"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'm nobody's hippie and the best medicine
is back on track with his taco bell girlfriend
maybe i'll listen to back in black again
and write more letters that i'll never send
and pretend i'm going for a drive
and pretend i'm driving on I-5
and pretend i'm drinking five alive
and soon you will arrive
and say you're my hippie i'll say i'm your hippie
we'll giggle and cuddle and always be happy
we'll never go crazy we'll never feel crappy
we'll never feel crappy we'll always be happy
and you and me will be whirlwinds of danger
we'll crash on our bikes and take candy from strangers
i'll sleep on the top bunk you'll sleep in the manger
the odds always upstage the wager
i'm nobody's hippie and the best medicine's
back in the sack with his burger king girlfriend
maybe i'll play tekken 2 all alone again
hold down select and then laff at big heads
and pretend that my selective seclusion
doesn't make me start to jump to conclusions
this shit's not a high five or optic illusion
my premonitions are not all delusions
so please be my hippie i'm nobody's hippie
we'll smoke some patchouli our lives will be trippy
i try to be mallory but i'm still skippy
we'll freebase tamari like pat benatari
i'm nobody's hippie and the best medicine
is back on track with his taco bell girlfriend
maybe i'll listen to back in black again
and write more letters that i'll never send
and write more letters that i'll never send
is back on track with his taco bell girlfriend
maybe i'll listen to back in black again
and write more letters that i'll never send
and pretend i'm going for a drive
and pretend i'm driving on I-5
and pretend i'm drinking five alive
and soon you will arrive
and say you're my hippie i'll say i'm your hippie
we'll giggle and cuddle and always be happy
we'll never go crazy we'll never feel crappy
we'll never feel crappy we'll always be happy
and you and me will be whirlwinds of danger
we'll crash on our bikes and take candy from strangers
i'll sleep on the top bunk you'll sleep in the manger
the odds always upstage the wager
i'm nobody's hippie and the best medicine's
back in the sack with his burger king girlfriend
maybe i'll play tekken 2 all alone again
hold down select and then laff at big heads
and pretend that my selective seclusion
doesn't make me start to jump to conclusions
this shit's not a high five or optic illusion
my premonitions are not all delusions
so please be my hippie i'm nobody's hippie
we'll smoke some patchouli our lives will be trippy
i try to be mallory but i'm still skippy
we'll freebase tamari like pat benatari
i'm nobody's hippie and the best medicine
is back on track with his taco bell girlfriend
maybe i'll listen to back in black again
and write more letters that i'll never send
and write more letters that i'll never send
Lyrics submitted by sk8erpez
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this is missing a stanza in between the 5 and 6 stanza
[maybe this is right, this is what i think she is saying] and pretend that my selective seclusion doesnt make me start to jump to conclusions the shits not a high five or optic illusion my premonitions are not all delusions