"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.
The food that I'm eating is suddenly tasteless
I know I'm alone now
I know what it tastes like
So break me to small parts
Let go in small doses
But spare some for spare parts
There might be some good ones!
Like you might make a dollar
I'm inside your mouth now
Behind your tonsils
Peaking over your molars
You're talking to her now
You've eaten something minty
And you're making that face that I like
When you're going in for the kill kill
For the killer kiss kiss for the kiss kiss
I need your money
It'll help me
I need your car and I need your love
I need your money
It'll help me
I need your car and I need your love
So won't you help a brother out?
Won't you help a brother out?
Won't you help a brother out out out out out?
Just break me to small parts
Let go in small doses
But spare some for spare parts
You might make a dollar
You might make a dollar
So won't you help a brother out?
Won't you help a brother out out out out out?
Just break me to small parts
Let go in small doses
But spare some for spare parts
There might be some good ones
You might make a dollar
I know I'm alone now
I know what it tastes like
So break me to small parts
Let go in small doses
But spare some for spare parts
There might be some good ones!
Like you might make a dollar
I'm inside your mouth now
Behind your tonsils
Peaking over your molars
You're talking to her now
You've eaten something minty
And you're making that face that I like
When you're going in for the kill kill
For the killer kiss kiss for the kiss kiss
I need your money
It'll help me
I need your car and I need your love
I need your money
It'll help me
I need your car and I need your love
So won't you help a brother out?
Won't you help a brother out?
Won't you help a brother out out out out out?
Just break me to small parts
Let go in small doses
But spare some for spare parts
You might make a dollar
You might make a dollar
So won't you help a brother out?
Won't you help a brother out out out out out?
Just break me to small parts
Let go in small doses
But spare some for spare parts
There might be some good ones
You might make a dollar
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More Featured Meanings
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
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.
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.
Head > Heels
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
“Head > Heels” is a track that aims to capture what it feels like to experience romance that exceeds expectations. Ed Sheeran dedicates his album outro to a lover who has blessed him with a unique experience that he seeks to describe through the song’s nuanced lyrics.
"I need your money, It'll help me. I need your car, and I need your love. -- Won't you help a brother out?" ^ She feels like a beggar here. Not that she's homeless. Yeah, we divide up our cars and our money when we get divorced, but as some commenters mention, the biggest gaping loss is knowing they don't love you anymore.
I dunno, I almost feel like she's pointing to the futility of begging for love.
"Just break me to small parts; let go in small doses" - let's take this separation thing slowly. Nevermind that you can't love ALL of me anymore -- there are parts of me you'd still find useful!
I didn't feel this way so much in the divorce, but I did feel A LOT like this in my first post-divorce relationship -- and still feel that way sometimes as far as being a bit of a useful spare part for that guy. He doesn't want me, but he hangs onto bits and pieces of the relationship anyway while I futilely beg for his love, Aye, that's gotta stop.
Oh, and you know what? As long as someone's broken me to small parts and is hoarding the ones they find useful while discarding the rest -- it makes it practically impossible to get in a REAL relationship.<br /> <br /> I need to take back those parts for me so I can be whole on my own.
This song is so amazing. First, am I the only one who interprets the line: When you're going in for the kill kill / For the kill-er-kiss kiss for the kiss kiss? Almost as if Regina is so spiteful towards her ex-husband's new relationship that she says 'kill' instead of 'kiss' and then catches herself, throwing an 'er' in there that also sounds like killer kiss... pure genius. I also love how she almost shouts the word 'out' like she wants her ex to get out of her head, and how desperate and mocking she sounds while singing 'and I need your love.' This probably makes no sense ;w; oh well, i tried :3
i don't think so... but regina can always sing about fictional characters, that's what she does best.
i might have missed it...but...no one has yet commented on the heartbeat that opens and closes this song.
in the beginning it doesn't make sense. at the end, it's like...amazingly beautiful and so solitary and full of pain and sorrow..where as at the beginning no one really knows what it's leading into.
that heartbeat at the end makes this song for me, personally. it hurts me more than any of the lyrics, though they are amazing too.
regina spektor, marry me.
oh and listening to it with the volume up, the heartbeat is pumping throughout the whole song. i hadn't heard that before.
i love things like this; that just get better and better every time you listen.
brilliantbrilliantbrilliant
what an interesting point of view, from the back of an ex-lover's mouth... how amazing is this woman??!?
is her ex now homeless?? "I need your money, it’ll help me I need your car and I need your love x2 So won’t you help a brother out? ... You might make a dollar Dollar, might make a dollar
So won’t you help a brother out"
I assumed she was talking about all the legalities of getting a divorce, all the settlements of who gets the house, and who gets the money.. and playing off the guilt of the partner that's left her.
seriously. we need to find something not wuite so brilliant by her.