"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.
You can run you can hide
But you can't escape my love
Here's how it goes
You and me
Up and down
But maybe this time
We'll get it right
Worth the fight
'Cause love isn't something you can shake
When it breaks all it takes is some trying
If you feel like leaving
I'm not going to make you stay
But soon you'll be finding
You can run
You can hide
But you can't escape my love
You can run
You can hide
But you can't escape my love
So if you go
You should know
It's hard to just forget the past
So fast
It was good
It was bad,
But it was real
And that's all you have
In the end our love mattered
If you feel like leaving
I'm not going to make you stay
But soon you'll be finding
You can run
You can hide
But you can't escape my love
You can run
You can hide
But you can't escape my love
You can run, you can run
You can hide
But you can't escape my love
You can run
You can hide
But you can't escape my love
Here's how it goes
All it takes is some trying
If you feel like leaving
I'm not going to make you stay (I won't make you stay)
But soon you'll be finding
You can run
You can hide
But you can't escape my love
If you feel like leaving
I'm not going to make you stay
But soon you'll be finding
You can run
You can hide
But you can't escape my love
You can run
You can hide
You can run
You can hide
You can run
You can hide
You can run
You can hide
You can run
You can hide
But you can't escape my love
You can run, you can hide
You can run
You can hide
But you can't escape my love
But you can't escape my love
Here's how it goes
You and me
Up and down
But maybe this time
We'll get it right
Worth the fight
'Cause love isn't something you can shake
When it breaks all it takes is some trying
If you feel like leaving
I'm not going to make you stay
But soon you'll be finding
You can run
You can hide
But you can't escape my love
You can run
You can hide
But you can't escape my love
So if you go
You should know
It's hard to just forget the past
So fast
It was good
It was bad,
But it was real
And that's all you have
In the end our love mattered
If you feel like leaving
I'm not going to make you stay
But soon you'll be finding
You can run
You can hide
But you can't escape my love
You can run
You can hide
But you can't escape my love
You can run, you can run
You can hide
But you can't escape my love
You can run
You can hide
But you can't escape my love
Here's how it goes
All it takes is some trying
If you feel like leaving
I'm not going to make you stay (I won't make you stay)
But soon you'll be finding
You can run
You can hide
But you can't escape my love
If you feel like leaving
I'm not going to make you stay
But soon you'll be finding
You can run
You can hide
But you can't escape my love
You can run
You can hide
You can run
You can hide
You can run
You can hide
You can run
You can hide
You can run
You can hide
But you can't escape my love
You can run, you can hide
You can run
You can hide
But you can't escape my love
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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"
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.
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.
Page
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
this is another fucking beautiful song.
I was in the car with my mother one day and this song was on the radio. I wondered outloud why the title "escape" sounded so negative when the song is so loving. My mother said that maybe it was like my ex-boyfriend who liked me although I didn't want him to. At the time I thought that was terrible and also rather amusing. That summer my ex killed himself. Now I understand what the song really means. Even thought he's gone, what happened between us still exists. "So if you go, you should know/ it's hard to just forget the past, so fast/ It was good, it was bad, but it was real /and that's all you have/ in the end, our love mattered"
personally, i find this song freaky. here is this man telling a woman "if you want to leave it is okay, cuz i will find you, you cant escape." now, if a man told me this, i would be very afraid probably try to run and hide. but than he procedes to inform this worried woman "you can run you can hide but you cant escape my love" ouch. the freakiness of this song just went up ten points. this reminds me of pepe la pew (the skunk) who constantly chases after that poor cat. she runs "up and down" but cant get away, HE IS ALWAYS THERE. as my good friend says "some people call it stalking, i call it love" well here is a prime example.
I think the lyrics to this song are so perfect. It's my best friend and mine's fav song. My just dance to it and stuff when we're feeling down cuz guys suck lol. I think it means that this guy loves this girl and he knows if she wants to leave, she can but she cant escape his love.
this is the cutest song, i agree that its about a guy tellin his girl that she can leave, he's not gonna try and make her, but she cant ever get away from his love, which would really be hard to do, considering love is a feeling and as long as that person is feeling it, its always around. dur. this is gonna be me and my boyfriend's song, once i find one, lol.
this is actually a cool song, hot video too, anna kournikova is sooo hooootttttt! enrique is such a pimp, i wish i could be him for a day!
i think this song is way better than hero..... i dunno why its buzzin i love it......... he looks well sexy in the video too i hope it gets to no1 here in the uk xxxxxxxx
My X-boyfriend dedicated this song to me, It took me almost 3 weeks to figure out what it ment. But now that I know what it means I realized how much I realy do love him.
I dunno why but I like this song
I love this song! The lyrics are so perfect, and the video was just amazing! (especially the kissing scenes!)