"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.
slicing jaws a way of life
brought up to waste mankind
loki's pets his little children
deadly eyery time
trapped in swamps by gates of hell
don't ever: let them out
for if you do and they escape
you'll fight a bloody bout
piranha kill in a pack - you'll run
piranha start to attack - you'll done
if you think you can beat - deadly school
if you think you can live - vou're a fool
gates of hell are old and cracked
they tumble and they fall
out rush a bloody wall of death
to kill anything at all
their sole mission is t0 kill
strip your bones and flesh
rip out your eyes tear off your face
an agonizing death
piranha kill in a pack - you'll run
piranha start to attack - you're done
if you think you can beat - deadly school
if you think you can live - you're a fool
brought up to waste mankind
loki's pets his little children
deadly eyery time
trapped in swamps by gates of hell
don't ever: let them out
for if you do and they escape
you'll fight a bloody bout
piranha kill in a pack - you'll run
piranha start to attack - you'll done
if you think you can beat - deadly school
if you think you can live - vou're a fool
gates of hell are old and cracked
they tumble and they fall
out rush a bloody wall of death
to kill anything at all
their sole mission is t0 kill
strip your bones and flesh
rip out your eyes tear off your face
an agonizing death
piranha kill in a pack - you'll run
piranha start to attack - you're done
if you think you can beat - deadly school
if you think you can live - you're a fool
Lyrics submitted by KrudeDuse
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Fast Car
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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I honestly am not sure if Exodus cared enough to craft a metaphor such as this, but I think the school of piranhas is comperable to certain metal scenes at the time. The metalheads were often at war with the punk rockers, and each stuck to their own kind. Since I was born in 88 I couldn't tell you what it was really like, but I'm led to believe that if you pissed off one metalhead you had a whole pack of them after you soon enough, especially in the San Fransisco Bay Area.
The part that throws me off is the reference to Loki. I don't know where that would fit in there.
But this song kicks enough ass for it not to matter anyway.
Thats not how it was in San Francisco in the mid 1980s,which was when Exodus where in their prime.The metalheads and punks generally got along most of the time.Skinheads where a problem though.
I'm not sure they'd make such a metaphor for this song, but you could be right. Either way, it's a great song! There's also a great cover by Sepultura.
"This song ain't about no goldfish, and it ain't about no tuna fish, and it ain't about no trout!" - Paul Baloff, 1985
This song rules. I wouldn't try and look very far into Exodus' lyrics, you're not going to find much. This song is simply about a school of piranhas eatin' some poor bastard. Thrash is largely based around violence and fury and bands would just write about stuff in that vein, because that's what the scene was calling for. So, don't really put that much thought into the lyrics; just sit back and enjoy the riffs.
It ain't about no goldfish, it ain't about no tuna fish, and it AIN'T ABOUT NO TROUT!
If violence is a common theme in thrash metal, it's possible that this song is an extended metaphor for such. I've always seen the line "If you think you can live - you're a fool" as a reference to teenage boys joining gangs or wars, thinking that it would be cool and not a fucking thing could destroy them when they really end up getting wounded, killed or traumatized by the horrors of battle. Loki is a Viking god and the Vikings were notorious throughout the Middle Ages for terrorizing and pillaging.
This song is about hell ,evil and violence.
Wicked god Loki and his demons (in this case the piranhas) and other evil creatures from hell which will cause a slaughter if escape.