"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.
And it's a hard life
For a man with no wife
Babe, it's a hard life
God makes you live
But without it
Don't doubt it
You don't even have
Your tears to give
I wake up and I'm fine
With my dreamings still on my mind
But it don't take long, you see
For the demons to come and visit me
And I've got my problems
Sometimes love don't solve them
And I end each day
In a song
And it's a hard life
For a man with no wife
Lord, it's a hard life
God makes you live
But without it
Baby, don't doubt it
You don't even have
Your tears to give
I know I'm a hard man
To live with sometimes
Maybe it ain't in me
To make you a happy wife of mine
Maybe you'll kill me
Honey I don't blame you
If I was in your place
Maybe that's what I would do
But I ain't breathing, let me breathe
Let me go, let me leave
I don't know, but I might lose
I might bum, might blow a fuse
So let me go
Lay it down
On my own
Let me drown
Let me go
Go where you don't know
For a man with no wife
Babe, it's a hard life
God makes you live
But without it
Don't doubt it
You don't even have
Your tears to give
I wake up and I'm fine
With my dreamings still on my mind
But it don't take long, you see
For the demons to come and visit me
And I've got my problems
Sometimes love don't solve them
And I end each day
In a song
And it's a hard life
For a man with no wife
Lord, it's a hard life
God makes you live
But without it
Baby, don't doubt it
You don't even have
Your tears to give
I know I'm a hard man
To live with sometimes
Maybe it ain't in me
To make you a happy wife of mine
Maybe you'll kill me
Honey I don't blame you
If I was in your place
Maybe that's what I would do
But I ain't breathing, let me breathe
Let me go, let me leave
I don't know, but I might lose
I might bum, might blow a fuse
So let me go
Lay it down
On my own
Let me drown
Let me go
Go where you don't know
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