"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.
Yo, what's up?
This is G-Love coming at you live out here from California,
Even though I'm Philly born and bred
And I got my man Jack Johnson in the studio today, we just got out of the surf
My man, Jack, tell 'em what time it is
(uh, com 'on)
Sweepin' the floors
Open up the doors yeah
Turn on the lights
Gettin' ready for the night
Nobody's romancin'
Cause it's too early for dancin'
But here comes the music
Bright lights flashin'
To cover of your liquor
So many people, so many powers,
So many reasons to buy another round
Drink it down
Just another night on the town
With the big man, money man
Better than the other man
He got the plan with the million dollars
Give a damn but
When nobody understands
He'll become a smaller man
The bright lights keep flashing
Man the women keep on dancin'
With the clowns yeah, yeah, yeah
Pick me up when I'm down yeah, yeah
Rodeo Clowns yeah, yeah, yeah
Pick me up when I'm down, yeah, yeah
The disco ball spinning
All the music and the women
And the shots of tequila
Man they'll say that they need ya
But what they really need
Is just a little room to breathe
Teeny bopping disco queen
She barely understands her dreams
Of belly button rings
And other kinds of things
Symbolic of change
But the thing that is strange
Is that changes occurred
And now she's just a part of the herd yeah, yeah, yeah
Man I thought that you heard yeah, yeah
The changes occur yeah, yeah, yeah
She's just a part of the herd yeah, yea
Lights out shut down
Late night wet ground
You walk by, look at him but he can't look at you yeah
You might feel pity but he only feels the ground because
You understand moods
But he only knows let down
By the corner there's another one
Reaching out a hand
Coming from a broken man
Well you try to live
But he's done trying
He's not dead but definitely dying
With the rest of the clowns yeah, yeah, yeah
With the rest of the clowns yeah, yeah, yeah
The Rodeo clowns yeah, yeah
Pick me up when I'm down
The Rodeo clowns yeah, yeah
Pick me up when I'm down
Sweeping the floors
Open up the doors yeah
Turn on the lights
Getting ready for the night
Nobody's romancing
Cause it's too early for dancin'
But here comes the music
This is G-Love coming at you live out here from California,
Even though I'm Philly born and bred
And I got my man Jack Johnson in the studio today, we just got out of the surf
My man, Jack, tell 'em what time it is
(uh, com 'on)
Sweepin' the floors
Open up the doors yeah
Turn on the lights
Gettin' ready for the night
Nobody's romancin'
Cause it's too early for dancin'
But here comes the music
Bright lights flashin'
To cover of your liquor
So many people, so many powers,
So many reasons to buy another round
Drink it down
Just another night on the town
With the big man, money man
Better than the other man
He got the plan with the million dollars
Give a damn but
When nobody understands
He'll become a smaller man
The bright lights keep flashing
Man the women keep on dancin'
With the clowns yeah, yeah, yeah
Pick me up when I'm down yeah, yeah
Rodeo Clowns yeah, yeah, yeah
Pick me up when I'm down, yeah, yeah
The disco ball spinning
All the music and the women
And the shots of tequila
Man they'll say that they need ya
But what they really need
Is just a little room to breathe
Teeny bopping disco queen
She barely understands her dreams
Of belly button rings
And other kinds of things
Symbolic of change
But the thing that is strange
Is that changes occurred
And now she's just a part of the herd yeah, yeah, yeah
Man I thought that you heard yeah, yeah
The changes occur yeah, yeah, yeah
She's just a part of the herd yeah, yea
Lights out shut down
Late night wet ground
You walk by, look at him but he can't look at you yeah
You might feel pity but he only feels the ground because
You understand moods
But he only knows let down
By the corner there's another one
Reaching out a hand
Coming from a broken man
Well you try to live
But he's done trying
He's not dead but definitely dying
With the rest of the clowns yeah, yeah, yeah
With the rest of the clowns yeah, yeah, yeah
The Rodeo clowns yeah, yeah
Pick me up when I'm down
The Rodeo clowns yeah, yeah
Pick me up when I'm down
Sweeping the floors
Open up the doors yeah
Turn on the lights
Getting ready for the night
Nobody's romancing
Cause it's too early for dancin'
But here comes the music
Lyrics submitted by acheapairline
Rodeo Clowns Lyrics as written by Jack Hody Johnson
Lyrics © Bubble Toes Publishing, REACH MUSIC PUBLISHING
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
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.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
THis song was written by Jack Johnson. HE and Garrett--G. Love--surfed together. When he had him listen to this song, G love brought it to the studio and Jack, G love and the band recorded it for the alblum. If interested check out Jack's alblum-Brushfire Fairytales. Its amazing