"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.
Cut my tongue out
I've been caught out
Like a giant juggernaut
Happy hours
Golden showers
On a cruise to freak you out
We could fly a helicopter
Nothing left to talk about
Entertain you
Celebrate you
I'll be back to frame you
When I grow up
I'll be stable
When I grow up
I'll turn the tables
Trying hard to fit among you
Floating out to wonderland
Unprotected
God I'm pregnant
Damn the consequences
When I grow up
I'll be stable
When I grow up
I'll turn the tables
Blood and blisters
On my fingers
Chaos rules when we're apart
Watch my temper
I go mental
I'll try to be gentle
When I grow up
I'll be stable
When I grow up
I'll turn the tables
When I grow up
When I grow up
When I grow up
I'll turn the tables
Don't take offense
Better make amends
Rip it all to shreds and let it go
I rip it all to shreds and let it go
I rip it all to shreds and let it go
I rip it all to shreds and let it go
I've been caught out
Like a giant juggernaut
Happy hours
Golden showers
On a cruise to freak you out
We could fly a helicopter
Nothing left to talk about
Entertain you
Celebrate you
I'll be back to frame you
When I grow up
I'll be stable
When I grow up
I'll turn the tables
Trying hard to fit among you
Floating out to wonderland
Unprotected
God I'm pregnant
Damn the consequences
When I grow up
I'll be stable
When I grow up
I'll turn the tables
Blood and blisters
On my fingers
Chaos rules when we're apart
Watch my temper
I go mental
I'll try to be gentle
When I grow up
I'll be stable
When I grow up
I'll turn the tables
When I grow up
When I grow up
When I grow up
I'll turn the tables
Don't take offense
Better make amends
Rip it all to shreds and let it go
I rip it all to shreds and let it go
I rip it all to shreds and let it go
I rip it all to shreds and let it go
Lyrics submitted by EbeneezerNamePlate
When I Grow Up Lyrics as written by Douglas Elwin Erickson Bryan David Vig
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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Mountain Song
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Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
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This is a sequel to 2001's "Reckless Abandon", and features the band looking back on their clumsy youth fondly.
No Surprises
Radiohead
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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.
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.
i am POSTIVE that the song is about this. in an interview at the time she admitted that the song was very sexual and was about discovering what turns you on, and that the growing up means when you have got bored with experimentation and want to settle down with what you like. its about the immaturity of certain sexual acts.
Shirley Manson ROCKS!!!!!!!!! Garbage's so great! :)
I always figured that this song was meant to be somewhat ironic, as all four members were very much adults (i.e. "grown up") when this song was written. I see it as written from a younger person's point of view, speaking about sex and youthful indescrections (partying, unprotected sex, having a bad temper, ... the helicopter suggests danger and being a bit wild and out of the ordinary), but then saying "When I grow up, I'll be stable." I think the "stable" part is the key here, as they are saying this behavior will stop, when experience kind of shows that it probably won't (back to the irony I mentioned before). There are definately sexual overtones, but I don't think it is the sole focus, it is more of an example of generally wild behavior (perhaps Shirley's choice of wild youthful behavior??). Oh, and I once read an interview where she mentioned golden showers, and this was a good few years before this song was ever released. Kind of interesting.
@Just_a_Fan Yours is the only meaning I found I can agree with, and I couldn\'t agree more btw.\r\n\r\nTotally nailed it!! Just my humble opinion and truth.\r\n\r\nIndeed, the song is an Irony...
u think so, man?
I really dont think that's the truth--though if you really read it that literally, then whatever.
I beleive it has to do with Shirleys childhood--when she was young she was really insecure. I think this is the way she said, when she grows up she'll turn the tables on everyone else.
I always thought it had to do with what Ice said. If you do look at the lyrics literally, then I see where you can get the sexual stuff. Who knows.....:)
Well I never thought of it in a sexual way but now that you put that thought in my mind the line "Blood and blisters on my fingers" has become extremely disturbing to me.
me too.. d sexual meaning didnt go in my mind before.. and now, uh ok.. the choice and use of words in this song connected d dots.. and yeah, it does make a sexual sense! :) pretty convincing.
I think that this song is about shirley not wanting to grow up coz she's having too much fun in the present, and by the sounds of it she really fucking is (tho i sont think that im a golden shower fan...)
i really think this song is about shirley's childhood ... well adolescence ... and the whole experimentation bit... but it's also about her realising how stupid it was to be this person, this "whore" that she visualises herself being. uhm let me think. i know how this is, and i like this song cos it puts it together for me. Trying hard to fit among you, floating out to wonderland Unprotected, god I'm pregnant damn the consequences
i think this part is talking about how she really trusts this guy, and he's great and everything, but she's depending on him to fit in. so by depending him she trusts him. but then she "gets pregnant" from him...
Blood and blisters on my fingers chaos rules when we're apart Watch my temper, I go mental I'll try to be gentle
this is her like going crazy cos she realises how much it sucks. but that's just what i think.
-taylor.