"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.
(You've got the power in there)
(Waving your wand in the air)
Time after time those fanatical minds try to rule all the world
Telling us all it's them who's in charge of it all
I've got a trick, a magic stick, that will make them all fall
We've got the power now, motherfuckers; that's where it belongs
You've got that right!
(Power in there)
You know that it is!
(Wand in the air)
They've got their weapons to solve all their questions
They don't know what it's for
(Because they don't know what it's for)
Why can't they see that's not power, that's greed
To just want more and more?
(Just want more and more)
I got a plan and it's here in my hand; a baton made of light
We're the enforcers, the sorcerer's orphans
And we know why we fight
(And we know why we fight)
You've got that right
(You've got the power in there)
(Waving your wand in the air)
(You've got the power in there)
(You've got the power in there)
(You've got the power in there)
(Waving your wand in the air)
You've got that right!
You know that it is!
(Waving your wand in the air)
Time after time those fanatical minds try to rule all the world
Telling us all it's them who's in charge of it all
I've got a trick, a magic stick, that will make them all fall
We've got the power now, motherfuckers; that's where it belongs
You've got that right!
(Power in there)
You know that it is!
(Wand in the air)
They've got their weapons to solve all their questions
They don't know what it's for
(Because they don't know what it's for)
Why can't they see that's not power, that's greed
To just want more and more?
(Just want more and more)
I got a plan and it's here in my hand; a baton made of light
We're the enforcers, the sorcerer's orphans
And we know why we fight
(And we know why we fight)
You've got that right
(You've got the power in there)
(Waving your wand in the air)
(You've got the power in there)
(You've got the power in there)
(You've got the power in there)
(Waving your wand in the air)
You've got that right!
You know that it is!
Lyrics submitted by christsizeshoes
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
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"
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Magical
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
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.
There's an article where Wayne Coyne goes through all the songs on the forthcoming album, and this is the relevant part of what he has to say on this track:
"The idea of a magic wand and magic powers occurred to me while watching a homeless guy in Oklahoma City. He was, I believe, Vietnamese, and had a cool looking wizardly beard and mustache and he carried a long stick, which he used as a kind of cane-weapon. And one day I saw him fighting an "imagined" enemy and the long stick became (as best I could tell) a kind of magic wand that made his invisible foe retreat. I mean... it seemed to give him a confidence that allowed him to defeat his hallucinations...and at first I thought "how sad...he believes this old stick is saving him"... but the more I thought about it, the more I envied him in a way...for the evil manifestations of his mind he invented a sparkling sorcerer's baton to lead his psychic revolution...yes!!...
And so we delved into a kind of radical protest rock mentality...We sing, "We got the power now, motherfuckers, that's where it belongs", but I believe it's cosmically empowering - not actually empowering. In the song, we rail against the greedy, corrupt evil beings who are in control and trying to enslave us... But our rebellion is simply to fight back - we have no solutions."
So yeah, it's kind of a protest song, but it's simultaneously making the point that protest songs don't really offer solutions, and they might be therapeutic to people writing or listening to them, but they can't really change things in and of themselves.
your handle is freakin rad
Wayne Coyne is one bad-ass guy. Great input man.
Its clearly a protest song about the elite of the world. The Flaming Lips have been very anti big government.
"We got the power now, motherfuckers!"
A political song, no doubt
I have to agree and say that this is a protest song...whatever it is I LOVE IT!! and yes the base riff is the sweetest part
We got the power! Totally politically motivated isn't it obvious!
Its clearly a protest song about the elite of the world. The Flaming Lips have been very anti big government.
My thoughts exactly. I always thought the song was anti-elite/anti-illuminati. :)<br /> <br />
sounds like "I got a plan and it's here in my hand" no idea about the second part.
hmmm, not sure about this one. I think its one of those "power to the people" type songs. Wayne, might have been talking about "them" being our Bush Government. Who f'in knows! What does W.A.N.D. Stand for? Thats what i wanna know.
The title of the song tells you what it stands for...
I haven't heard this song yet, but maybe W.A.N.D. doesn't stand for anything. Like, the Incubus Cd entitled "S.C.I.E.N.C.E.", they just felt like putting periods inbetween the letters. Plus, it looks like they use the word WAND in there.
W.A.N.D. stands for "(The) Will Always Negates Defeat".