"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.
People are strange
When you're a stranger
Faces look ugly
When you're alone
Women seem wicked
When you're unwanted
Streets are uneven
When you're down
When you're strange
Faces come out of the rain
When you're strange
No one remembers your name
When you're strange
When you're strange
When you're strange
People are strange
When you're a stranger
Faces look ugly
When you're alone
Women seem wicked
When you're unwanted
Streets are uneven
When you're down
When you're strange
Faces come out of the rain
When you're strange
No one remembers your name
When you're strange
When you're strange
When you're strange
All right, yeah!
When you're strange
Faces come out of the rain
When you're strange
No one remembers your name
When you're strange
When you're strange
When you're strange
When you're a stranger
Faces look ugly
When you're alone
Women seem wicked
When you're unwanted
Streets are uneven
When you're down
When you're strange
Faces come out of the rain
When you're strange
No one remembers your name
When you're strange
When you're strange
When you're strange
People are strange
When you're a stranger
Faces look ugly
When you're alone
Women seem wicked
When you're unwanted
Streets are uneven
When you're down
When you're strange
Faces come out of the rain
When you're strange
No one remembers your name
When you're strange
When you're strange
When you're strange
All right, yeah!
When you're strange
Faces come out of the rain
When you're strange
No one remembers your name
When you're strange
When you're strange
When you're strange
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
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."
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.
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.
This song isn't about being on drugs. Yes, Jim did a lot of drugs, but I don't think that's what this is about. It doesn't fit all the lyrics. This song (to me) is about outcasts to society. "People are strange when you're a stranger." This means you're a stranger to everyone, and because people won't let you in, they seem strange to you. "When you're strange no one remembers your name" means that no one even knows your name because they don't want to give you a change because you're weird or different to everyone else. However, the "faces come out of the rain" part does seem to me like you're on drugs...the only thing that I can sort of relate that to the meaning would be imaginary friends maybe? Haha, I'm not sure what that part means...but I do know that it's a very meaningful song and I can relate sometimes. <3
@Blackveilbrideloveletter I agree. The "faces come out of the rain" part probably has a lot to do with drugs. Social outcasts take mind altering drugs sometimes to escape the loneliness they feel.
@Blackveilbrideloveletter with the "no one remembers your name" bit, I was literally witness (and for a while, participant) in this phenomena... it's a terrifyingly sad thing. I made a point of hammering that individual's name into my brain. I hope they're doing well.
I think being "strange" refers to being depressed while you look around you and see that everyone else seems to be happy. You walk around town, you have no one to talk to, no one knows who you are, you just don't seem to fit in, and you just keep getting more depressed. You notice the tiniest details with things ("Streets are uneven when you're down"). You can't find hope in your life, and you overanalyze everything, especially other people around you. People are strange.
Being "strange" refers at being Jimi. He is strange ,and people are strange 'cause of that. He do not act normal and people think of him as an weirdo ,normal people of course.
I too initially thought it was about depression, but then I researched into Jim more and found that he was on the autistic spectrum. I am pretty sure this song is about him finding it difficult to interact with people socially.
In no way was Jim autistic. Autistic people don't even recognise how to act, or what even kind of emotions to display, nor do they understand other peoples emotions. Jim Morrison noted that "faces come out of the rain", implying that he is analytical of their observations!
i think its about being alone in a new place, and hes talking about being unwanted, "women seem wicked when you're unwanted" cuz its so depressing and u have to feel it to kno what it feels like, u cant just say it, he did pretty good tho, so i dont think it was just a bad trip
I would go with this. I think part of it is an interpretation of calling those we don't know strangers. Like the first line says, if everyone's a stranger then they're strange. It seems like it's noting how isolated and alone one feels when they don't know anyone, when they're alone and depressed about it. It seems like no one acknowledges you or cares about you, though it may be that you're just as strange to them as they are to you.
The song means that it depends on your state of mind how the world looks!!!
Sure, it was written in the 60's. Sure, it sounds like most other pshycadelic (sorry, can't spell that word) music. Sure, the Doors were into drugs. Does that mean that every song of their's you have to automatically link to drugs?? -sorry, had to rant- Maybe every think, as it says in the first line, it's about being a stranger (not a stoner). When you're around people you don't know they won't remember your name and you'll be strange to them because you don't belong in their world. We seem to only see the bad things (like "ugly" face, "uneven" streets, or "wicked" women) when we're feeling bad.
I think these song its about seclusion and isolation, its like a person being watched through some kind of "secret camera" and revealing its most inner secrets, a person being one with society and holds a secret life that no body knows about. people are strange when you're a stranger....
A night where vampires stalk the innocent and a fat old guy getting loaded on OREOs and root beer stalking the bloodsuckers. Does anybody catch my drift?
The Lost Boys!!!!!
I think paigepeach nailed it. Its about being an outcast, an outsider. Outcasts can be dumped on, scapegoated by others. People can start looking pretty ugly and evil. "Women are wicked..." Guys that are outsiders are rarely popular with women, and we know how snotty some woman can be to those they consider unimportant. "Streets are uneven when you're down" I think this could be about a lack of overall stability, mentally, emotionally, even economically, when you are a depressed outcast. I think it also could be that people with mental illness(outcasts) sometimes walk in a unsteady and careful manner,due to the illness.
I'm strange.
I support the outcast theory. seems reasonable. Being an outcast can be sometimes overwhelming, but people who are that way usually couldn't be any other way. It kinda becomes who you are and you start to like it and need it even if it's killing you. haha :) I'm an outcast and it seriously hurts, but I think that's the only way I can ever be.
Great song.
When U are feeling down in the dumps then everyone else looks strange to u.... our moods effect our perceptions, not the people around us.