"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.
Our love, girl, is going through changes
I don't know if I'm alive, dead, dying, or just a little jaded
Someone throw me a line
You know I need it
I need it bad
Lost in a maze of my own making
No way out that I can find, send home your hard-working jury
I'm going down this time
You better believe it
Yes you had
So if you hear me crying, or talking in my sleep
Don't be afraid, it's just the hours that I keep
We gotta love to last for a million years
A love that could never fade through the tracks of your tears
All I can do is hope that you will see me fall
Do your best to smash my picture on your wall
Forgive me baby, absolve me, my dear
I've seen the future in the tracks of your tears
I've seen the future in the tracks of your tears
Of your tears
All those tears
I cast a shorter shadow with every passing day
No time to think, I'm just fading away
Some kind of magic in all your hopes and fears
Shows me the future through the tracks of your tears
I don't know if I'm alive, dead, dying, or just a little jaded
Someone throw me a line
You know I need it
I need it bad
Lost in a maze of my own making
No way out that I can find, send home your hard-working jury
I'm going down this time
You better believe it
Yes you had
So if you hear me crying, or talking in my sleep
Don't be afraid, it's just the hours that I keep
We gotta love to last for a million years
A love that could never fade through the tracks of your tears
All I can do is hope that you will see me fall
Do your best to smash my picture on your wall
Forgive me baby, absolve me, my dear
I've seen the future in the tracks of your tears
I've seen the future in the tracks of your tears
Of your tears
All those tears
I cast a shorter shadow with every passing day
No time to think, I'm just fading away
Some kind of magic in all your hopes and fears
Shows me the future through the tracks of your tears
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Mental Istid
Ebba Grön
Ebba Grön
This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
Blue
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Blue” is a song about a love that is persisting in the discomfort of the person experiencing the emotion. Ed Sheeran reflects on love lost, and although he wishes his former partner find happiness, he cannot but admit his feelings are still very much there. He expresses the realization that he might never find another on this stringed instrumental by Aaron Dessner.
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.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
Underated tune. Seems like a girl is screwing with his head