"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'll see myself out of this world
We don't get long and no rehearsal
So I'll shade my eyes and watch the shadows grow
'cause I'm not coming back
Maybe I've been too long in this town
Even the happy faces just bring me down
So maybe now it's time to move on
And hold that torch again
But it's too hard a road
I can't make it on my own
Yes it's too high a climb
It just breaks this heart of mine
No way home
I just sit here and count the time
Sometimes I'm frightened what's in my mind
The things that just seem to stick in there
I wouldn't want you to know
This is all the time that we have
All those ways to love you never get it back
So I'll wear shoes that walk the distance
'Cause I'm never coming back
And it's too hard a road
I can't make it on my own
Yes it's too high a climb
Oh this broken heart of mine
There's no way home
It's too hard a road
I can't make it on my own
Yes it's too high a climb
For this broken heart of mine
No way home
No way home
No way home
No way home
No way home
We don't get long and no rehearsal
So I'll shade my eyes and watch the shadows grow
'cause I'm not coming back
Maybe I've been too long in this town
Even the happy faces just bring me down
So maybe now it's time to move on
And hold that torch again
But it's too hard a road
I can't make it on my own
Yes it's too high a climb
It just breaks this heart of mine
No way home
I just sit here and count the time
Sometimes I'm frightened what's in my mind
The things that just seem to stick in there
I wouldn't want you to know
This is all the time that we have
All those ways to love you never get it back
So I'll wear shoes that walk the distance
'Cause I'm never coming back
And it's too hard a road
I can't make it on my own
Yes it's too high a climb
Oh this broken heart of mine
There's no way home
It's too hard a road
I can't make it on my own
Yes it's too high a climb
For this broken heart of mine
No way home
No way home
No way home
No way home
No way home
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