"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.
The mid twenty joys around a heart that's black and blue
Tattooed love boys
I tore my knees up getting to you
'Cause I needed
To find out what the thing was for
Been reading
But man the time came to explore
I went apewire 'cause I thought
Like I'd like it little tease
But I didn't mean it
But you mess with the goods doll, honey you gotta pay, yeah
A good time was guaranteed for one and all
The tattoos did target practice in the hall
While waiting for their number to get called out
I, I, I, I found out what the wait was about
I was a good time, yeah, I got pretty good
At changing tires upstairs bro
I shot my mouth off and you showed me what that hole was for
Now I see you
All impressed and half undressed
You got paint stick all over the scars and lumps and bumps
Tattooed love boys
Have got you where I used to lay
Well ha ha too bad, but you know what they say
"Stop snivellin', you're gonna make some plastic surgeon a rich man"
Oh, but the prestige and the glory
Another human interest story
You are that
Tattooed love boys
I tore my knees up getting to you
'Cause I needed
To find out what the thing was for
Been reading
But man the time came to explore
I went apewire 'cause I thought
Like I'd like it little tease
But I didn't mean it
But you mess with the goods doll, honey you gotta pay, yeah
A good time was guaranteed for one and all
The tattoos did target practice in the hall
While waiting for their number to get called out
I, I, I, I found out what the wait was about
I was a good time, yeah, I got pretty good
At changing tires upstairs bro
I shot my mouth off and you showed me what that hole was for
Now I see you
All impressed and half undressed
You got paint stick all over the scars and lumps and bumps
Tattooed love boys
Have got you where I used to lay
Well ha ha too bad, but you know what they say
"Stop snivellin', you're gonna make some plastic surgeon a rich man"
Oh, but the prestige and the glory
Another human interest story
You are that
Lyrics submitted by spliphstar
Tattooed Love Boys Lyrics as written by Christine Hynde
Lyrics © Hipgnosis Songs Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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She was abducted in her early twenties by a biker gang of tattooed love boys, and forced to perform sex acts upon them. I think this is an autobiographical song. Read the lyrics again.
@Exiledonmainstreet Confirmed by the "plastic surgeon" quote. :(<br /> <br /> dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3223003/Why-did-Chrissie-Hynde-date-one-Hells-Angels-raped-her.html
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3223003/Why-did-Chrissie-Hynde-date-one-Hells-Angels-raped-her.html
Hm. Not too difficult to get the message in this song, and Love it ain't. Using (oral) sex acts to achieve acceptance into a group/gang perhaps?
I wish these lyrics were spaced via tempo...oh well.
I think it's about any sort of sexual/teasing act rather than just oral. It basically about those girls that do 'certain' things just to get attention but dee down they are just insecure with themselves. So she was one of them, but now she see's someone else in that position.
I don't think "you got paint stick all over the scars and lumps and bumps" means the guy has AIDS. It refers to the woman who is in the position Chrissie used to be in, being abused...I think you can figure the rest out.
You may not be old enough to remember this song was written in the 70s we didnt know about aids yet :)
It's a lot of rough sex imagery that pulls no punches, to me. "Changing tires" I found as interesting (I used to think it was "Chains and Tires? Upstairs, bro" meaning some real deviant strangeness, but I think I was off!) I think there's a story around it and a lot of the ideas that everyone's brought up are very good ones, but I don't think it gets nearly as specific as some of the ones I've read on here. "Stop sniveling - you're gonna make some plastic surgeon a rich man" just sounds like dominatrix threats as does references to "scars and the lumps and the bumps", though "Paint stick" isn't clear. Great song/lyrics!
If you ever get a chance to see her do this song live, it's insane. Chrissie Hynde is truly amazing.
"Got paint stick" is the guys rod. Anyway, the song seems to be about Chrissie's rape experience. Chrissie implies in her book that she sort of induced the rape based on her behavior and clothing combined. She was with some wild dudes and got caught up in the roughness of it all. She was shown "what that hole was for".
According to chapter 14 of her autobiography entitled "Reckless", this song is about a time in her youth when she was sexually assaulted by a group of Hells Angels in Cleveland.
it's a song about when she use to work at a full service mechanic, tires, lube jobs, engine overhauls, pumping cars with gasoline hoses, etc etc back in dah day when they had such gas stations in the Akron/Clevend metro area
@john109568 AND DID you know !<br /> <br /> Shakespear said the eyes are the windows of the soul. He also said the ears were the ventilaror shafts for the liver.