"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.
Taken the long way
Dark realms I went through
I arrived
My vision's so clear
In anger and pain
I left deep wounds behind
But I arrived
Truth might be changed by victory
Beyond the void but deep within me
A swamp of filth exists
A lake it was of crystal beauty
But Arda's spring went by
I've heard the warning
Well curse my name
I'll keep on laughing
No regret
No regret
Don't fear the eyes of the dark lord
Morgoth I cried
All hope is gone but I swear revenge
Hear my oath
I will take part in your damned fate
I will always remember their cries
Like a shadow which covers the light
I will always remember the time
But it's past
I cannot turn back the time
(I) don't look back
There's still smoke near the shore
But I arrived
Revenge be mine
I will take part in your damned fate
Morgoth I cried
It's my oath
So don't fear the eyes
Of the dark lord
Soon you will be free
Set your spirit free
"Suddenly I realized
The prophecies
I've never believed in
My deeds were wrong
I've stained the land
And slain my kin
(Burning Soul)
There's no release from my sins
It hurts
THE CURSE OF FËANOR RUNS LONG
Time and only time will tell us
Tell: was I right or wrong?
When anger breaks through
I'll leave mercy behind"
I will take part in your damned fate
Morgoth I cried
It's my oath
So don't fear the eyes
Of the dark lord
I will always remember their cries
Like a shadow they'll cover my life
But I'll also remember mine
(And) after all I'm still alive
Dark realms I went through
I arrived
My vision's so clear
In anger and pain
I left deep wounds behind
But I arrived
Truth might be changed by victory
Beyond the void but deep within me
A swamp of filth exists
A lake it was of crystal beauty
But Arda's spring went by
I've heard the warning
Well curse my name
I'll keep on laughing
No regret
No regret
Don't fear the eyes of the dark lord
Morgoth I cried
All hope is gone but I swear revenge
Hear my oath
I will take part in your damned fate
I will always remember their cries
Like a shadow which covers the light
I will always remember the time
But it's past
I cannot turn back the time
(I) don't look back
There's still smoke near the shore
But I arrived
Revenge be mine
I will take part in your damned fate
Morgoth I cried
It's my oath
So don't fear the eyes
Of the dark lord
Soon you will be free
Set your spirit free
"Suddenly I realized
The prophecies
I've never believed in
My deeds were wrong
I've stained the land
And slain my kin
(Burning Soul)
There's no release from my sins
It hurts
THE CURSE OF FËANOR RUNS LONG
Time and only time will tell us
Tell: was I right or wrong?
When anger breaks through
I'll leave mercy behind"
I will take part in your damned fate
Morgoth I cried
It's my oath
So don't fear the eyes
Of the dark lord
I will always remember their cries
Like a shadow they'll cover my life
But I'll also remember mine
(And) after all I'm still alive
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
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"
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.
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.
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 song represents the madness which feanor had befallen as the silmarils were lost. these lyrics are really worth a good song!
what?? rider_of_the_sun??? are you serious??? BG is the best at singing about this type of genre....anyway...
this is my favourite song on the album, when feanor, and the curse him and all his kin,beacuse of the oath he swore....great GREAT song!!!
I love this song. Not only because it is about my favourite character, but I also love the overall song. What a poor sentence. Anyway...
It is, obviously, about Fëanor's desent into madness.
At the second last verse (I'm not counting choruses, here) I believe it his thoughts as he is dying. He finally realizes all that he is done, and he feels remorse for it.
Then, the last verse may be told from the perspective of a dead Fëanor. He is saying that, even in the Halls of Mandos, he cannot find release of the memories of his deeds. And although he is physically dead, his thoughts and memories are not. He can look at everything differently now, since he is no longer blinded by madness and rage.
So yeah. That's my interpretation.
He means that Hammerfall is the "Blink 182-version" of power metal. And I totally agree!
Yeah... fuck hammerfall!
I really like this song...listened many and many times to it, the chorus kinda sticks in your head, and thats not bad at all! Hmm...just one thing...never saw them doing this song live, anyone knows why? It's such a great song!
