"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 want the sun to shine on me
I want the truth to set me free
I wish the followers would lead
With a voice so strong it could knock me to my knees
Hold on world 'cause you don't know what's coming
Hold on world 'cause I'm not jumping off
Hold onto this boy a little longer
Take another trip around the sun
If I jumped into the ocean to believe
If I climbed a mountain would I have to reach?
Do I even dare to speak? To dream? Believe?
Give me a voice so strong
I can question what I have seen
Hold on world 'cause you don't know what's coming
Hold on world 'cause I'm not jumping off
Hold onto this boy a little longer
Take another trip around the sun
Around the sun
Around the sun
Around the sun
Let my dreams set me free
Believe, believe
Now now now now now now
I want the truth to set me free
I wish the followers would lead
With a voice so strong it could knock me to my knees
Hold on world 'cause you don't know what's coming
Hold on world 'cause I'm not jumping off
Hold onto this boy a little longer
Take another trip around the sun
If I jumped into the ocean to believe
If I climbed a mountain would I have to reach?
Do I even dare to speak? To dream? Believe?
Give me a voice so strong
I can question what I have seen
Hold on world 'cause you don't know what's coming
Hold on world 'cause I'm not jumping off
Hold onto this boy a little longer
Take another trip around the sun
Around the sun
Around the sun
Around the sun
Let my dreams set me free
Believe, believe
Now now now now now now
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
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."
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.
No Surprises
Radiohead
Radiohead
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.
Beautiful, uplifting song. Probably the best on Around the Sun.
freewebs.com/thejakesite
This song got me through a tough time. The lyrics really sang to me and summed up what I was feeling. I was stuck in a dead-end job a desperately looking for a way out.
Hold on world, come back in another year (around the sun) and see where I am then.
Sure enough a year later I was in a new job and a lot happier.
It is buoy.<br />
A pretty simple, pretty positive song.
To me Stipe's saying, don't be depressed, don't let the world and George Bush make you give up, instead turn it all around ("I wish the followers would lead"), take the world on ("hold on world 'cause I'm not jumping off"), something good could be just around the corner ("...you don't know what's coming").
This sort of links in to 'The Outsiders' and 'The Final Straw' too - it's about knowing something (political?) and wanting the strength to reveal it to the world and weather the resultant storm - hence the wish for "a voice so strong/I can question what I have seen."
The simple fact that this song has a positive political message in it makes me really like it. "I want the truth to set me free."
This song was the ending credits song to the movie Going Upriver, the documentary about John Kerry and his involvement with the Viet Nam Vets Against the War. This song makes me think of that movie and especially of John Kerry and his run for the presidency.
im really confused here. r.e.m. is one of the most significant bands of our time and these songs are barely getting any comments. i admit stipes writing on this new album is soooo negative and against bush and shit but honestly, people should start commenting on this amazing music
I think that one may also note the fact that, once the Earth "Take(s) another trip around the sun" another year has passed. This could be signifying a similar meaning of "holding on" that caitsith01 described.
"hold on to this boy a little longer" could it be "buoy"?
This song is simply about standing up for principles and change, and standing up for what is right and good.
I think that there are probably some political overtones I just never noticed, as the first time I heard this song I was too young to understand them, but this song really touched me. To me it's all about a child, a young boy, living on this Earth that he can't control, but all he wants to do is remain innocent, telling the world to "hold on to this boy a little longer" so that he doesn't become a man and have to face the world. It about childhood innocence and purity.
Surprised no one has thought or mentioned this, but this song has always struck me as having a very spiritual/religious message. In depth:
'I want the sun to shine on me'- wants to be enlightened
'truth to set me free'- truth of the existence of a divine being; free from doubt, worry, sin, etc.
'wish the followers would lead'- that people wouldn't just blindly follow religious leaders
'voice so strong it could knock me to my knees'- seems like a reference to biblical passages where an angel or God has spoken, and the person drops in fear/awe
Chorus- hey everybody, you might be wrong about the afterlife. nobody knows what lies past death, but he's not going to (I swear he says 'jump on' the 2nd time....maybe it's 'off' both times) jump off (like what moms like to say, 'If so-and-so jumps off a cliff, would you do it? lol) or jump on (the bandwagon, same thing, doing it bc others are). Then the next part is him asking for more time to figure it all out, life, its meaning, etc.
'if I jumped into the ocean to believe'- ref. the Jesus/Peter walk on water as a testament of faith
'climbed a mountain would i have to reach?'- maybe ref. to (from Wikipedia: Girnar), "In the Hindu religion, the legend is that climbing Girnar barefooted earns one a place in Heaven" and then him asking if that's the only way to be saved.
'question what I have seen'- question what he's been taught and not just take someone's word that it's real or correct. Question how a loving deity can allow such suffering in the world.
That's just what I get from it, anyway. I love this song (wish they had cut out 2:15-3:15ish, and the ending is a little drawn out, but the first part is a-mazing). If you love this song, listen to 'In the Sun', on the gulf relief cd with Coldplay and Joseph Arthur (actually his song). Michael's version is lovely. I could listen to him sing that song forever :)