"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.
Your name froze on the winter air
An empty bench in Soho Square
Forgotten now I turn away
Just save me for a rainy day
But don't be sorry
I don't want to hear it baby
My feet froze in the winter chill
I knew I'd probably get ill
But I was praying we could fill
An empty bench and still
You're so sorry
But I don't want your pity baby
It's all yours now please don't tease
The pigeons shiver in the naked trees
And I'll do anything but
Please don't hurt me
Just kiss me quick
'Cause it's my birthday
And I feel so small
I don't know why
But no I'm not too old to cry
An empty bench in Soho Square
If you'd have come you'd have found me there
But you never did 'cause you don't care
And I'm so sorry baby
I don't mind loneliness too much
But when I met you I was touched
And that was good enough for me
But do we always have to be sorry
Why can't we just be happy baby?
One day you'll be waiting there
No empty bench in Soho Square
And we'll dance around like we don't care
And I'll be much too old to cry
And you'll kiss me quick in case I die
Before my birthday
One day you'll be waving there
No empty bench in Soho Square
No I don't know the reason why
I'll love you till the day I die
But one day you'll be waiting there
Come summertime in Soho Square
And I'll be painting stars up in the sky
Before I get too old to cry
Before my birthday
I hope I see those pigeons fly
Before my birthday
In Soho Square on my birthday
An empty bench in Soho Square
Forgotten now I turn away
Just save me for a rainy day
But don't be sorry
I don't want to hear it baby
My feet froze in the winter chill
I knew I'd probably get ill
But I was praying we could fill
An empty bench and still
You're so sorry
But I don't want your pity baby
It's all yours now please don't tease
The pigeons shiver in the naked trees
And I'll do anything but
Please don't hurt me
Just kiss me quick
'Cause it's my birthday
And I feel so small
I don't know why
But no I'm not too old to cry
An empty bench in Soho Square
If you'd have come you'd have found me there
But you never did 'cause you don't care
And I'm so sorry baby
I don't mind loneliness too much
But when I met you I was touched
And that was good enough for me
But do we always have to be sorry
Why can't we just be happy baby?
One day you'll be waiting there
No empty bench in Soho Square
And we'll dance around like we don't care
And I'll be much too old to cry
And you'll kiss me quick in case I die
Before my birthday
One day you'll be waving there
No empty bench in Soho Square
No I don't know the reason why
I'll love you till the day I die
But one day you'll be waiting there
Come summertime in Soho Square
And I'll be painting stars up in the sky
Before I get too old to cry
Before my birthday
I hope I see those pigeons fly
Before my birthday
In Soho Square on my birthday
Lyrics submitted by spliphstar
Soho Square Lyrics as written by Mark Edward Cascian Nevin Kirsty Anna Maccoll
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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"
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
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.
Of course, now there is a bench in Soho Square dedicated to Kirsty's memory.
This song is perfect.
Anyway.
If you've having trouble figuring out what it's about. It's about a girl who gets stood up in Soho Square (A square off of Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road in London) yet despite this still wishes he would have met and and that he will one day meet her.