"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.
Smiling as he speaks of death
destroying lives unknown
Killing 'til his final breath
Protecting his fallen throne
March of the chamber of gas
The line to end their lives
As they die he starts to laugh
Last thing heard are cries
We have fought together side by side
Killing humans as they die
Burning souls once filled with life
Now they're filled with pain and strife
Prisoner of one man's hate
Now facing their final day
Try to reach their wired gate
Who has their god saved?
Running from the brightened light
Shots fired as comrades fall
Without guns they cannot fight
Death for one and all
They storm the gates on hopes to be free
Many trampled in the frenzied flee
Many fall as machine guns roar
See yourself, but now as a bloody corpse
Escape for you is nothing but a dream
The bullets rip your flesh as you scream
Your final breath is spent on cursed cries
The tortured lives of Hitler take to the sky
Is violence the way to get a point across?
If you don't get your way, it's your own loss
Don't try to force people to see your way
You shoot people down, someday you'll pay
A large racial barrier, when will it break?
Blacks aren't dumb, whites made the mistake
Like to kill them, but they wouldn't dare
They'll shoot back, what's fair is fair
destroying lives unknown
Killing 'til his final breath
Protecting his fallen throne
March of the chamber of gas
The line to end their lives
As they die he starts to laugh
Last thing heard are cries
We have fought together side by side
Killing humans as they die
Burning souls once filled with life
Now they're filled with pain and strife
Prisoner of one man's hate
Now facing their final day
Try to reach their wired gate
Who has their god saved?
Running from the brightened light
Shots fired as comrades fall
Without guns they cannot fight
Death for one and all
They storm the gates on hopes to be free
Many trampled in the frenzied flee
Many fall as machine guns roar
See yourself, but now as a bloody corpse
Escape for you is nothing but a dream
The bullets rip your flesh as you scream
Your final breath is spent on cursed cries
The tortured lives of Hitler take to the sky
Is violence the way to get a point across?
If you don't get your way, it's your own loss
Don't try to force people to see your way
You shoot people down, someday you'll pay
A large racial barrier, when will it break?
Blacks aren't dumb, whites made the mistake
Like to kill them, but they wouldn't dare
They'll shoot back, what's fair is fair
Lyrics submitted by shadowwiththeeyes
Reich of Torture Lyrics as written by L. Evans B. Treadway
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Obviously it's about racism, comparing white racists in Amerika now to Nazis.
"We have fought together side by side Killing humans as they die " --- This is a refference to how blacks were used largely as cannon fodder and human shields when Amerikans fought in wars. (Watch the SouthPark movie)
"Who has their god saved?" --- About how blacks were forcibly converted to Christianity so they'd be easier to control and put in their place.
The lst 2 verses talk about how blacks had to fight to get any kind of freedom, and how a lot of the supposed "freedom" and racial/religious equality in the US actually stems from the fear of the majority (basically, white christians) of the minorities.