"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.
The hours devour me
My life is wasted
Waiting here for you
There's nothing left of me
Lost in a void out of sync
There's nothing left to believe
The end is now I surrender
The war is over
The rain has fallen
And all that's left has blown away
Your eyes are haunted
By what you wanted
I surrender the war is over
The anger I keep for you
The bitter lessons I will keep for me
There's nothing I can do
To save you from your own hell
There's nothing left for you
The end is now I surrender
The war is over
The rain has fallen
And all that's left has blown away
Your eyes are haunted
By what you wanted
I surrender the war is over
It's over now
I can see it
I can see what you've become
I can feel it
As everything goes numb
My life is wasted
Waiting here for you
There's nothing left of me
Lost in a void out of sync
There's nothing left to believe
The end is now I surrender
The war is over
The rain has fallen
And all that's left has blown away
Your eyes are haunted
By what you wanted
I surrender the war is over
The anger I keep for you
The bitter lessons I will keep for me
There's nothing I can do
To save you from your own hell
There's nothing left for you
The end is now I surrender
The war is over
The rain has fallen
And all that's left has blown away
Your eyes are haunted
By what you wanted
I surrender the war is over
It's over now
I can see it
I can see what you've become
I can feel it
As everything goes numb
Lyrics submitted by The-Sink
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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I agree with you both guys (I mean DarkEternal and Ocelot923). But to sum up the two of your opinions I would say that this song IS about a breakup or rather a reciprocate love: So, the guy is in love with a girl, but she cares no account for him and in the end he surrenders and stops trying, but some time later she falls in love with him, but, "as everything goes numb" he tells "the war is over". This is just how I personally see it, because this is exactly what happenned in my life recently. In my country in such cases they say "The train has gone" Cool song.