"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.
Got a reason to go on, even as we speak
Stretching out like a safety net, while I fall off the cliff of the week
Thirty six hundred of them, if you’re lucky, womb to tomb
Still, I’ve never seen a Saturday that ever came too soon
Saturday, I got up just in time to hit the sack
I’ve thrown away some hours that I wouldn’t want back
Waste not want not, will I ever see the light
Or is it haste makes waste, which one is right
Old enough now to see how time can fly
Lost too many days in the blink of a tired eye
Mention Monday morning and I’m overcome with gloom
Can’t remember a Saturday that ever came too soon
Drained out hours of effort in a week that wouldn’t stop
Splashed around like a foolish kid in a day filled to the top
I have known some moments to last a thousand years
Tried to think fast as a week blew past and dusted me with fear
Time expands, time contracts, it drags until it flies
Hours last minutes then last hours, no time to wonder why
If I could grab hold of the hands of time, if I could steer my fate
I’d fix it so Saturday would never come too late
Throw the clock out the window again, I know time will fly
Keep thinking my watch has stopped, Friday night’s on my mind
Somehow while the hours drag on, years go blurring past
‘Cause I’ve never known a Saturday to last
Stretching out like a safety net, while I fall off the cliff of the week
Thirty six hundred of them, if you’re lucky, womb to tomb
Still, I’ve never seen a Saturday that ever came too soon
Saturday, I got up just in time to hit the sack
I’ve thrown away some hours that I wouldn’t want back
Waste not want not, will I ever see the light
Or is it haste makes waste, which one is right
Old enough now to see how time can fly
Lost too many days in the blink of a tired eye
Mention Monday morning and I’m overcome with gloom
Can’t remember a Saturday that ever came too soon
Drained out hours of effort in a week that wouldn’t stop
Splashed around like a foolish kid in a day filled to the top
I have known some moments to last a thousand years
Tried to think fast as a week blew past and dusted me with fear
Time expands, time contracts, it drags until it flies
Hours last minutes then last hours, no time to wonder why
If I could grab hold of the hands of time, if I could steer my fate
I’d fix it so Saturday would never come too late
Throw the clock out the window again, I know time will fly
Keep thinking my watch has stopped, Friday night’s on my mind
Somehow while the hours drag on, years go blurring past
‘Cause I’ve never known a Saturday to last
Lyrics submitted by Blaupunked
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