"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'm Sorry that
I could never love you back
I could never care enough
In these last days
Her tears
Fell on her pages found me well
On her words I don't know what
To do or say
Wading through
Warm canals and pools clear blue
Where Tuscarawas flow into
The Great Lakes
Riding back
To where the highway met
Dead end tracks
The ground is now cement and glass
And far away
Heal her soul, carry her, my angel, Ohio
Green green youth
What about the sweetness we knew
What about what's good what's true
From those days
Can't count to
All the lovers I've burned through
So why do I still burn for you
I can't say
Sorry that
I could never love you back
I could never care enough in these last days
Heal her soul, carry her, my angel, Ohio
Children bless
And gather round the bed she rests
So poor and cold in their Midwest
Moon and sun
Flashes bringing on
My open eyes to lightning storm
The touch of mist felt soft, felt warm
On my face
Graving dreams
A million miles ago you seem
A star that I just don't see
Anymore
Words long gone
Lost on journeys we walked on
Lost are voices heard along the way
Sorry for
Never going by your door
Never feeling love like that
Anymore
Heal her soul, carry her, my angel, Ohio
I could never love you back
I could never care enough
In these last days
Her tears
Fell on her pages found me well
On her words I don't know what
To do or say
Wading through
Warm canals and pools clear blue
Where Tuscarawas flow into
The Great Lakes
Riding back
To where the highway met
Dead end tracks
The ground is now cement and glass
And far away
Heal her soul, carry her, my angel, Ohio
Green green youth
What about the sweetness we knew
What about what's good what's true
From those days
Can't count to
All the lovers I've burned through
So why do I still burn for you
I can't say
Sorry that
I could never love you back
I could never care enough in these last days
Heal her soul, carry her, my angel, Ohio
Children bless
And gather round the bed she rests
So poor and cold in their Midwest
Moon and sun
Flashes bringing on
My open eyes to lightning storm
The touch of mist felt soft, felt warm
On my face
Graving dreams
A million miles ago you seem
A star that I just don't see
Anymore
Words long gone
Lost on journeys we walked on
Lost are voices heard along the way
Sorry for
Never going by your door
Never feeling love like that
Anymore
Heal her soul, carry her, my angel, Ohio
Lyrics submitted by mab, edited by timbertime, PMWilson, phcfo
Carry Me Ohio Lyrics as written by Mark Edward Kozelek
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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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.
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I have listened to this song many many times and I can really connect with it as I'm also from Ohio. I'm also a big fan of Mark Kozelek. As for the meaning I think a few of you hit it on the nose it's about loss of a love but I think he is using it as a metaphor. You need to be from Ohio to understand the subtle meaning of his feeling of no longer connecting with his love for a women as well as the place he was born which is in Massillon Ohio. It's the feeling everyone has for the places in our past that only the other people who where there can you relate with. It's the loss of a time in his past as a youth. Ohio was once a thriving boom town area where there where lots of jobs and promise as well as dreams where a young middle class family could be raised and many childhood memories where made there. Now Ohio it is nothing like that it's just another depressed area of the county that has been abused and forgotten. In interviews he talks about hanging out at friends houses getting high and listening to Neil Young and Pink Floyd. I think he has better sweet memories of his time in Ohio. In interviews he does not seem to have ever made a connection with Ohio and he almost feels about that he does not even do concerts in Ohio. He said at a recent concert I attended in Pittsburgh when a fan yelled out "come do a concert in Ohio?" he replied "Ohio was way to close to family he has there". I think the song has two meanings. I think the women reference is fiction and the Ohio references are his real feelings of a place forgotten and unable to connect with.