"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.
s/he says s/he's tired of working overtime and troubles weighing on his/her mind in class. s/he said s/he'd like to pack his/her bags and run away, and never look back. s/he says this life of mine's like doing time for crimes that i didn't commit. s/he says if life is just a game, i'm on the losing team - and i just want to quit.
s/he says we can take this weekend, drive out past city limits, keep on driving just as far as we can go. and maybe when we get back, things will seem a little better, things will work out in a way we couldn't know...
s/he says we can take this weekend, drive out past city limits, keep on driving just as far as we can go. and we can take this weekend, and make it last forever, deal the shackles of our lives a breaking blow. because to run away is victory, a tank of gas is freedom, and a starry night and open road is hope. we can take my fast car, or maybe just close our eyes, and when we open them the world we want ... can be the world we know.
s/he says we can take this weekend, drive out past city limits, keep on driving just as far as we can go. and maybe when we get back, things will seem a little better, things will work out in a way we couldn't know...
s/he says we can take this weekend, drive out past city limits, keep on driving just as far as we can go. and we can take this weekend, and make it last forever, deal the shackles of our lives a breaking blow. because to run away is victory, a tank of gas is freedom, and a starry night and open road is hope. we can take my fast car, or maybe just close our eyes, and when we open them the world we want ... can be the world we know.
Lyrics submitted by b-pot
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