"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.
If I could be a superhero
I would be awesome man
I'd fly around the world fighting crime
According to my awesome plan
And if I saw criminals trying to lie
Hurting other people and making them cry
I'd haul them off to jail in my awesome van
'Cause I would be awesome man
Now, some criminals want you to be a criminal,
And they offer you things like drugs, alcohol.
But we know what to do, kids. We just say ‘no'.
If I could be a superhero
I would be drug-free boy
Telling the world of the evils of drugs
And all of the lives they destroy
Well I'd take all the junkie
He's getting so high
With their needles and bongs
And their sticks made of Thai
As I burn them alive I would squeal with joy
'Cause I would be drug-free boy
If I could be a superhero
I'd be immigration dude
I'd send the foreigners back to their homes
For eating up all of our food
And taking our welfare and best jobs to boot
Like landscaping, dishwashing, picking our fruit
I'd pass a lot of laws to get rid of their brood
'Cause I'd be immigration dude
Now kids, you can make up your very own superhero. If you could, who would it be?
If I could be a superhero
Would you be justice guy?
Making sure people get what they deserve
Especially women who lie
Like if a wife left her husband with three kids and no job
To run off to fucking Hawaii with some doctor named Bob
You could skin them and drain them of blood so they die (especially Bob)
Then you would be justice guy
Or you could be more subtle
No I didn't mean to be vague
Give her the mad cow disease
Let him die of the plague
As long as they suffer for their terrible lie (especially Bob)
Then you would be Justice Guy
Yes then you would be a superhero like me
I would be awesome man
I'd fly around the world fighting crime
According to my awesome plan
And if I saw criminals trying to lie
Hurting other people and making them cry
I'd haul them off to jail in my awesome van
'Cause I would be awesome man
Now, some criminals want you to be a criminal,
And they offer you things like drugs, alcohol.
But we know what to do, kids. We just say ‘no'.
If I could be a superhero
I would be drug-free boy
Telling the world of the evils of drugs
And all of the lives they destroy
Well I'd take all the junkie
He's getting so high
With their needles and bongs
And their sticks made of Thai
As I burn them alive I would squeal with joy
'Cause I would be drug-free boy
If I could be a superhero
I'd be immigration dude
I'd send the foreigners back to their homes
For eating up all of our food
And taking our welfare and best jobs to boot
Like landscaping, dishwashing, picking our fruit
I'd pass a lot of laws to get rid of their brood
'Cause I'd be immigration dude
Now kids, you can make up your very own superhero. If you could, who would it be?
If I could be a superhero
Would you be justice guy?
Making sure people get what they deserve
Especially women who lie
Like if a wife left her husband with three kids and no job
To run off to fucking Hawaii with some doctor named Bob
You could skin them and drain them of blood so they die (especially Bob)
Then you would be justice guy
Or you could be more subtle
No I didn't mean to be vague
Give her the mad cow disease
Let him die of the plague
As long as they suffer for their terrible lie (especially Bob)
Then you would be Justice Guy
Yes then you would be a superhero like me
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this baffles the hell out of me!
what the hell are sticks of tye?! or tyde, or thyme, or what? what the hell?