"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 feel like a wog people giving me the eyes
But I was born here just like you
I feel like a wog
Got all the dirt shitty jobs
But everybody's got to have something to do with their time
I feel like a wog
I don't wanna go home
I've got a lot of life to run through
I feel like a wog
I don't mean you no harm
Just don't ask me to shine your shoes
Golly gee: Golly gosh
Don't call me your Golly Wog
Golly gee: Golly gosh
Don't call me your Golly Wog
Let me tell you about Pimpo
We met him down at the After Eight
He wanted to sell us some limbo
But we said mister
You've just got to wait
You've got to wait (x3)
He wanted to take us down to Sao Paulo
But we said mister
We ain't got no bread
I tried to make him laugh
But he didnt get the joke
And then he said I wasnt right in the head
And then he made me (x3)
And then he made me feel
And then he made me feel like (x3)
You know I feel like (x3)
You know I feel like a wog
But I was born here just like you
I feel like a wog
Got all the dirt shitty jobs
But everybody's got to have something to do with their time
I feel like a wog
I don't wanna go home
I've got a lot of life to run through
I feel like a wog
I don't mean you no harm
Just don't ask me to shine your shoes
Golly gee: Golly gosh
Don't call me your Golly Wog
Golly gee: Golly gosh
Don't call me your Golly Wog
Let me tell you about Pimpo
We met him down at the After Eight
He wanted to sell us some limbo
But we said mister
You've just got to wait
You've got to wait (x3)
He wanted to take us down to Sao Paulo
But we said mister
We ain't got no bread
I tried to make him laugh
But he didnt get the joke
And then he said I wasnt right in the head
And then he made me (x3)
And then he made me feel
And then he made me feel like (x3)
You know I feel like (x3)
You know I feel like a wog
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Fast Car
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It should be obvious that, here, "wog" is used in the same sense as the offending word in "Woman Is The Nigger Of The World". Both implicitly attacking racism, and saying "I too am an abused underdog" - which is certainly how the Stranglers felt at the time. Incidentally, anyone who thought the Stranglers were racist is forgetting something - Dagenham Dave was mixed-race and looked black from a distance.