"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 back in Liverpool
And everything seems the same
But I worked something out last night
That changed this little boy's brain
A small piece of advice
That took twenty-two years in the making
And I will break it for you now
Please learn from my mistakes
Please learn from my mistakes
Let's dance to Joy Division
And celebrate the irony
Everything is going wrong
But we're so happy
Let's dance to Joy Division
And raise our glass to the ceiling
'Cause this could all go so wrong
But we're so happy
Yeah, we're so happy
So, if you're ever feeling down
Grab your purse and take a taxi
To the darkest side of town
That's where we'll be
And we will wait for you
And lead you through the dance floor
Up to the DJ booth
You know what to ask for
You know what to ask for
Go ask for Joy Division
And celebrate the irony
Everything is going wrong
But we're so happy
Let's dance to Joy Division
And raise our glass to the ceiling
'Cause this could all go so wrong
But we're so happy
Yeah, we're so happy
Let the love tear us apart
I found the cure for a broken heart
Let it tear us apart
Let the love tear us apart
I found the cure for a broken heart
Let it tear us apart (let it tear us apart)
So, let the love tear us apart
I found the cure for a broken heart
Let it tear us apart (let it tear us apart)
So, let the love tear us apart
I found the cure for a broken heart
Let it tear us apart, let it tear us apart, let it tear us apart
Let's dance to Joy Division
And celebrate the irony
Everything is going wrong
But we're so happy
Let's dance to Joy Division
And raise our glass to the ceiling
'Cause this could all go so wrong
But we're so happy
Yeah, we're so happy
So happy
Yeah, we're so happy
So happy
Yeah, we're so happy
And everything seems the same
But I worked something out last night
That changed this little boy's brain
A small piece of advice
That took twenty-two years in the making
And I will break it for you now
Please learn from my mistakes
Please learn from my mistakes
Let's dance to Joy Division
And celebrate the irony
Everything is going wrong
But we're so happy
Let's dance to Joy Division
And raise our glass to the ceiling
'Cause this could all go so wrong
But we're so happy
Yeah, we're so happy
So, if you're ever feeling down
Grab your purse and take a taxi
To the darkest side of town
That's where we'll be
And we will wait for you
And lead you through the dance floor
Up to the DJ booth
You know what to ask for
You know what to ask for
Go ask for Joy Division
And celebrate the irony
Everything is going wrong
But we're so happy
Let's dance to Joy Division
And raise our glass to the ceiling
'Cause this could all go so wrong
But we're so happy
Yeah, we're so happy
Let the love tear us apart
I found the cure for a broken heart
Let it tear us apart
Let the love tear us apart
I found the cure for a broken heart
Let it tear us apart (let it tear us apart)
So, let the love tear us apart
I found the cure for a broken heart
Let it tear us apart (let it tear us apart)
So, let the love tear us apart
I found the cure for a broken heart
Let it tear us apart, let it tear us apart, let it tear us apart
Let's dance to Joy Division
And celebrate the irony
Everything is going wrong
But we're so happy
Let's dance to Joy Division
And raise our glass to the ceiling
'Cause this could all go so wrong
But we're so happy
Yeah, we're so happy
So happy
Yeah, we're so happy
So happy
Yeah, we're so happy
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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"
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.
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.
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
Oh for Gods sake. What is wrong with you people? I'm a Joy Division fan too, and I'm not a teenager, and I love this song.
Are you so thick you don't get the irony? Why can't a band write a song about a band THEY like? It's like Robbie Williams doing that awful Madonna song, or the Scouting for Girls song that talks about Elvis. For crying out loud, if all these bands wrote about was alcohol and drugs and girls, you'd be whinging too. I think it's refreshing for a band to write about something different to these things and if you can't actually READ/LISTEN to the lyrics and work out what they're saying like everyone's commented on, ie. the whole irony of dancing to Joy Division, then there's something wrong with you, or you're extremely uneducated or narrow minded.
Do you honestly think the band would have been offended if they had heard this song? They'd probably love it/laugh at it. It's like me writing a song about how me and my mates used to get slaughtered and have a dance in a nightclub to The Smiths! And if I did, I'd write to Morissey myself and ask him what he thought about it and when he told me it was hilarious, or ironic or whatever, I'd make sure I put that in the sleeve of my CD so that all The Smiths fans who kicked up a fuss would read it and shut the hell up.
It's an ok song. The part that annoys me is the "irony" bit. There's nothing ironic about dancing to Joy Division.
the irony isn't in the dance to Joy Division, it's that "I'm back to liverpool and everything seems the same". Life isn't going anywhere, everything is static, and your dreams are still dreams, you went for them, and you didn't make it. You'll find that the irony is in dancing to the joy, when you are unhappy, and that's beautiful.