"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.
The distant echo
Of faraway voices boarding faraway trains
To take them home to
The ones that they love and who love them forever
The glazed, dirty steps
Repeat my own and reflect my thoughts
Cold and uninviting, partially naked
Except for toffee wrappers and this morning's papers
Mr. Jones got run down
Headlines of death and sorrow, they tell of tomorrow
Madmen on the rampage
And I'm down in the tube station at midnight, oh
I fumble for change, and pull out the Queen
Smiling, beguiling
I put in the money and pull out a plum
Behind me
Whispers in the shadows, gruff blazing voices
Hating, waiting
"Hey boy" they shout, "Have you got any money?"
And I say, "I've a little money and a takeaway curry
I'm on my way home to my wife
She'll be lining up the cutlery, you know she's expecting me
Polishing the glasses and pulling out the cork"
I'm down in the tube station at midnight, oh
I first felt a fist, and then a kick
I could now smell their breath
They smelt of pubs, and wormwood scrubs
And too many right wing meetings
My life swam around me
It took a look and drowned me in its own existence
The smell of brown leather
It blended in with the weather
Filled my eyes, ears, nose and mouth, it blocked all my senses
Couldn't see, hear, speak any longer
I'm down in the tube station at midnight, oh
I said I was down in the tube station at midnight, oh
The last thing that I saw as I lay there on the floor
Was "Jesus saves" painted by an atheist nutter
And a British Rail poster read
"Have an away day, a cheap holiday, do it today"
I glanced back on my life, and thought about my wife
'Cause they took the keys, and she'll think it's me
I'm down in the tube station at midnight
The wine will be flat and the curry's gone cold
I'm down in the tube station at midnight, oh
Don't want to go down in a tube station at midnight, oh
Don't want to go down in a tube station at midnight, oh
Don't want to go down in a tube station at midnight, oh
Don't want to go down in a tube station at midnight, oh
Of faraway voices boarding faraway trains
To take them home to
The ones that they love and who love them forever
The glazed, dirty steps
Repeat my own and reflect my thoughts
Cold and uninviting, partially naked
Except for toffee wrappers and this morning's papers
Mr. Jones got run down
Headlines of death and sorrow, they tell of tomorrow
Madmen on the rampage
And I'm down in the tube station at midnight, oh
I fumble for change, and pull out the Queen
Smiling, beguiling
I put in the money and pull out a plum
Behind me
Whispers in the shadows, gruff blazing voices
Hating, waiting
"Hey boy" they shout, "Have you got any money?"
And I say, "I've a little money and a takeaway curry
I'm on my way home to my wife
She'll be lining up the cutlery, you know she's expecting me
Polishing the glasses and pulling out the cork"
I'm down in the tube station at midnight, oh
I first felt a fist, and then a kick
I could now smell their breath
They smelt of pubs, and wormwood scrubs
And too many right wing meetings
My life swam around me
It took a look and drowned me in its own existence
The smell of brown leather
It blended in with the weather
Filled my eyes, ears, nose and mouth, it blocked all my senses
Couldn't see, hear, speak any longer
I'm down in the tube station at midnight, oh
I said I was down in the tube station at midnight, oh
The last thing that I saw as I lay there on the floor
Was "Jesus saves" painted by an atheist nutter
And a British Rail poster read
"Have an away day, a cheap holiday, do it today"
I glanced back on my life, and thought about my wife
'Cause they took the keys, and she'll think it's me
I'm down in the tube station at midnight
The wine will be flat and the curry's gone cold
I'm down in the tube station at midnight, oh
Don't want to go down in a tube station at midnight, oh
Don't want to go down in a tube station at midnight, oh
Don't want to go down in a tube station at midnight, oh
Don't want to go down in a tube station at midnight, oh
Lyrics submitted by Mainstreet
Down in the Tube Station at Midnight Lyrics as written by Paul John Weller
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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