"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.
Well, the way I see it, doesn't really matter
Because it don't make no sense to all those mad Manhatters
But I do believe that there must come a moment
When even the piggiest pig must get on up and move it
I got this friend named Neil, swears Nixon had a soul
But what I'd like to know is can Giuli do the stroll?
People always ask me, "What's so fucking great about dancing?"
How the fuck should I know? Yeah, even I can barely understand it
But when the music takes over, the music takes control
Here's a message to you, Rudy and you, sir, Mr. Bloomberg
And the rest of you ties-too-tight dudes
Y'all could learn a lesson, by losing inhibitions, yeah
Losing yourself in the music, losing yourself in the moment
Because we have nothing more than this very second
You can't count on the one coming after, no one's sure about the one before
So forget about it, we live here and now, dude, here and now, here and now, here and now
So get on down down down down down down down down down down down down down down
NYC is where the freaks come to be free and if I can't get my freak on see
I'm a hang up Giuliani, he can sick his lackeys on me
But you can't stop a new age dawning
So if you got hips then shake them
And if you got fears forsake them
Giuliani's got his rules but we ain't no fools, let's break them
Let's break them, let's break them down
And on the way we'll make them say
Everybody cut, everybody cut, everybody cut, footloose
Because it don't make no sense to all those mad Manhatters
But I do believe that there must come a moment
When even the piggiest pig must get on up and move it
I got this friend named Neil, swears Nixon had a soul
But what I'd like to know is can Giuli do the stroll?
People always ask me, "What's so fucking great about dancing?"
How the fuck should I know? Yeah, even I can barely understand it
But when the music takes over, the music takes control
Here's a message to you, Rudy and you, sir, Mr. Bloomberg
And the rest of you ties-too-tight dudes
Y'all could learn a lesson, by losing inhibitions, yeah
Losing yourself in the music, losing yourself in the moment
Because we have nothing more than this very second
You can't count on the one coming after, no one's sure about the one before
So forget about it, we live here and now, dude, here and now, here and now, here and now
So get on down down down down down down down down down down down down down down
NYC is where the freaks come to be free and if I can't get my freak on see
I'm a hang up Giuliani, he can sick his lackeys on me
But you can't stop a new age dawning
So if you got hips then shake them
And if you got fears forsake them
Giuliani's got his rules but we ain't no fools, let's break them
Let's break them, let's break them down
And on the way we'll make them say
Everybody cut, everybody cut, everybody cut, footloose
Lyrics submitted by Mellow_Harsher
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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"
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
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.
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.
"Because it don't make no sense to all those mad Manhatters"
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_hatter
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan
it is interesting to note that this play on word also looks looks like "mad man haters"