"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.
I watch my yellow cat
Invade my red cat in the yard
The feline war has raged for years
So I assume it'd be too hard
For me to drive my foot between them
I would never risk the scratch
Just to prove to one or both of them
A cat is just a cat
Again, I watch my cousin greg
Watch mtv inside his home
He makes fun of the hip hop videos
From the couch he rides alone
Snug in the cushion of his cackling
He forgets his living doubts
He has relied on this for years
You will not yank the carpet out
These are my friends
This is who they have been for always
These are my days
This is how they stay
I watch this dude
Each night, same table
He creates and crumples up
His eyes are wide from sipping endlessly
His endless coffee cup
He feeds me quotes
That lonely goat
I watch him grazing by himself
I will not stop him when he rambles
I'm becoming one myself
Lou is bugged
Shot up with drugs
He sweats this bird he hardly knows
All that he wants is to see someone
He respects without their clothes
So like some hybrid mother/lover
She'd soothe and heal his wounds
And kiss those dying ears so softly
That the reaper stops to swoon
Oh please
These are my friends
This is who they have been for always
These are my days
This is how they stay
These are my friends
This is who they remain forever
This is how we stay
I watch my neighbor's son
Play with his shotgun in the street
I think I'll blaze all day
And marvel at the massive food I eat
It's strange, I'm skinny when I'm standing
But I'm buddha when I sit
And if I'm truly so enlightened
Why'd I waste your time on it
As I look back at countless crossroads
And the middle where I stay
Right up the beaten path to boredom
Where the fakest fucks get laid
By the faux-finest finds
It's been that way
God damn you, how you stay
With every scummy, crummy hour
Of the scummy, crummy day
These are my friends
This is who they have been for always
These are my days
This is how they stay
These are my friends
This is who they remain forever
This is how we stay
Invade my red cat in the yard
The feline war has raged for years
So I assume it'd be too hard
For me to drive my foot between them
I would never risk the scratch
Just to prove to one or both of them
A cat is just a cat
Again, I watch my cousin greg
Watch mtv inside his home
He makes fun of the hip hop videos
From the couch he rides alone
Snug in the cushion of his cackling
He forgets his living doubts
He has relied on this for years
You will not yank the carpet out
These are my friends
This is who they have been for always
These are my days
This is how they stay
I watch this dude
Each night, same table
He creates and crumples up
His eyes are wide from sipping endlessly
His endless coffee cup
He feeds me quotes
That lonely goat
I watch him grazing by himself
I will not stop him when he rambles
I'm becoming one myself
Lou is bugged
Shot up with drugs
He sweats this bird he hardly knows
All that he wants is to see someone
He respects without their clothes
So like some hybrid mother/lover
She'd soothe and heal his wounds
And kiss those dying ears so softly
That the reaper stops to swoon
Oh please
These are my friends
This is who they have been for always
These are my days
This is how they stay
These are my friends
This is who they remain forever
This is how we stay
I watch my neighbor's son
Play with his shotgun in the street
I think I'll blaze all day
And marvel at the massive food I eat
It's strange, I'm skinny when I'm standing
But I'm buddha when I sit
And if I'm truly so enlightened
Why'd I waste your time on it
As I look back at countless crossroads
And the middle where I stay
Right up the beaten path to boredom
Where the fakest fucks get laid
By the faux-finest finds
It's been that way
God damn you, how you stay
With every scummy, crummy hour
Of the scummy, crummy day
These are my friends
This is who they have been for always
These are my days
This is how they stay
These are my friends
This is who they remain forever
This is how we stay
Lyrics submitted by AllStarMe, edited by Rude Boy EEEE
Yellow Cat (Slash) Red Cat Lyrics as written by Max Bemis
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I think this song is about apathy and laziness. The main character sees all these things going on around him, but never bothers to do anything to change them or stop them because it would be "too hard" ("the feline war has raged for years / so I assume it'd be too hard / for me to drive my foot between them / I would never risk the scratch"). The main character isn't the only one who is like this; his friends are too. His cousin Greg spends all his time watching MTV and making fun of the videos, and that's how he deals with his insecurities. The "dude" spends all his time drinking coffee, being alone, and rambling to anyone who will listen to him; the main character sees himself in this dude. Lou is a drug addict who wants someone else to fix him (to be some "hybrid mother/lover") instead of fixing himself. The neighbor's son plays with his shotgun in the street, and no one even cares even though it could be very dangerous. The main character sees this happening, but instead of intervening, he just lets it happen (like he did with the red cat and the yellow cat) and smokes weed all day. He's stuck in the middle of the crossroads, in a sort of limbo where nothing ever changes and he's too lazy to make change happen. His friends are stuck in the same situation; "these are my friends / this is who they remain forever / this is how we stay".