"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.
Who's in love with you now?
I swear to god... I swear to god, I am.
Who's in love with you now?
I swear to god... I swear to god, I am.
Nobody really wants ya.
(Verse 1)
First off, let me say I'm drunk off of shitty wine.
So, I probably used the b word a couple times.
I used to love your fucking mouth, you had enough of mine.
but what's the reason for, you never gave me any sign.
When we were making out, you kinda act like it was nothin'.
Like you were doing it to prove you could do it or somethin'.
You know I'm fine with getting fucked by girls who are my friends.
You fucked me in that different way. I guess it all depends.
Texting on my day off. "Hey babe, what's going on?
Sorry I can't make it out." Sad face, emoticon.
It's funny how I see you with these bad boys you hanging on.
I told you, I'm a soldier, need a girl scout to tag along.
Face down, ass up. That's the way you left me.
I thought there was a sparkle. We were missing Lisa Leslie.
"You know it's fucking childish to write a song to get me!"
I'm always fucking childish. You knew that when you met me.
(Chorus)
Who's in love with you now?
I swear to god... I swear to god, I am.
Who's in love with you now?
I swear to god... I swear to god, I am.
Nobody really wants ya.
(Verse 2)
You ain't that fine bitch, what the fuck you heard?
I love these shitty ass chicks. I guess I'll never learn.
I hate it when you really think you're getting something good.
and you don't listen to your dudes when you really should.
I got so many fucking girls, I can't even count 'em.
There's probably six or seven girls who think this song's about 'em.
Never kiss in public, but at home I am affectionate.
Fucking bitches left and right, my dick is ambidextrous.
I know you're probably texting these lyrics to your friends
saying, This nigga think he all that, he fucking sucked in bed
Well, uh... I think we both know that I work that ass.
I hope your dude can keep it stretched... yoga class.
I'm trying hard not to use a specific reference,
but you'll probably know it's you after the first sentence.
So, let me quit while I'm ahead like a penis.
If I never was in love with you I hope you know I'm meaning it.
(Chorus)
Who's in love with you now?
I swear to god... I swear to god, I am.
Who's in love with you now?
I swear to god... I swear to god, I am.
Nobody really wants ya.
X2
Nobody really wants ya...
Nobody really wants ya...
Nobody really wants ya.
wants ya (echoes out)
I swear to god... I swear to god, I am.
Who's in love with you now?
I swear to god... I swear to god, I am.
Nobody really wants ya.
(Verse 1)
First off, let me say I'm drunk off of shitty wine.
So, I probably used the b word a couple times.
I used to love your fucking mouth, you had enough of mine.
but what's the reason for, you never gave me any sign.
When we were making out, you kinda act like it was nothin'.
Like you were doing it to prove you could do it or somethin'.
You know I'm fine with getting fucked by girls who are my friends.
You fucked me in that different way. I guess it all depends.
Texting on my day off. "Hey babe, what's going on?
Sorry I can't make it out." Sad face, emoticon.
It's funny how I see you with these bad boys you hanging on.
I told you, I'm a soldier, need a girl scout to tag along.
Face down, ass up. That's the way you left me.
I thought there was a sparkle. We were missing Lisa Leslie.
"You know it's fucking childish to write a song to get me!"
I'm always fucking childish. You knew that when you met me.
(Chorus)
Who's in love with you now?
I swear to god... I swear to god, I am.
Who's in love with you now?
I swear to god... I swear to god, I am.
Nobody really wants ya.
(Verse 2)
You ain't that fine bitch, what the fuck you heard?
I love these shitty ass chicks. I guess I'll never learn.
I hate it when you really think you're getting something good.
and you don't listen to your dudes when you really should.
I got so many fucking girls, I can't even count 'em.
There's probably six or seven girls who think this song's about 'em.
Never kiss in public, but at home I am affectionate.
Fucking bitches left and right, my dick is ambidextrous.
I know you're probably texting these lyrics to your friends
saying, This nigga think he all that, he fucking sucked in bed
Well, uh... I think we both know that I work that ass.
I hope your dude can keep it stretched... yoga class.
I'm trying hard not to use a specific reference,
but you'll probably know it's you after the first sentence.
So, let me quit while I'm ahead like a penis.
If I never was in love with you I hope you know I'm meaning it.
(Chorus)
Who's in love with you now?
I swear to god... I swear to god, I am.
Who's in love with you now?
I swear to god... I swear to god, I am.
Nobody really wants ya.
X2
Nobody really wants ya...
Nobody really wants ya...
Nobody really wants ya.
wants ya (echoes out)
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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"
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin
This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
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.
Did anyone else catch that he was drunk when he wrote this?