"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.
When people keep repeating
That you'll never fall in love
When everybody keeps retreating
But you can't seem to get enough
Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
To your heart
When everything feels all over
Everybody seems unkind
I'll give you a four-leaf clover
Take all worry out of your mind
Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
To your heart, to your heart
I have the only key to your heart
I can stop you falling apart
Try today you'll find this way
Come on and give me a chance to say
Let my love open the door
It's all I'm living for
Release yourself from misery
There's only one thing gonna set you free
That's my love
That's my love
Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
When tragedy befalls you
Don't let it drag you down
Love can cure your problems
You're so luck I'm around
Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
To your heart
That you'll never fall in love
When everybody keeps retreating
But you can't seem to get enough
Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
To your heart
When everything feels all over
Everybody seems unkind
I'll give you a four-leaf clover
Take all worry out of your mind
Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
To your heart, to your heart
I have the only key to your heart
I can stop you falling apart
Try today you'll find this way
Come on and give me a chance to say
Let my love open the door
It's all I'm living for
Release yourself from misery
There's only one thing gonna set you free
That's my love
That's my love
Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
When tragedy befalls you
Don't let it drag you down
Love can cure your problems
You're so luck I'm around
Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
Let my love open the door
To your heart
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
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
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”
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
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.
actually pete meant this to be a very spiritual song, about god's love, (not in xian sense, of course, look up meher baba). But he sang it in first person and it ended up sounding like pop fluff, like some high school kid trying to get a date.
awesome song.....not too deep lyrics.....but great song
I think rodneyj's right about Townshend's wanting this to be a spiritual song, and he was a follower of Meher Baba.
I don't think the song sounds too fluffy, though. It might, except that you can tell from Pete's voice that he's completely sincere, which is what makes it such a beautiful song.
This is a real strong song about a promise to someone that he'll take of them if they let his love "open the door" to who they are. The message is basically, I love you and I know we can save each other because that what love does. The mood of the song is very hopeful.
fucking good song
I always found it thought-provoking that this song would be followed some years later with "Secondhand Love" from The White City album. I always wondered what happened in Petes' life in-between the two songs.
In the beginning of this song, does it sound like Final Fantasy music to anyone else?
yes! exactly what I was thinking lol
btw, do you think it coincidental Townshend recorded an entirely new version of this song for John Cusack in Grosse Pointe Blank? Watch the scene in which the song is played and you'll get it.
@whraglyn Wanj't it also used in "Jersey Girl"?
Pete's not gay! Why does everyone think that? He may be bisexual, I don't know, but he's married and has kids! This song is great, a pure pop song, but I still love it!
He's not bisexual either hes even said hes heterosexual, again he cleared it up in a 1994 issue of play boy. He lives with his wife.
Larry Craig's married too. With children. I'm just saying.
In the liner notes of Pete's Anthology cd, he sums it up sweet and simple... "Jesus sings".