"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.
Here's my advice to all amateurs planning to give a performance
Speak up, and keep the act moving
Servin' the role, a sole step-child
Talk of C-C or keep sleepin'
While wakin' up to noise of third B-A-S-S, Bass
Success is butter for Serch's space
Spoken slang gets played like the lottery
Your lyrics are incorrect, so you step to me
Lookin' for the key to release that first piece
Three times two is six, Pete is one-three
I'm the other half, known as the other trey
Tourin' to wild screams, the Third Son's born
Swarm to the lyrics 'cause Serch is your father
Screaming "Hey Ladies," why bother?
How can you be so stupid?
Sons, slim ones flee from the third
Words, spoken, a silver spoon stuck in the throat
Young useless, lyrically careless
Rhyme revolves around modes of mindless
If everyone spoke of stick-up, it's pick of a Beast'
Prone to a lick of a waste
Taste the flav' of the original
Orphaned trio, abandoned by lyrical
Through us, the echelon exposed with the roll with no soul
Counterfeit style, born sworn and sold
Out with high voice distorted
If a Beast' to wish play fetus, I'd have him aborted
How can you be so stupid?
Put to bed, three kids to a third track
Cap the front and grip, when they heard that
The crew from the L.Q. stepped to the Club Mars
Shook the Beast' and soon to be dubbed stars
Starring roles stone-faced from the brothers
Ludicrous whining, meaning when the others
Stand by em, while they take the fall
The Beast' now lives in the Capitol
Record wrecks sets, Def Jam a true wrecker
The label is nothing but MC Black 'n' Decker
Three boys buggin' to the A.M.
You step to the Serch and I slam!
How can you be so stupid?
Negative mind, paid as snakes who can't rhyme
Play the dude? It's sucker time
I stand I take a bust in my nut
And gave birth to three bastard sons
A record label, a King to 4th letter
Passin' phases, non-legitimate trendsetters
Pop figures, who figured they'd get paid
Exploitin' art the black man made
Played out hardcore flaws, step to stage
Your biggest fan, nine years of age
Broke out cause the swindler took your ducat
No talent on the tune, you might as well suck it
How can you be so stupid?
Yo Serch, you know about that slum I'm speakin' on?
Word is bond Pete, school 'em!
You know about that silver spoon havin'
Buckshot acne showin', L.A. weak-ass sellout
Non-legitimate, tip doggin', Jethro pseudo intellectual
Dust smokin', pretty boy playwright posin'
Folks wiggin', whinin' annoyin' Def Jam reject devil
White bread no money havin' slum village people clonin'
Step children!
Sam Sever, serve the rest
Yo Sam, school em!
He is stupid, but he knows that he is stupid
And that, almost makes him smart, let's listen
Let's listen
Speak up, and keep the act moving
Servin' the role, a sole step-child
Talk of C-C or keep sleepin'
While wakin' up to noise of third B-A-S-S, Bass
Success is butter for Serch's space
Spoken slang gets played like the lottery
Your lyrics are incorrect, so you step to me
Lookin' for the key to release that first piece
Three times two is six, Pete is one-three
I'm the other half, known as the other trey
Tourin' to wild screams, the Third Son's born
Swarm to the lyrics 'cause Serch is your father
Screaming "Hey Ladies," why bother?
How can you be so stupid?
Sons, slim ones flee from the third
Words, spoken, a silver spoon stuck in the throat
Young useless, lyrically careless
Rhyme revolves around modes of mindless
If everyone spoke of stick-up, it's pick of a Beast'
Prone to a lick of a waste
Taste the flav' of the original
Orphaned trio, abandoned by lyrical
Through us, the echelon exposed with the roll with no soul
Counterfeit style, born sworn and sold
Out with high voice distorted
If a Beast' to wish play fetus, I'd have him aborted
How can you be so stupid?
Put to bed, three kids to a third track
Cap the front and grip, when they heard that
The crew from the L.Q. stepped to the Club Mars
Shook the Beast' and soon to be dubbed stars
Starring roles stone-faced from the brothers
Ludicrous whining, meaning when the others
Stand by em, while they take the fall
The Beast' now lives in the Capitol
Record wrecks sets, Def Jam a true wrecker
The label is nothing but MC Black 'n' Decker
Three boys buggin' to the A.M.
You step to the Serch and I slam!
How can you be so stupid?
Negative mind, paid as snakes who can't rhyme
Play the dude? It's sucker time
I stand I take a bust in my nut
And gave birth to three bastard sons
A record label, a King to 4th letter
Passin' phases, non-legitimate trendsetters
Pop figures, who figured they'd get paid
Exploitin' art the black man made
Played out hardcore flaws, step to stage
Your biggest fan, nine years of age
Broke out cause the swindler took your ducat
No talent on the tune, you might as well suck it
How can you be so stupid?
Yo Serch, you know about that slum I'm speakin' on?
Word is bond Pete, school 'em!
You know about that silver spoon havin'
Buckshot acne showin', L.A. weak-ass sellout
Non-legitimate, tip doggin', Jethro pseudo intellectual
Dust smokin', pretty boy playwright posin'
Folks wiggin', whinin' annoyin' Def Jam reject devil
White bread no money havin' slum village people clonin'
Step children!
Sam Sever, serve the rest
Yo Sam, school em!
He is stupid, but he knows that he is stupid
And that, almost makes him smart, let's listen
Let's listen
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
Same ideas expressed in Fitter, Happier are expressed in this song. We're told to strive for some sort of ideal life, which includes getting a good job, being kind to everyone, finding a partner, getting married, having a couple kids, living in a quiet neighborhood in a nice big house, etc. But in Fitter, Happier the narrator(?) realizes that it's incredibly robotic to live this life. People are being used by those in power "like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"--being pacified with things like new phones and cool gadgets and houses while being sucked dry. On No Surprises, the narrator is realizing how this life is killing him slowly. In the video, his helmet is slowly filling up with water, drowning him. But he's so complacent with it. This is a good summary of the song. This boring, "perfect" life foisted upon us by some higher powers (not spiritual, but political, economic, etc. politicians and businessmen, perhaps) is not the way to live. But there is seemingly no way out but death. He'd rather die peacefully right now than live in this cage. While our lives are often shielded, we're in our own protective bubbles, or protective helmets like the one Thom wears, if we look a little harder we can see all the corruption, lies, manipulation, etc. that is going on in the world, often run by huge yet nearly invisible organizations, corporations, and 'leaders'. It's a very hopeless song because it reflects real life.