"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.
Can't believe that I did it again
Wake me up from this nightmare
‘Cause this monster is filling me up, filling me out
Everyday I live a bit less; one night leads to another
Even if I went back they would'nt recognize me or criticize me
Who are you that lies when you stare in my face
Telling me that I'm just a trace of the person I once was
'Cause I just can't tell if you're telling the truth or a lie
On you I just can't rely. after all you're just a piece of glass
Still this nightmare's all mine, when I call him he answers
I can tell him when to come, when to stay
Sometimes I'm weaker than he is, is he just letting me win?
He can tell me when to come, when to stay
Who are you that lies when you stare in my face
Telling me that I'm just a trace of the person I once was
'Cause I just can't tell if you're telling the truth or a lie
On you I just can't rely. after all you're just a piece of glass
Don't talk, listen
Hold me tighter
Stay with me just for a while
Until the sun shines stay with me
Just give me one more day
Who are you that cries when you stare in my face
Telling me that I'm just a trace of the person I once was
'Cause we're not the same, you're just a picture of me
You're gone as soon as I leave; you've lived my life for me
And you're no more than a piece of glass
You're no more than just a piece of glass
Wake me up from this nightmare
‘Cause this monster is filling me up, filling me out
Everyday I live a bit less; one night leads to another
Even if I went back they would'nt recognize me or criticize me
Who are you that lies when you stare in my face
Telling me that I'm just a trace of the person I once was
'Cause I just can't tell if you're telling the truth or a lie
On you I just can't rely. after all you're just a piece of glass
Still this nightmare's all mine, when I call him he answers
I can tell him when to come, when to stay
Sometimes I'm weaker than he is, is he just letting me win?
He can tell me when to come, when to stay
Who are you that lies when you stare in my face
Telling me that I'm just a trace of the person I once was
'Cause I just can't tell if you're telling the truth or a lie
On you I just can't rely. after all you're just a piece of glass
Don't talk, listen
Hold me tighter
Stay with me just for a while
Until the sun shines stay with me
Just give me one more day
Who are you that cries when you stare in my face
Telling me that I'm just a trace of the person I once was
'Cause we're not the same, you're just a picture of me
You're gone as soon as I leave; you've lived my life for me
And you're no more than a piece of glass
You're no more than just a piece of glass
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Fast Car
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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.
From the Authors:
"'Piece of Glass' came out of a conversation with Danielle Young and myself about the pressures that we and our friends were feeling to measure up physically against the standards of our culture. Our battle is nothing more than our reflection in the mirror and the lies that is tells us about who were really are" - Derek Webb "(Piece of Glass) is a song we wrote when a really good friend of ours was dealing with bulimia...I had written a story about the same subject a year earlier and I found out about my friend and then we wrote this song. This disease is more common than people realize, especially among college students, who we mostly sing to and play for. We just felt the need to let the students know that they aren't alone. That there are a lot of people who deal with it. The story in the song doesn't give a 'Jesus loves you happy ending', because that's not how you feel when you are dealing with it. 'Jesus loves you' didn't cut it for my friend. She knew that, she is a christian and she is healed now, but at the end of the song it just basically says that who I see in the mirror is not really me, it's who I think I see. The disease is in the mind. People who have it can't see themselves properly. When they look into the mirror, an 90 pound girl sees 300 pounds. The end of the song it just says, 'You're just a picture of me, you've lived my life for me and I'm not going to let you do that anymore.' I have very personal feelings about that song." -Danielle Young
On writing the song: "danielle and i got to talking about how we were realizing more and more what a huge responsibility it was having a platform such as we do, and taking full advantage of it. she was talking about all of the convictions that she had, and how she so desired to be more expressive on stage about some of those things...specifically we were talking about how aware we were becoming of the horrible effects of eating disorders, especially in friends that we have, and have had. danielle was very adamant about the fact that no matter how unattractive this subject was, one couldn't afford to ignore it. it genuinely affects everyone, and is unfortunately very relevant on college campuses...i suggested that she address the subject from stage [and] she write a song. she had written some well textured poetry over the years that she had let me read, so i knew that she was definitely capable. we eventually came to the conclusion that we could try and work together on it, though she had never written an entire song, and i had always written alone...she wrote a page's worth of her basic thoughts on the matter, gave it to me, and i went into another room to think. we went back and forth revising and re-revising each others ideas for about a half hour, until we felt confident enough to actually collaborate face to face. once we really got going, we were done in about 20 minutes. the song really wrote itself." -- Excerpt from Derek’s Journals