"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 found an old rock in the dry dirt outside
The door of my motel room
It was a triangle with soft,
Rounded edges and a split down the middle of one corner
It was darker than English moss,
Green like the soft frills of a peacock's plume
I waited for you but I never told you where I was
It was who taught me how to write these kinds of equations
I waited on the steps for you and
I hid in the bushes whenever a car pull into the parking lot
You taught me how to listen to these distant stations
Distant stations
I saw the sky break
I threw a rock at a crow who was playing in the mulch
Of some rosebushes by the motel office
Missed him by a good yard or two
I sang old songs from nowhere
Los Angeles, Albuquerque
I said a small prayer for the poor and the naked and the hungry
And I prayed real hard for you
I waited for you but I never told you where I was
It was who taught me how to write these kinds of equations
I waited on the steps for you
And I hid in the bushes whenever a car pull into the parking lot
You taught me how to listen to these distant stations
Distant stations
The door of my motel room
It was a triangle with soft,
Rounded edges and a split down the middle of one corner
It was darker than English moss,
Green like the soft frills of a peacock's plume
I waited for you but I never told you where I was
It was who taught me how to write these kinds of equations
I waited on the steps for you and
I hid in the bushes whenever a car pull into the parking lot
You taught me how to listen to these distant stations
Distant stations
I saw the sky break
I threw a rock at a crow who was playing in the mulch
Of some rosebushes by the motel office
Missed him by a good yard or two
I sang old songs from nowhere
Los Angeles, Albuquerque
I said a small prayer for the poor and the naked and the hungry
And I prayed real hard for you
I waited for you but I never told you where I was
It was who taught me how to write these kinds of equations
I waited on the steps for you
And I hid in the bushes whenever a car pull into the parking lot
You taught me how to listen to these distant stations
Distant stations
Lyrics submitted by fuckedupdog, edited by haruki, StephaniDFTBA
Distant Stations Lyrics as written by John Darnielle
Lyrics © PACIFIC ELECTRIC MUSIC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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