"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.
If you hate the taste of wine
Why do you drink it 'til you're blind?
And if you swear that there's no truth and who cares
How come you say it like you're right?
Why are you scared to dream of God
When it's salvation that you want?
You see stars that clear have been dead for years
But the idea just lives on
In our wheels that roll around
As we move over the ground
And all day it seems we've been in between
The past and future town
We are nowhere, and it's now
We are nowhere, and it's now
And like a ten minute dream in the passenger seat
While the world was flying by
I haven't been gone very long
But it feels like a lifetime
I've been sleeping so strange at night
Side effects they don't advertise
I've been sleeping so strange
With a head full of pesticide
I've got no plans and too much time
I feel too restless to unwind
I'm always lost in thought as I walk a block
To my favorite neon sign
Where the waitress looks concerned
But she never says a word
Just turns the jukebox on and we hum along
And I smile back at her
And my friend comes after work
When the features start to blur
She says these bars are filled with things that kill
By now you probably should have learned
Did you forget that yellow bird?
How could you forget your yellow bird?
She took a small silver wreath and pinned it on to me
She said, "This one will bring you love"
And I don't know if it's true
But I keep it for good luck
Why do you drink it 'til you're blind?
And if you swear that there's no truth and who cares
How come you say it like you're right?
Why are you scared to dream of God
When it's salvation that you want?
You see stars that clear have been dead for years
But the idea just lives on
In our wheels that roll around
As we move over the ground
And all day it seems we've been in between
The past and future town
We are nowhere, and it's now
We are nowhere, and it's now
And like a ten minute dream in the passenger seat
While the world was flying by
I haven't been gone very long
But it feels like a lifetime
I've been sleeping so strange at night
Side effects they don't advertise
I've been sleeping so strange
With a head full of pesticide
I've got no plans and too much time
I feel too restless to unwind
I'm always lost in thought as I walk a block
To my favorite neon sign
Where the waitress looks concerned
But she never says a word
Just turns the jukebox on and we hum along
And I smile back at her
And my friend comes after work
When the features start to blur
She says these bars are filled with things that kill
By now you probably should have learned
Did you forget that yellow bird?
How could you forget your yellow bird?
She took a small silver wreath and pinned it on to me
She said, "This one will bring you love"
And I don't know if it's true
But I keep it for good luck
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
Mental Istid
Ebba Grön
Ebba Grön
This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
Gentle Hour
Yo La Tengo
Yo La Tengo
This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
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.
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 has been my all time favorite song for as long as I can remember, and I believe it intends to stay that way.
I just got my girlfriend a necklace of a little yellow bird. I'm such a hopeless romantic, HA.
This song takes me back to my early days of recovery. To me, he was singing to himself. "Why do you drink until you're blind". The beginning of the song is about trying to stay off the alcohol/drugs. Moments feel like a lifetime:
I've been sleeping so strange at night Side effects they don't advertise I've been sleeping so strange With a head full of pesticide
(Sleeping in early recovery was difficult for me..weird dreams, restlessness)
Then, gets restless (as we do) trying to get clean.
I've got no plans and too much time I feel too restless to unwind I'm always lost in thought as I walk the block To my favorite neon sign
And, ends up at the bar.
The yellow bird has always signified hope for me. My daughter is the reason I initially got sober. She was my yellow bird. I can't forget my yellow bird.
thought the "side effects" line was about antidepressants, cause I had strong sleeping issues and they didn't advertise them
As for the 'yellow bird' reference:
They used to send canaries (which are yellow. And birds.) down the mines to find out if there was a lack of oxygen or any other dangerous gases - if the canary died, then they knew that something was wrong, and so they didn't send the humans down.
So, "did you forget that yellow bird?" - did you forget to send the bird down first, to check if the coast was clear? Did you just plunge ahead and find out too late that there was danger awaiting you?
Just a theory :)
I think this song, like many songs, is about being stuck in "that place". That place in your life where you're young and have no idea where you're going and you want to go back to when you were a kid and happy, but you have to move on, and people sometimes don't know how to do that. Kind of like a quarter life crisis. I think there is a lot of references to people being depressed/stuck in this song, like the person who drinks wine til their blind and the waitress who looks but doesn't say a word. She knows the narrator is depressed but just lets it be. that's just what I get out of it anyway.
I've read someone mention elsewhere that the line ''You're the yellow bird I've been waiting for'' in Poison Oak means his friend's brother dying was what led Conor to stop abusing alcohol and drugs. (i.e: that death was the ''yellow bird'' that alerted him to how much he was putting his life in danger, just like yellow birds used to alert ppl that mines are dangerous).
So, I think
And my friend comes after work When the features start to blur She says these bars are filled with things that kill By now you probably should have learned
Did you forget that yellow bird? How could you forget your yellow bird?
means his friend telling him ''How could you forget that people die from drinking the way you're doing? How could you forget your wake-up call?''
this song is beautiful
my favorite part is the second line "And if you swear that there's no truth and who cares, how come you say it like you're right?" then also "for a ten minute dream in the passenger's seat while the world was flying by, you haven't been gone very long but it feels like a life time."
he captures things so well that I hear him describe the obvious and I feel this BAM of a realization, and i love that<p><b><i>Edited by mellow_harsher on July 23 2005, at 12:42PM</i></b></p>
i'm not a fan of the lady.
I found this on Urban Dictionary...
1.yellow bird
a person's true love; the one person they are both externally and internally, both consciously and subconsciously attached to with the realization that those feelings will never die; the one person that they know they can't live without
if they find this person, they are the luckiest in the world. if not, they are eternally screwed.
i love this song. i hope it gets released because seeing it performed live was amazing x 30303
At the manchester show lastnight he said it's about people who live their life always on the road, like the bands. 'If you hate the taste of wine why do you drink it till you're blind? ' I love it.