"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.
From the top to the bottom
Bottom to top, I stop
At the core, I've forgotten
In the middle of my thoughts
Taken far from my safety
The picture's there
The memory won't escape me
We're stuck in a place so dark, you can hardly see
A manner of matter that splits with the words I breathe
And as the rain drips acidic questions around me
I block out the sight of the powers that be
Duck away into the darkness, times up
I wind up in a rusted world with eyes shut
So tight that it blurs into the world of pretend
And the eyes ease open and it's dark again
From the top to the bottom
Bottom to top, I stop
At the core, I've forgotten
In the middle of my thoughts
Taken far from my safety
The picture's there
The memory won't escape me
But why should I care?
In the memory, you'll find me
Eyes burning up
The darkness holding me tightly
Until the sun rises up
Listen to the sound, dizzy from the ups and downs
And nauseated by the polluted rock that's all around
Watchin' the wheels of cars that pass
I look past to the last of the light
And the long shadows it cast
A window grows, captures the eye
And cries out a yellow light as it passes me by
And a young, shadowy figure sits in front of a box
Inside a building of rocks with antennas on top
Now nothing can stop in this land of the pain
The same lose, not knowing they were part of the game
And while the insides change, the box stays the same
And the figure inside could bear anybody's name
The memories I keep are from a time like then
I put on my paper so I could come back to them
Someday I'm hopin' to close my eyes and pretend
That this crumpled up paper can be perfect again
From the top to the bottom
Bottom to top, I stop
At the core, I've forgotten
In the middle of my thoughts
Taken far from my safety
The picture's there
The memory won't escape me
I'm here at this podium talking, this ceremonial offering's
Dedicated to urban dysfunctional offspring
What's happening?
City governments are eternally napping
Trapped in greedy covenants, causin' urban collapsing
Bullets that scar souls, with dark holds
Get more than your car stole
Some hearts be blacker than charcoal
For real, this society's deprivation depends
Not on our differences, but the separation within
No preparation is made, limited aid, minimum wage
Livin' in a tenement cage where rent isn't paid
Tragedy within a parade
The darkness overspreadS like permanent plague
I'm the forgotten
In the memory, you'll find me
Eyes burning up
The darkness holding me tightly
Until the sun rises up
Bottom to top, I stop
At the core, I've forgotten
In the middle of my thoughts
Taken far from my safety
The picture's there
The memory won't escape me
We're stuck in a place so dark, you can hardly see
A manner of matter that splits with the words I breathe
And as the rain drips acidic questions around me
I block out the sight of the powers that be
Duck away into the darkness, times up
I wind up in a rusted world with eyes shut
So tight that it blurs into the world of pretend
And the eyes ease open and it's dark again
From the top to the bottom
Bottom to top, I stop
At the core, I've forgotten
In the middle of my thoughts
Taken far from my safety
The picture's there
The memory won't escape me
But why should I care?
In the memory, you'll find me
Eyes burning up
The darkness holding me tightly
Until the sun rises up
Listen to the sound, dizzy from the ups and downs
And nauseated by the polluted rock that's all around
Watchin' the wheels of cars that pass
I look past to the last of the light
And the long shadows it cast
A window grows, captures the eye
And cries out a yellow light as it passes me by
And a young, shadowy figure sits in front of a box
Inside a building of rocks with antennas on top
Now nothing can stop in this land of the pain
The same lose, not knowing they were part of the game
And while the insides change, the box stays the same
And the figure inside could bear anybody's name
The memories I keep are from a time like then
I put on my paper so I could come back to them
Someday I'm hopin' to close my eyes and pretend
That this crumpled up paper can be perfect again
From the top to the bottom
Bottom to top, I stop
At the core, I've forgotten
In the middle of my thoughts
Taken far from my safety
The picture's there
The memory won't escape me
I'm here at this podium talking, this ceremonial offering's
Dedicated to urban dysfunctional offspring
What's happening?
City governments are eternally napping
Trapped in greedy covenants, causin' urban collapsing
Bullets that scar souls, with dark holds
Get more than your car stole
Some hearts be blacker than charcoal
For real, this society's deprivation depends
Not on our differences, but the separation within
No preparation is made, limited aid, minimum wage
Livin' in a tenement cage where rent isn't paid
Tragedy within a parade
The darkness overspreadS like permanent plague
I'm the forgotten
In the memory, you'll find me
Eyes burning up
The darkness holding me tightly
Until the sun rises up
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Fast Car
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forgotten is one of my favorites from hybrid theory- this one's good enough to match original