"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.
Skinny was born in a bathtub
And he grew so incredibly thin
Even the end of an eyedropper
sucked him in
Skinny never knew any questiong
Skinny never looked at the lights
But Skinny sold something
every single night
Skinny sold a soldier to me
Skinny sold a wife
Skinny sold a suction cup
And a knife
Skinny found a Hello Dolly
record in the hall
He sold it to a truck driver
in the fall
Hello, Dolly
And he grew so incredibly thin
Even the end of an eyedropper
sucked him in
Skinny never knew any questiong
Skinny never looked at the lights
But Skinny sold something
every single night
Skinny sold a soldier to me
Skinny sold a wife
Skinny sold a suction cup
And a knife
Skinny found a Hello Dolly
record in the hall
He sold it to a truck driver
in the fall
Hello, Dolly
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I have two ideas forthis very strange song:
Skinny growing thin is not having very many riches, and not looking to be rich. He never looks at the lights(the lime light) yet still sold a lot of things. Skinny also selling very odd things to odd people to sell it to. In this way, this could be the Residents defense to not selling out yet still selling things and how that makes sense
This one is the exact opposite than the first. Skinny was thin because he was weak. He did sell out but was behind the rich man he was very weak. Not knowing any questions would be always hiring people to answer the questions for him. Not looking at the lights would not be looking to the beauty of things. He also doesn't notice any value of anything either, he finds a rare copy of a Hello Dolly record and just basically throws it away on some truck driver.
You've got a keen eye for these lyrics. I was thinking along the lines of the second interpretation. But for me, the song more focuses on his total lack of moral framework, his "skinniness". Being so passive, whatever he sells is all the same to him and so he sees no problem in selling another person ("a wife") or a knife, which the song makes sound kind of evil, or a record worth a lot of money. I don't know if you've seen the video, but you see him marching with Hitler, cleaning up passively after some gruesome murder, and at one point the actor's face is replaced with a picture of Ed Gein, a serial killer from the 50s.