"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.
Go ahead with your dreamin'
For what it's worth
Or you'll be stricken bound
Kickin' up dirt
For when it's dark
You never know what the night it may bring
Go ahead with your schemin'
And shop at home
You'll find treasure
While cookin' up bones
But the knife is sharp
You'd better watch that you don't cut your hands
[Chorus: x2]
And they covered up the sun
Until the birds had flown away
And the fishes in the sea
Had gone to sleep
Go ahead with your dreamin'
For what it's worth
Or you'll be stricken bound
Kickin' up dirt
For when it's dark
You never know what the night it may bring
Go ahead with your schemin'
And shop at home
You'll find treasure
While cookin' up bones
But the knife is sharp
You'd better watch that you don't cut your hands
[Chorus: x2]
Holy Moses our hearts are screaming
Souls are lifting only dreaming
We'll be waiting some are praying
For a time when no one's cheating
The sunlight rising over the horizon
Just a distant memory a dawn chorus
Birds singing bells ringing
In our hearts in our minds
[Chorus: x4]
For what it's worth
Or you'll be stricken bound
Kickin' up dirt
For when it's dark
You never know what the night it may bring
Go ahead with your schemin'
And shop at home
You'll find treasure
While cookin' up bones
But the knife is sharp
You'd better watch that you don't cut your hands
[Chorus: x2]
And they covered up the sun
Until the birds had flown away
And the fishes in the sea
Had gone to sleep
Go ahead with your dreamin'
For what it's worth
Or you'll be stricken bound
Kickin' up dirt
For when it's dark
You never know what the night it may bring
Go ahead with your schemin'
And shop at home
You'll find treasure
While cookin' up bones
But the knife is sharp
You'd better watch that you don't cut your hands
[Chorus: x2]
Holy Moses our hearts are screaming
Souls are lifting only dreaming
We'll be waiting some are praying
For a time when no one's cheating
The sunlight rising over the horizon
Just a distant memory a dawn chorus
Birds singing bells ringing
In our hearts in our minds
[Chorus: x4]
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
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"
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”
Holiday
Bee Gees
Bee Gees
@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
Just A Little Lovin'
Dusty Springfield
Dusty Springfield
I don't think it's necessarily about sex. It's about wanting to start the day with some love and affection. Maybe a warm cuddle. I'm not alone in interpreting it that way! For example:
"'Just a Little Lovin’ is a timeless country song originally recorded by Eddy Arnold in 1954. The song, written by Eddie Miller and Jimmy Campbell, explores the delicate nuances of love and showcases Arnold’s emotive vocals. It delves into the universal theme of love and how even the smallest gesture of affection can have a profound impact on our lives." https://oldtimemusic.com/the-meaning-behind-the-song-just-a-little-lovin-by-eddy-arnold/
well,as Andy said, a lot of his lyrics meant nothing,they just made them up on the spot to fit the music.But there is something of a theme here.
This song was inspired by television footage of the burning oil fields in Kuwait during the first Gulf War. As a result, it can be assumed that the feeling is of killing your environment in which also sustains you. (You better watch that you don't cut your hands) I essentially agree with Sergioutfox.
if you look at the pictures by the lyrics that come with the album 'Chorus', the one opposite chorus lyrics is of a skyscraper with some surveyors standing in the foreground, suggesting that they have built this monstrosity in a landscape where you can see trees in the background, but which have been covered by the building. There is another picture of a white beach with turquoise water and blue sky-very idyllic, and then one of some business people, which may symbolise man taking over the world and it ends with a mother and daughter riding bicycles down a path through a park, showing how man and nature combine.
I wonder if it's to do with geo-engineering and the current 'solar-shield' program they tell us is to prevent global warming. It really started to kick off around the time this was released. Try and see the sunrise or sunset even on a clear day and the majority of the time it's veiled in 'cloud'. Even through the day when the sun appears to be shining down - look up, more often than not there's still a thin veil of cloud over it.
I wonder if they were really into the environment and saw this stuff coming. Shame as if we had such pollution in the streets we'd be banning cars, but the airplanes seem to have a free hand to 'save the earth'!
According to the remastered album's booklet, Andy Bell said "It was about consumerism, materialism and also feeling swamped by everything but not thinking about the consequences." The lyrics may look random and lacking of much meaning but apparently that's not the case, nice.
There’s a clear message. Everytime i hear the chorus of Chorus, tears well up in my eyes. All the species of animals we have killed, all the ruin. Eventually if human beings can survive after mass ecological collapse, they will be living in a time when there are no bird songs, and no fish in the seas. The song is a warning, and asks every listener to think about what it will be like for future generations after we have killed most everything but ourselves. And it draws the direct line from our consumerist behavior (‘shop at home’) and these consequences.
The ending part, that ends ‘for a time when no-one’s cheating’ is about all the people in the world who desperately want to live in a world where corporate profit isn’t destroying our planet. I’m one of them.
At the end, the dawn chorus (the sound of birds in the morning) is just a memory. In the hearts and minds of mankind, who have to live with having destroyed God’s perfect creation.
@Silentfootfall wow fantastic interpretation