"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.
Run like a race for family
When you hear like you're alone
The rusted gears of morning
To faceless busy phones
We gladly run in circles
But the shape we meant to make is gone
Love is a tired symphony
Tou hum when you're awake
Love is a crying baby
Mama warned you not to shake
Love is the best sensation
Hiding in the lion's mane
So I'll clear the road, the gravel
And the thornbush in your path
That burns a scented oil
That I'll drip into your bath
The water's there to warm you
And the earth is warmer
When you laugh
Love is a scene I render
When you catch me wide awake
Love's a dream you enter
Though I shake and shake and shake you
Love is the best endeavor
Waiting in the lion's mane
When you hear like you're alone
The rusted gears of morning
To faceless busy phones
We gladly run in circles
But the shape we meant to make is gone
Love is a tired symphony
Tou hum when you're awake
Love is a crying baby
Mama warned you not to shake
Love is the best sensation
Hiding in the lion's mane
So I'll clear the road, the gravel
And the thornbush in your path
That burns a scented oil
That I'll drip into your bath
The water's there to warm you
And the earth is warmer
When you laugh
Love is a scene I render
When you catch me wide awake
Love's a dream you enter
Though I shake and shake and shake you
Love is the best endeavor
Waiting in the lion's mane
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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"
Mental Istid
Ebba Grön
Ebba Grön
This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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.
American Town
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran shares a short story of reconnecting with an old flame on “American Town.” The track is about a holiday Ed Sheeran spends with his countrywoman who resides in America. The two are back together after a long period apart, and get around to enjoying a bunch of fun activities while rekindling the flames of their romance.
The lion's mane is an obvious representation of where love waits for all of us. A lion's mane is something you can only get to if you have the courage to set your mind aside from what bad things may come out of it and have faith that love will outrule anything else. But that's just me.
i think the "lion's mane" is a metaphor that describes a place of great royalty, because the lion is supposed to be the king of animals, and the mane is a place where you can only get by great courage and skill. i love this song so much i listen to it like 5 times every day! its just so beautiful and great and tender and awesome and.......well........everything!
Love is a dangerous game, but all-in-all its "the best endeavor".
The Lion's Mane is symbolic of how love may shake you up and hurt you once in a while, when you have it, it is the greatest feeling in the world.
Exactly right! Great interpretation! The song has the broader meaning that hurtful things (in general) can be sources of beauty, joy, and pleasure. This is why the songwriter mentions the thornbush, which paradoxically provides a pleasant feeling and smelling "scent oil". A great song from a great album. If you liked this I high recommend "pink moon" by nick drake to you.
My favorite line: "The earth is warmer when you laugh". That is simply simply gorgeous songwriting.
this song is everything, it's so beautiful & so accurately describes a feeling i myself could never explain. this song is very personal to me. i adore it.
gorgeous fantastic metaphors. makes me want to fall in love even though it doesnt portray it in a perfect light. oh god its beautiful
yes, fantasic lyrical song. for some reason i've always thought of the "lion's mane" as a metaphor. because being in a lion's mane would be the most dangerous and vulnerable place you could be because you're so close to the lion's mouth(comparing this analogy to love, it seems to make sense).
i think it's saying that love isn't all good and that it's really very hard, sometimes tedious. But it is the best thing if you can get past all the bad.
I really like your interpretation NightNeverSleeps.
I agree with prettybaby. The lion's mane is a place close to its mouth, not a place you wanna be in.