"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 am leaving you
Because I don't love you
I am leaving you
Because I don't love you
Well it's the knowledge,
It's the knowledge,
It's the knowledge
Of future clarity
That makes my voice tremble
With greater dignity
I am leaving you
Because I don't love you
I am leaving you
Because I don't love you
I'm sorry I have to be this
Brutally honest, Nicole
But my excuses were babies
Of snow that I just could not hold
So you pick up your asthma inhaler
And put it against your lips
And oh those lips I've loved
That I was dreaming of
They're so red and soft
I'm so sorry I couldn't love you enough
I'm so sorry I couldn't love you enough
I'm so sorry that I'm leaving you
Because I don't love you
I am leaving you
Because I don't love you
So pick up your asthma inhaler
And put it against your lips
Oh, those lips I've loved that I was dreaming of
They're still red and soft
I'm so sorry I couldn't love you enough
So sorry I couldn't love you enough
Because I don't love you
I am leaving you
Because I don't love you
Well it's the knowledge,
It's the knowledge,
It's the knowledge
Of future clarity
That makes my voice tremble
With greater dignity
I am leaving you
Because I don't love you
I am leaving you
Because I don't love you
I'm sorry I have to be this
Brutally honest, Nicole
But my excuses were babies
Of snow that I just could not hold
So you pick up your asthma inhaler
And put it against your lips
And oh those lips I've loved
That I was dreaming of
They're so red and soft
I'm so sorry I couldn't love you enough
I'm so sorry I couldn't love you enough
I'm so sorry that I'm leaving you
Because I don't love you
I am leaving you
Because I don't love you
So pick up your asthma inhaler
And put it against your lips
Oh, those lips I've loved that I was dreaming of
They're still red and soft
I'm so sorry I couldn't love you enough
So sorry I couldn't love you enough
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"
I Can't Go To Sleep
Wu-Tang Clan
Wu-Tang Clan
This song is written as the perspective of the boys in the street, as a whole, and what path they are going to choose as they get older and grow into men. (This is why the music video takes place in an orphanage.) The seen, and unseen collective suffering is imbedded in the boys’ mind, consciously or subconsciously, and is haunting them. Which path will the boys choose? Issac Hayes is the voice of reason, maybe God, the angel on his shoulder, or the voice of his forefathers from beyond the grave who can see the big picture and are pleading with the boys not to continue the violence and pattern of killing their brothers, but to rise above. The most beautiful song and has so many levels. Racism towards African Americans in America would not exist if everyone sat down and listened to this song and understood the history behind the words. The power, fear, pleading in RZA and Ghostface voices are genuine and powerful. Issac Hayes’ strong voice makes the perfect strong father figure, who is possibly from beyond the grave.
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.
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.
"...this song is pretty clearly an allegory for the industrial revolution in Russia..."
Actually, this song is definitely an allegory for the tooth fairy and hardcore gay porn. Your "theory" about this song is "pretty clearly" absurd. But it made me laugh.
I love the sample he uses... same as in Take No Heroes by The Tough Alliance, though who knows if it's their original or not.
The piano piece is also in "laugh" by Birdie. Other than that this song is pretty clearly an allegory for the industrial revolution in Russia and its effects on the Bolsheviks of the time.
actually i've revised my origional theory and I've concluded this song is about defecting from the soviet republic in the cold war.
He talks about how the politicians are very russian and used to be true, but now are flexible, because they are corrupt which is why he is leaving
"and oh those lips i've loved that i was dreaming of they're so red and soft"
jens clearly loved his soviet home but he doesn't love it anymore.
You're clearly retarded. Even if your embarrassment of an analysis weren't a total joke, Jens is from fucking Sweden.
The piano sample is from a song by Laura Nyro, called "Wedding Bell Blues". Gotta love Jens's sample choices.
Haha, gahcioi. I love the directness of the chorus and the lines: "but my excuses were babies of now that i just could not hold" It seems as if his excuses would have seemed pure enough, but were really just fabricated and would have passed away eventually.
I don't love you I don't love you I don't love you I don't love you I don't love you I don't love you!