bush is amazing.
Personally, the song is in accordance to how I sometimes feel; it's about wanting to be successful and be as knowledgeable or talented as those around you, but not wanting to do the work necessary for it. The most evident lines for me are these:
"I see the people working and see it working for them, And so I want to join in, but then I find it hurts me."
"I want to be a Lawyer, I want to be a scholar, But I really can't be bothered, ooh just Gimme it quick, gimme it, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme."
The 'King' parts are about doing the work and getting it all done so there's that feeling of accomplishment and wanting to relax/be rewarded, only to find there's more to do and it feels never-ending.
Give me the title of a degree and I can fake it. Later I think as she accepts learning and later she seeks it out. There is something sort of occult about this song I can't lay my hands on. Crowley always claimed to seek out hidden knowledge and enough was never enough. He was also a poet. The drums and the stalacto beat of the song lyrics combined with Kate's vocals.
That is my personal view, but as I just searched Crowley and just read about him, since I never heard of him before, It is enough for me to say, that he was a clever educated man, perhaps he was a poet too, but It is obvious that he was deceived and probably deceived many special spirits. <br /> If one wants spiritual well being and knowledge they need to search it from God himself, not man.
And that was me charlie. <br /> Everyone has their right to believe what they like, that is the beauty of freedom, and I am glad I am free to say what I feel too. <br />
I meant, charlie is me! :)
This is really just my personal view. If I wanted light and knowledge I would search it from God.
I wonder is there anything behind the misheard lyric? If it's intentional, the song takes on a whole new promiscuous meaning.