"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.
Oh
There's dogs calling awfully out here
There's cows with their mouths filled with tears
And there's black water curling all around where we lay
And I have been sad now too many days
And she would harness my heart if it harnessed that way.
So babe, I am going, iam going away.
The men are all gorgeous down here.
Long and brown like deer.
And she's always arriving in her dark river skirt.
Winding holes through the valley.
Bending bones in the dirt.
Hiding poems I had tossed under blankets of sand.
Babe, I am sorry. I'm sorry I am.
It never gets cold way down here.
I can live off of watermelons and beer.
And I'll never go hungry; I will never go home.
Never call to my lover, "lover, leave me alone."
Never harden my heart like some prude in the snow.
Oh, babe I know this. I noticed. I'm no one.
There's dogs calling awfully out here
There's cows with their mouths filled with tears
And there's black water curling all around where we lay
And I have been sad now too many days
And she would harness my heart if it harnessed that way.
So babe, I am going, iam going away.
The men are all gorgeous down here.
Long and brown like deer.
And she's always arriving in her dark river skirt.
Winding holes through the valley.
Bending bones in the dirt.
Hiding poems I had tossed under blankets of sand.
Babe, I am sorry. I'm sorry I am.
It never gets cold way down here.
I can live off of watermelons and beer.
And I'll never go hungry; I will never go home.
Never call to my lover, "lover, leave me alone."
Never harden my heart like some prude in the snow.
Oh, babe I know this. I noticed. I'm no one.
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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"
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.
Amazing
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran tells a story of unsuccessfully trying to feel “Amazing.” This track is about the being weighed down by emotional stress despite valiant attempts to find some positivity in the situation. This track was written by Ed Sheeran from the perspective of his friend. From the track, we see this person fall deeper into the negative thoughts and slide further down the path of mental torment with every lyric.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
What a master songwriter. I'm just continually amazed at the deep meanings of his songs. This song is about sadness and depression. He knows he cannot give her his heart the way she needs it, so to spare her the pain, he leaves. This is reinforced in the last stanza, but the sadness and remorse are now joined at the end with a feeling of uselessness, of a greater depression. Very sad song, but as a long-time sufferer of depression myself, I can't help but wonder if Houck has ever suffered from depression or been close to someone who has, because it is not an easy disease to understand, and I don't think this song could be written by anyone who didn't understand it. Beautifully dark.