"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.
My fascination with a single common theme
And I am hounded by the fear that I might be losing it
Slipping from reality into dream
When my mind is muddled by the way it seems to work
I start looking for just one connecting Force
Someone to assure me we that didn't lose the war today
That the battle's General's still riding on his horse
In the mornings when I pray, I've often come to You with dreams
Little bits of power that I can't comprehend
And sometimes I can keep my eyes unclosed for long enough
To see the blowing of a distant steady Wind
The distance doesn't take too long for You to cover it
And when You reach me, You just blow these things apart
You clear the crowd that's gathered 'round the crisis of my soul
And whisper to my suffocating heart
And is the juice of the joints of the motion of life
And is the love that is between God and his beautiful wife
And has two hands and two feet and a long, lovely side
And rose three days after he was crucified
So You're the Force of gravity that I feel pulling at my feet
You're the Fuel at the center of the sun
And, it's your Ghost that fills the atmosphere with what we need to breathe
And, everything I've ever wondered, You're the one
Both my hands are stained with blood
And both my lips are stained with tears
From when I kissed the widow of the man I killed
And, yet You're asking me to swallow Your forgivness here today
You say the bond required for my pardon's been fulfilled
And I am hounded by the fear that I might be losing it
Slipping from reality into dream
When my mind is muddled by the way it seems to work
I start looking for just one connecting Force
Someone to assure me we that didn't lose the war today
That the battle's General's still riding on his horse
In the mornings when I pray, I've often come to You with dreams
Little bits of power that I can't comprehend
And sometimes I can keep my eyes unclosed for long enough
To see the blowing of a distant steady Wind
The distance doesn't take too long for You to cover it
And when You reach me, You just blow these things apart
You clear the crowd that's gathered 'round the crisis of my soul
And whisper to my suffocating heart
And is the juice of the joints of the motion of life
And is the love that is between God and his beautiful wife
And has two hands and two feet and a long, lovely side
And rose three days after he was crucified
So You're the Force of gravity that I feel pulling at my feet
You're the Fuel at the center of the sun
And, it's your Ghost that fills the atmosphere with what we need to breathe
And, everything I've ever wondered, You're the one
Both my hands are stained with blood
And both my lips are stained with tears
From when I kissed the widow of the man I killed
And, yet You're asking me to swallow Your forgivness here today
You say the bond required for my pardon's been fulfilled
Lyrics submitted by ThreeMilesDown
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I was hoping for some explanation but dismayed to find none, so i guess i'll offer my two cents:
It's clear that the word "And" (capitalized) replaces the name "Jesus" for the last two lines of the chorus. I inferred from there that it is also meant to replace "Jesus" in the first two lines. It's strange to me because the last lines before the chorus always seem to be complete statements. The only thing i can think of is that he's saying that Jesus is the "and" in that He links God and Man.
The CD booklet says that the chorus was written before the verses, and it sure seems to stand out.