"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.
I been drifting along in the same stale shoes
Loose ends tying the noose in the back of my mind
If you thought that you were making your way
To where the puzzles and pagans lay
I'll put it together
It's a strange invitation
When I wake up someone will sweep up my lazy bones
And we will rise in the cool of the evening
I remember the way that you smiled
When the gravity shackles were wild
And something is vacant when I think it's all beginning
I been drifting along in the same stale shoes
Loose ends tying the noose in the back of my mind
If you thought that you were making your way
To where the puzzles and pagans lay
I'll put it together: It's a strange invitation
Loose ends tying the noose in the back of my mind
If you thought that you were making your way
To where the puzzles and pagans lay
I'll put it together
It's a strange invitation
When I wake up someone will sweep up my lazy bones
And we will rise in the cool of the evening
I remember the way that you smiled
When the gravity shackles were wild
And something is vacant when I think it's all beginning
I been drifting along in the same stale shoes
Loose ends tying the noose in the back of my mind
If you thought that you were making your way
To where the puzzles and pagans lay
I'll put it together: It's a strange invitation
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
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.
Punchline
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran sings about missing his former partner and learning important life lessons in the process on “Punchline.” This track tells a story of battling to get rid of emotions for a former lover, whom he now realized might not have loved him the same way. He’s now caught between accepting that fact and learning life lessons from it and going back to beg her for another chance.
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.
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.
Or maybe it's just about the daily grind of life and breaking out of the feeling that you're doing the same thing everyday. Sometimes, you just feel like you aren't making any progress and waiting for something extraordinary to happen to you. I think it's about that moment in your life. I don't know if that makes any sense to anyone else....Maybe it doesn't even have a concrete meaning, per say...it's just the mood it evokes.
Loneliness, lost love, feeling lost and unsure of where life is taking you.
I'm pretty sure this song is how he feels like a jack-ass for screwing up his life.
Hopefully not autobiographical, because beck kicks ass.
Although I don't really have a definite, well-structured idea what this song means, I like it just for the mood that Beck is able to convey from the sounds and words. It feels really mellow and lazy, like a walk down a dusty worn path with nothing but a suitcase in hand and your jacket strung over your back. If I could take a stab at the meaning, I'd say it's about the general laziness we all feel from time to time and how things go so slow when you are idle and have nothing on your mind. I think it's about reflecting while coming out of a state of idleness and heading nowhere.
This is a hard one. He is feeling the stab of routien and is deprssed because all his unfinished work. So, I think he is looking for release in drugs or love. He knows eventually he'll wake up with memories of their time together. Even still he feels he has found himself back where he started: still unsatisfied.
Wow,I thought this song would of had way more comments, it's so amazing lines in it.
beck is awesome. i expected more comments for him...anyway this song is awesome. xxx
i really like that song...it has a sort of pavement/guided by voices sound to it.
This makes me think of the movie Midnight Cowboy. Anybody agree?
@eokram Why that song? Was It's All Over Baby Blue used in that movie or something?
one of my favorite songs. ever.