"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.
Think about it, there must be higher love
Down in the heart or hidden in the stars above
Without it, life is wasted time
Look inside your heart, I'll look inside mine
Things look so bad everywhere
In this whole world, what is fair?
We walk blind and we try to see
Falling behind in what could be
Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love (oh oh)
Bring me a higher love
Where's that higher love I keep thinking of?
Worlds are turning and we're just hanging on
Facing our fear and standing out there alone
A yearning, and it's real to me
There must be someone who's feeling for me
Things look so bad everywhere
In this whole world, what is fair?
We walk blind and we try to see
Falling behind in what could be
Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love (oh oh)
Bring me a higher love
Where's that higher love I keep thinking of?
Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love (oh oh)
Bring be a higher love
I could rise above on a higher love
I will wait for it
I'm not too late for it
Until then, I'll sing my song
To cheer the night along (bring it)
I could light the night up with my soul on fire
I could make the sun shine from pure desire
Let me feel that love come over me
Let me feel how strong it could be
Oh oh oh
Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love (oh oh)
Bring me a higher love
Where's that higher love I keep thinking of?
Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love, oh oh (bring me)
Bring me a higher love (oh oh)
Bring me a higher love (oh oh)
Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love (oh oh)
I said, bring me
Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love (oh oh oh)
Bring me a higher love (whoa whoa whoa)
(Bring me higher love) bring me a higher love, oh oh
(Bring me higher love) bring me a higher love (bring it on)
There's that love, bring me higher love
Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love (I said bring)
Bring me a higher love (oh yeah)
Bring me higher love
Bring me a higher love (higher, high, higher)
Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love
Down in the heart or hidden in the stars above
Without it, life is wasted time
Look inside your heart, I'll look inside mine
Things look so bad everywhere
In this whole world, what is fair?
We walk blind and we try to see
Falling behind in what could be
Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love (oh oh)
Bring me a higher love
Where's that higher love I keep thinking of?
Worlds are turning and we're just hanging on
Facing our fear and standing out there alone
A yearning, and it's real to me
There must be someone who's feeling for me
Things look so bad everywhere
In this whole world, what is fair?
We walk blind and we try to see
Falling behind in what could be
Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love (oh oh)
Bring me a higher love
Where's that higher love I keep thinking of?
Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love (oh oh)
Bring be a higher love
I could rise above on a higher love
I will wait for it
I'm not too late for it
Until then, I'll sing my song
To cheer the night along (bring it)
I could light the night up with my soul on fire
I could make the sun shine from pure desire
Let me feel that love come over me
Let me feel how strong it could be
Oh oh oh
Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love (oh oh)
Bring me a higher love
Where's that higher love I keep thinking of?
Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love, oh oh (bring me)
Bring me a higher love (oh oh)
Bring me a higher love (oh oh)
Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love (oh oh)
I said, bring me
Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love (oh oh oh)
Bring me a higher love (whoa whoa whoa)
(Bring me higher love) bring me a higher love, oh oh
(Bring me higher love) bring me a higher love (bring it on)
There's that love, bring me higher love
Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love (I said bring)
Bring me a higher love (oh yeah)
Bring me higher love
Bring me a higher love (higher, high, higher)
Bring me a higher love
Bring me a higher love
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
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,
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.
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.
Head > Heels
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Head > Heels” is a track that aims to capture what it feels like to experience romance that exceeds expectations. Ed Sheeran dedicates his album outro to a lover who has blessed him with a unique experience that he seeks to describe through the song’s nuanced lyrics.
It's a song with a double meaning, one is about finding a person (romantic partner) who truly loves you and whom you really connect with. The other, larger meaning is that it is about higher power in the universe. I wouldn't say it is about God as in the Abrahamic god, or about any other deity in organized religions...but rather about some sort of abstract force, higher power, etc.