"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.
It's another way to get through the day
Picking up ripped cigarette boxes
Hoping that one remains
Yellow lucky day suck deep and bathe
For the next ten minutes spent coughing
All the pleasures craved
Write down all the things that
You'd like to say
Write down all the things that
You'd like to change
Write down all the places you'd
Like to stay
Write down anything that you want
Is yesterday, tomorrow, today?
Is nothin' gonna change the way
Cracked rock top wall let the ash to fall
Left alone to wait I've never looked at things
I've liked only things I hate
You're not the first today
Not the softest face
Was there any that you liked
Was there any that you didn't fake?
Write down all the things
That you'd like to be
Write down all the things
That you don't believe
Write down all the places you'd like to see
Write down anything that you want
Is yesterday, tomorrow, today?
Is nothing gonna change the way?
Because everything that's you
And the things that you like to do
And all of the things that are
Come back again
Is yesterday, tomorrow, today?
Picking up ripped cigarette boxes
Hoping that one remains
Yellow lucky day suck deep and bathe
For the next ten minutes spent coughing
All the pleasures craved
Write down all the things that
You'd like to say
Write down all the things that
You'd like to change
Write down all the places you'd
Like to stay
Write down anything that you want
Is yesterday, tomorrow, today?
Is nothin' gonna change the way
Cracked rock top wall let the ash to fall
Left alone to wait I've never looked at things
I've liked only things I hate
You're not the first today
Not the softest face
Was there any that you liked
Was there any that you didn't fake?
Write down all the things
That you'd like to be
Write down all the things
That you don't believe
Write down all the places you'd like to see
Write down anything that you want
Is yesterday, tomorrow, today?
Is nothing gonna change the way?
Because everything that's you
And the things that you like to do
And all of the things that are
Come back again
Is yesterday, tomorrow, today?
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Fast Car
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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Should have been titled "is yesterday's tomorrow today"