"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.
Come with me to a place no likes I've ever seen
A million miles from here where no one's ever been
God-given rays and a holy heaven phase [?]
I'm on the edge of something shadowy
I'm coming through
"Ok, let's fly," she says, "this carpet's made for two"
This room be [?] a little box, no place for me and you
Our carpet falls on a dew-fresh daffodil plain
Take a look around, there's something happening
All the colors fade
I don't want you now, bang bang bang gone
Oh I don't need you now, the seeds are sown
Oh bang bang pretty pretty, bang bang
I don't think so, no no
I don't think so, no no
Bang bang, bang bang
Out below the country rolls like a mighty boiling sea
The warm red sun gives up and sinks into the tree
But I've no pill [?] I can't stand here betrayed
Take a look around there's something happening
All the colors fade
I don't want you now, bang bang bang gone
Oh I don't need you now, the seeds are sown
Oh bang bang pretty pretty, bang bang
I don't think so, no no
I don't think so, no no
Bang bang, bang bang
A million miles from here where no one's ever been
God-given rays and a holy heaven phase [?]
I'm on the edge of something shadowy
I'm coming through
"Ok, let's fly," she says, "this carpet's made for two"
This room be [?] a little box, no place for me and you
Our carpet falls on a dew-fresh daffodil plain
Take a look around, there's something happening
All the colors fade
I don't want you now, bang bang bang gone
Oh I don't need you now, the seeds are sown
Oh bang bang pretty pretty, bang bang
I don't think so, no no
I don't think so, no no
Bang bang, bang bang
Out below the country rolls like a mighty boiling sea
The warm red sun gives up and sinks into the tree
But I've no pill [?] I can't stand here betrayed
Take a look around there's something happening
All the colors fade
I don't want you now, bang bang bang gone
Oh I don't need you now, the seeds are sown
Oh bang bang pretty pretty, bang bang
I don't think so, no no
I don't think so, no no
Bang bang, bang bang
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Fast Car
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