I thik that Telperion interpretation is almost correct but a few things. "I will always remember their cries Like a shadow which covers the light I will always remember the time But it's past I cannot turn back the time (I) don't look back There's still smoke near the shore But I arrived Revenge be mine" I believe this part of the song is about the fratricide of Alqualondë, where Feanor and the other Noldor kill the Teleri and burn the ships they didn't steal from them. That's about the "smoke near the shore".
Feanor and his followers didn't burn the ships of the Teleri that they didn't steal. The sailed the stolen ships across Belegaer, then burned them at the shore with the intention of stranding the people of Fingolfin and Finarfin's kindred in Aman.
@lilithlun I think it compresses several things, one is surely Alqualondë but the smoke near the shore is the burning of the ships at Losgar, where Fëanor betrayed and abandoned the two thirds of the Noldor who were following his brother Fingolfin.
This one is about Feanors mad quest and his oath. I made a lyric video for this to help contextualize the song! <3 youtube.com/watch
Enjoy!
@nick107276 Updated link: youtube.com/watch
That's about the hate of Feanor after the stealing from Morgoth of the Silmarils and the slaining of his father, Finwe.
<<Taken the long way Dark realms I went through I arrived My vision's so clear In anger and pain I left deep wounds behind But I arrived Truth might be changed by victory>>
Feanor approaching the middle earth, I think
<<Beyond the void but deep within me A swamp of filth exists>> This is describing the middle earth
<<A lake it was of crystal beauty But Arda's spring went by>>
Went by because of the destruction of Telperion and Laurelin and the spreading of the evilness of Melkor
<<I've heard the warning Well curse my name I'll keep on laughing No regret No regret>>
The Valar send Mandos to talk to them, after the Alqualonde fratricide, to warn them about the unnumbered tears they'll have to cry, and the pain they'll suffer because of their betrayal, so that they'll be exiliated from the Immortal Lands. But Feanor replys with a laugh ( " the deeds that we shall do shall be the matter of song until the last days of Arda!") Finarfin gets back to Valinor, though.
After that is obviously about the Curse, then the Alqualonde killing.
Last part is the most enigmatic. As others says, it is probably Feanor in the Mandos halls, at about the end of the world ( "Soon you will be free / Set your spirit free) realizing how bad is what he has done. After all, as Tolkien says, he was inspired by Melkor, his poison has reached his way to Feanor heart, and was Melkor speaking through him.
Awesome.
As is evident from the song's title itself, this is about Feanor and his rejection of Arda and the rule of the Ainur and his leading of the Noldor under his house (though he believed only him and if he died his sons should be the only high kings of the Noldor) to Middle Earth after The Kinslaying.
"In anger and pain, I left deep wounds behind." He left Arda with his father killed by Melkor and the silmarils stolen. There might also be a reference here to the deep wounds that were felt by the Teleri, as well as felt by others. Although, given Feanor's character it seems doubtful he feels guilty of it himself.
"But I arrived, truth might be changed by victory" Probably saying Feanor wanted to make his own truth rather than accept what others believed to be truth. For instance: it was in the best interest of the elves to reside in Arda, the silmarils should have been given up to restore the two trees etc.
"A lake it was of crystal beauty But Arda's spring went by"
I think this might be a reference to how originally, when the Elves, the first children of Iluvitar were awoken, they were by a lake (I forget the name of it) and there was no sun or moon but they were under nothing but starlight, and the lake beautifully reflected it. Feanor wants to go back to being in Middle Earth and at the very least bring those under his house of the Noldor to it. He wants to be the final say in everything and doesn't want the consideration of his half brother, or any of the spirits Ainur, Maia etc.
The following verses in the first chorus are about The Oath and relentlessly seeking after Morgoth's destruction and retreival of the silmarils along with remembering The Kinslaying and knowing there's no going back for him, as well as a mention of when they stole the three most precious ships of the Teleri and then burned them.
(Burning Soul) is a reference to what happened to Feanor's body when he died, not leaving a corpse behind but leaving merely ashes.