"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 by when you get off work
I'll be sitting around doing nothing
Let's wait till the sun goes down
Then we'll drive off deep into the night
Don't care where we are going
As long as I'm going with you
The summer swells in us
With the heat comes a new kind of wanting
Cool nights never cooled us off
Lay around, wait for something to happen
When it is three lonely figures
A bedroom, a basement, she's scared
Which one is sleeping
And which one is lying awake?
Which one is sleeping
And which one is lying about it?
Afternoon drags on and on
Movie nights that never end
We can hang out all night long
Lay in bed and talk to a good friend
'Cause we only get older
You probably forget what it is like
The university's quiet today
Didn't clean, we just talked in the bathroom
The girl always gets in my way
Ruined friendships but others replace them
These opinions are poison
I've been drinking them all of my life
I could never replace you
I could never forget what it's like
Step out on a moonlit roof
The radio leads a feel good revolution
Cigarettes and my closest friends
Tell myself that I have to remember this
Remember this
Tell myself that I have to remember this
Remember this
To remember, to remember this
I'll be sitting around doing nothing
Let's wait till the sun goes down
Then we'll drive off deep into the night
Don't care where we are going
As long as I'm going with you
The summer swells in us
With the heat comes a new kind of wanting
Cool nights never cooled us off
Lay around, wait for something to happen
When it is three lonely figures
A bedroom, a basement, she's scared
Which one is sleeping
And which one is lying awake?
Which one is sleeping
And which one is lying about it?
Afternoon drags on and on
Movie nights that never end
We can hang out all night long
Lay in bed and talk to a good friend
'Cause we only get older
You probably forget what it is like
The university's quiet today
Didn't clean, we just talked in the bathroom
The girl always gets in my way
Ruined friendships but others replace them
These opinions are poison
I've been drinking them all of my life
I could never replace you
I could never forget what it's like
Step out on a moonlit roof
The radio leads a feel good revolution
Cigarettes and my closest friends
Tell myself that I have to remember this
Remember this
Tell myself that I have to remember this
Remember this
To remember, to remember this
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I miss the good old summer days.. "step out on a moonlit roof the radio leads a feel good revolution cigarettes and my closest friends I tell myself that I have to remember this I have to remember this"