"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.
Dead man, were you ever alive?
Or was I just a seed
Buried deep inside some woman you wed
Right before you crawled out of her bed
And crept down the hall?
Did you think of me?
Did you even for a second hesistate in the doorway?
It's just something that I'd like to know
Though I'd still love you if you told me
That you just walked away
My God, what a world you love
Where men bury their sons
And without thought just walk away
And my mother's heart breaks like the water inside of her
Dead man, is it being high that makes you alive?
It makes you leave behind
Three boys and a wife in '89
As the track marks inched their way up your arm
My mother taught my brothers and I
Not to call you daddy
But to call you Father
But I believe there is something here to be learned of grace
Cause I can't help but love you
Even with a heart that breaks
Like the promises that you made
Or was I just a seed
Buried deep inside some woman you wed
Right before you crawled out of her bed
And crept down the hall?
Did you think of me?
Did you even for a second hesistate in the doorway?
It's just something that I'd like to know
Though I'd still love you if you told me
That you just walked away
My God, what a world you love
Where men bury their sons
And without thought just walk away
And my mother's heart breaks like the water inside of her
Dead man, is it being high that makes you alive?
It makes you leave behind
Three boys and a wife in '89
As the track marks inched their way up your arm
My mother taught my brothers and I
Not to call you daddy
But to call you Father
But I believe there is something here to be learned of grace
Cause I can't help but love you
Even with a heart that breaks
Like the promises that you made
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Yeah, I'd have to disagree with DarkerShadeofWinter on it being about a father that's passed away. The "dead man" reference is to how his father is pretty much dead to him.