"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.
She hit town like a rose in bloom
Smellin' sweet, said sweet perfume
The color faded and the petals died
Down in the city, no one cried
In the streets, the garbage lies
Protected by a million flies
The roaches so big you know that they got bones
They moved in and made a tenement home
I said nice boys don't play rock and roll
Nice boys don't play rock and roll
I'm not a nice boy
Sweet sixteen she was fresh and clean
Wanted so bad to be part of the scene
She met the man and she did the smack
Paid the price layin' flat on her back
Wanted so bad just to please the boys
They ended up just being a toy
Played so hard burned her life away
Lies were told no promises made
You know nice boys don't play rock and roll
Nice boys don't play rock and roll
I'm not a nice boy and I never was
Young and fresh when she hit town
Hot for kicks just to get around
But now she lays in a filthy room
She kills the pain with a flick and a spoon
And in the streets the garbage lies
Protected by a million flies
You know the roaches so big
You know that they got bones
Moved in and made a tenement home
Nice boys don't play rock and roll
Nice boys don't play rock and roll
Nice boys don't play rock and roll
Nice boys don't play rock and roll
Nice boys don't play rock and roll
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no baby
Nice boys don't play rock and roll
Nice boys never play rock and roll
I bet you mama said
Nice boys don't play rock and roll
Nice boys don't play rock and roll
Nice boys don't play rock and roll
Nice boys don't play rock and roll
Nice boys don't play rock and roll
Nice boys
Smellin' sweet, said sweet perfume
The color faded and the petals died
Down in the city, no one cried
In the streets, the garbage lies
Protected by a million flies
The roaches so big you know that they got bones
They moved in and made a tenement home
I said nice boys don't play rock and roll
Nice boys don't play rock and roll
I'm not a nice boy
Sweet sixteen she was fresh and clean
Wanted so bad to be part of the scene
She met the man and she did the smack
Paid the price layin' flat on her back
Wanted so bad just to please the boys
They ended up just being a toy
Played so hard burned her life away
Lies were told no promises made
You know nice boys don't play rock and roll
Nice boys don't play rock and roll
I'm not a nice boy and I never was
Young and fresh when she hit town
Hot for kicks just to get around
But now she lays in a filthy room
She kills the pain with a flick and a spoon
And in the streets the garbage lies
Protected by a million flies
You know the roaches so big
You know that they got bones
Moved in and made a tenement home
Nice boys don't play rock and roll
Nice boys don't play rock and roll
Nice boys don't play rock and roll
Nice boys don't play rock and roll
Nice boys don't play rock and roll
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no baby
Nice boys don't play rock and roll
Nice boys never play rock and roll
I bet you mama said
Nice boys don't play rock and roll
Nice boys don't play rock and roll
Nice boys don't play rock and roll
Nice boys don't play rock and roll
Nice boys don't play rock and roll
Nice boys
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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"
When We Were Young
Blink-182
Blink-182
This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
Magical
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
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.
it's a cover. originaly by Australian blues/hard rock band "Rose Tattoo" and yeah this is so much better