"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.
There's a silence in the city
There's nobody around
And everyone that we knew
Moved to higher ground
There's a shadow hanging overhead
It lingers there alone
Changing all we ever knew
The changes start to show
There's a sorrow about to fall
There's a sorrow about to fall
There's a new sound in the wires
And ears are to the ground
And everything that once was ours
Has slowly turned around
Something happened to the seasons
Started falling with the rain
And something changed forever
We gotta find a way
There's a sorrow about to fall
There's a sorrow about to fall
There's people in the photographs
But they all had to run
They went away to somewhere
Beyond the setting sun
There's a sorrow about to fall
There's a sorrow about to fall
There's a sorrow about to fall
There's a sorrow about to fall
Sorrow about to fall, fall, fall, fall
Sorrow about to fall
Sorrow about to fall
Sorrow about to fall
There's nobody around
And everyone that we knew
Moved to higher ground
There's a shadow hanging overhead
It lingers there alone
Changing all we ever knew
The changes start to show
There's a sorrow about to fall
There's a sorrow about to fall
There's a new sound in the wires
And ears are to the ground
And everything that once was ours
Has slowly turned around
Something happened to the seasons
Started falling with the rain
And something changed forever
We gotta find a way
There's a sorrow about to fall
There's a sorrow about to fall
There's people in the photographs
But they all had to run
They went away to somewhere
Beyond the setting sun
There's a sorrow about to fall
There's a sorrow about to fall
There's a sorrow about to fall
There's a sorrow about to fall
Sorrow about to fall, fall, fall, fall
Sorrow about to fall
Sorrow about to fall
Sorrow about to fall
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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Page
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