"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.
Met a woman she's spouting prose
She's got luggage eyes and a roman nose
Her body is slung from side to side
Need a lift she said much obliged
I'm riding piggy-back
Then I came to her shack
We go inside the place it's a mess
She said my name's the liquid poetess
She unties her mouth
And her buckskin dress
She drinks from a bottle
Labelled tenderness
I'm in one hand in the other's a can
She puts me in the can
And smiles through the wall
I got the horror's 'cause I'm one inch tall
Next thing I know's a girl by my side
Dressed in a bayleaf she's trying to hide
I asked her name she said Germaine
Do the rock do the one inch rock.
She's got luggage eyes and a roman nose
Her body is slung from side to side
Need a lift she said much obliged
I'm riding piggy-back
Then I came to her shack
We go inside the place it's a mess
She said my name's the liquid poetess
She unties her mouth
And her buckskin dress
She drinks from a bottle
Labelled tenderness
I'm in one hand in the other's a can
She puts me in the can
And smiles through the wall
I got the horror's 'cause I'm one inch tall
Next thing I know's a girl by my side
Dressed in a bayleaf she's trying to hide
I asked her name she said Germaine
Do the rock do the one inch rock.
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This song is so cool. I love his backing vocals in the song and the acoustic guitar is awesome. Once again, like in every song Bolan wrote, the lyrics are out of this world.
Rockin' acoustic song. Vocals rock from Marc Bolan.
Cracking good Bolan track. There are different versions of this, but my favourite is the one with the long introduction. By the time the lyric begins, you're well away and can't stop rocking. By the end of the first verse, you're deep in Marc's magical, mystical world. At the end of the track, you're completely exhausted. Great stuff !!