"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 was born on Snake Hill
And that's where I'll probably die
Because I don't like to kill
But I've got poison in my bite
Well, I feel safe to say
That I should probably stay upon Snake Hill
My mother told me, "Son
You got strychnine in your blood
It comes from pedigree ancestory"
She warned me not to leave
Said my concience was too deep
That when I bite
It would hurt mostly me
For many many years
I stayed up on that hill
Occasionaly I'd go down to the edge
Just to see what I could see
So curiousity got the best of me
Well, it's a big world and it's not fair to me
To stay up there when there's so much to see
I want to play with others that I need to meet
Poison will be poison till it's through
Soon I hit the world
I discovered that a girl
Was what my mother tried to hide from me
She could make you feel alive
She could make you want to die
And that's exactly what she did to me
And it was only self defense
But I coiled up and I bit
I let my venom run into her veins
And I sat and watched her die
To me
Then I realized
I was born on Snake Hill
And that's where I'll probably die
Because I don't like to kill
But I've got poison in my bite
Well, I feel safe to say
That I should probably stay upon Snake Hill
And it's a big world and it's not fair to me
To have to stay when there's so much to see
I want to play with others that I need to meet
And poison will be poison till it's through
Poison will be poison till it's through
Poison will be poison till it's through
Poison will be poison till it's through
And that's where I'll probably die
Because I don't like to kill
But I've got poison in my bite
Well, I feel safe to say
That I should probably stay upon Snake Hill
My mother told me, "Son
You got strychnine in your blood
It comes from pedigree ancestory"
She warned me not to leave
Said my concience was too deep
That when I bite
It would hurt mostly me
For many many years
I stayed up on that hill
Occasionaly I'd go down to the edge
Just to see what I could see
So curiousity got the best of me
Well, it's a big world and it's not fair to me
To stay up there when there's so much to see
I want to play with others that I need to meet
Poison will be poison till it's through
Soon I hit the world
I discovered that a girl
Was what my mother tried to hide from me
She could make you feel alive
She could make you want to die
And that's exactly what she did to me
And it was only self defense
But I coiled up and I bit
I let my venom run into her veins
And I sat and watched her die
To me
Then I realized
I was born on Snake Hill
And that's where I'll probably die
Because I don't like to kill
But I've got poison in my bite
Well, I feel safe to say
That I should probably stay upon Snake Hill
And it's a big world and it's not fair to me
To have to stay when there's so much to see
I want to play with others that I need to meet
And poison will be poison till it's through
Poison will be poison till it's through
Poison will be poison till it's through
Poison will be poison till it's through
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Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
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I wonder if this is a reference to Kerouac's on the road where he wrote:
"I told her about the big snake of the world that was coiled in the earth like a worm in an apple and would someday nudge up a hill to be thereafter known as Snake Hill and fold out upon the plain a hundred miles long and devouring as it went along. I told her this snake was Satan."
What an amazing passage. Everything in the universe is telling me to read On The Road finally and I don't know why I haven't listened yet.
this is a really great song
is he maybe talking about.. making a girl fall in love with him and all he does is break hearts?? i dunno, i suck at songmeanings obviously
Not far off, imo, entirety... This song is about how damaging words can be... particularly the words exchanged in a relationship.
any relationship based on falsities usually finds the man looking like a snake, while most women are genuine about their feelings. the inevitable hurt that comes with those hurtful times when she is realizing his true nature usually kill her in his eyes, but her trust for men thereafter.
THIS SONG IS WRITTEN BY TAYLOR HOLLINGSWORTH (myspace.com/taylorhollingsworth) of the mystic valley band, and NOT CONOR OBERST of the same band.
OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!
thanks man. i didn't know it was by him.
After listening to this song a few times, I got the idea that maybe it was about AIDS. The line about self-defense doesnt really support this idea, but the rest could. I could be way off, but i think it could be.
That's a very interesting idea. Imagine if sometime in the future one could be born with AIDs.
This song is about the dangers of love, and how love is lethal to both the giver and the receiver. It's a metaphor, the poison is the passion.
I think its about a guy who got his heart broken once so now when he feels like he's falling for some one he breaks her heart then he leaves back to snake hill being his loneliness.