"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.
You sure do got a pretty mouth
Why don't you drop my pants, I'll make you squeal like a pig
Feet in the water is not cold enough, you're not woman enough
Inside your daughter is not warm enough, and you're not woman enough, no
Don't compromise what's gold
For the soul you never sold
For the soul you never sold, no
So I follow you down this road
Well you try but you can't let go
So hold on to years ago
Cold as a lover, don't you want to stay?
Breath from another, and I'll have my way
Inside your daughter
You can never hold what you can't let go
'Cause he wants it so
She'd sell her own mother
Just to make a dime before closing time
When he tells her so
Don't compromise what's gold
For the soul you never sold
For the soul you never sold, no
So I follow you down this road
Will you drive? well you can't let go
So long, two years ago
She said she wanted me to hit it
But I said I wasn't with it
Eyes red thighs spread better come get it
While it's hot the goods I got never mind my bad credit
Told me how she was soaking wet and I'm the one who wet it
Can't lie I sweat it, but I knew that if I ran through that
It's up the creek I'm headed
Body was there without nor sight nor vision still embedded
But I knew for fucking sure that in the morning I'd regret it
Had to debt it I jetted
He got me hooked 'til I was shooking in the middle of the game
Teary eyes, touch my thighs, future high you'll be my game
Could have kept it but I left it embedded instead of it dissecting me
Free spirit I feared it but steer it to clear it the stress in me
Possessing me the chemistry mother want me in the ministry
Where misery influenced me corruption claiming custody
And I knew this time that I had to feel the pain
It was needed so I'll see what cause deception in this game
Don't compromise what's gold
For the soul you never sold
For the soul you never sold, no
So I follow you down this road
Will you drive? well you can't let go
So hold on to years ago
I'll try to understand
When you're down on your knees in front of a man
I'll try to understand
Why don't you drop my pants, I'll make you squeal like a pig
Feet in the water is not cold enough, you're not woman enough
Inside your daughter is not warm enough, and you're not woman enough, no
Don't compromise what's gold
For the soul you never sold
For the soul you never sold, no
So I follow you down this road
Well you try but you can't let go
So hold on to years ago
Cold as a lover, don't you want to stay?
Breath from another, and I'll have my way
Inside your daughter
You can never hold what you can't let go
'Cause he wants it so
She'd sell her own mother
Just to make a dime before closing time
When he tells her so
Don't compromise what's gold
For the soul you never sold
For the soul you never sold, no
So I follow you down this road
Will you drive? well you can't let go
So long, two years ago
She said she wanted me to hit it
But I said I wasn't with it
Eyes red thighs spread better come get it
While it's hot the goods I got never mind my bad credit
Told me how she was soaking wet and I'm the one who wet it
Can't lie I sweat it, but I knew that if I ran through that
It's up the creek I'm headed
Body was there without nor sight nor vision still embedded
But I knew for fucking sure that in the morning I'd regret it
Had to debt it I jetted
He got me hooked 'til I was shooking in the middle of the game
Teary eyes, touch my thighs, future high you'll be my game
Could have kept it but I left it embedded instead of it dissecting me
Free spirit I feared it but steer it to clear it the stress in me
Possessing me the chemistry mother want me in the ministry
Where misery influenced me corruption claiming custody
And I knew this time that I had to feel the pain
It was needed so I'll see what cause deception in this game
Don't compromise what's gold
For the soul you never sold
For the soul you never sold, no
So I follow you down this road
Will you drive? well you can't let go
So hold on to years ago
I'll try to understand
When you're down on your knees in front of a man
I'll try to understand
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
Lord Huron
This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
Amazing
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran tells a story of unsuccessfully trying to feel “Amazing.” This track is about the being weighed down by emotional stress despite valiant attempts to find some positivity in the situation. This track was written by Ed Sheeran from the perspective of his friend. From the track, we see this person fall deeper into the negative thoughts and slide further down the path of mental torment with every lyric.
IMO The song is about a drug addict whose addiction forces her into prostitution. To add to it, addict is pregnant (the daughter inside.) The only thing the addict has left is her soul...which she still has but is about to lose.