"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 was grinding through my day gig
Stackin' cutouts at the Strand
When in walks Franny from NYU
We were quite an item back then
We talked about her films and shows and CDs
And I don't know what else
She said yeah Hollywood's been good to me
But tell me how about yourself
[Chorus]
I'm still working on that novel
But I'm just about to quit
Cause I'm worrying about the future now
Or maybe this is it
It's not all that I thought it would be
What a shame about me
She said, talk to me, do you ever see
Anybody else from our old crew
Bobby Dakine won the Bunsen Prize
Now he's coming out with something new
Alan owns a chain of Steamer Heavens
And Barry is the software king
And somebody told me in the early 80's
You were gonna be the 'next big thing'
[Chorus]
Well now that was just a rumor
But I guess I'm doin' fine
Three weeks out of the rehab
Living one day at a time
Sneaking up on the new century
What a shame about me
What a shame about me
I'm thinking of a major Jane Street sunrise
And the goddess on the fire escape was you
We both ran out of small talk
The connection seemed to go dead
I was about to say, hey, have a nice life
When she touched my hand and said:
You know I just had this great idea
This could be very cool
Why don't we grab a cab to my hotel
And make believe we're back at our old school
[Chorus]
I said babe you look delicious
And you're standing very close
But like this is Lower Broadway
And you're talking to a ghost
Take a good look it's easy to see
What a shame about me
What a shame about me
Stackin' cutouts at the Strand
When in walks Franny from NYU
We were quite an item back then
We talked about her films and shows and CDs
And I don't know what else
She said yeah Hollywood's been good to me
But tell me how about yourself
[Chorus]
I'm still working on that novel
But I'm just about to quit
Cause I'm worrying about the future now
Or maybe this is it
It's not all that I thought it would be
What a shame about me
She said, talk to me, do you ever see
Anybody else from our old crew
Bobby Dakine won the Bunsen Prize
Now he's coming out with something new
Alan owns a chain of Steamer Heavens
And Barry is the software king
And somebody told me in the early 80's
You were gonna be the 'next big thing'
[Chorus]
Well now that was just a rumor
But I guess I'm doin' fine
Three weeks out of the rehab
Living one day at a time
Sneaking up on the new century
What a shame about me
What a shame about me
I'm thinking of a major Jane Street sunrise
And the goddess on the fire escape was you
We both ran out of small talk
The connection seemed to go dead
I was about to say, hey, have a nice life
When she touched my hand and said:
You know I just had this great idea
This could be very cool
Why don't we grab a cab to my hotel
And make believe we're back at our old school
[Chorus]
I said babe you look delicious
And you're standing very close
But like this is Lower Broadway
And you're talking to a ghost
Take a good look it's easy to see
What a shame about me
What a shame about me
Lyrics submitted by blackiswhite
What a Shame About Me Lyrics as written by Walter Becker Donald Fagen
Lyrics © Wixen Music Publishing
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I'm a little surprised that nobody has caught on to the fact that the second chorus is sung by Franny. It's Franny that is saying it was just a rumor about her being the next big thing and that she just got out of rehab. The narrator sings the first chorus and Franny sings the second. The song is cleverly summed up by the final two lines which is "it's a shame about me" repeated twice, inferring that it's a shame about BOTH of them. The "ghost" reference by the narrator is merely a reference that he is all but a semblance of what he once was, just as she is as well. The song is a story about two lives that took very different paths but in the end resulted in being equally unhappy. - Jim Cuccarro
@sheisler51 I have to disagree with about the second chorus. The narrator already establishes in the beginning that they talked about her films and shows and CDs. She is clearly successful and well-known. It has to be her referring to him as "you were gonna be the next big thing" and him responding, "Now that was just a rumor." With her, there is no rumor. She's a star.
@sheisler51 You're completely wrong about that. The song is very simple (most of Fagen's are simpler than Becker's) and it is the girlfriend first of all reciting all the success stories of their old friends before telling him that 'back in the Eighties' he was going to be the next big thing. I can't imagine that boosted his confidence much.
@sheisler51 I don't think you're right about the 2nd verse being the female. . Not when she had already said Hollywood's been good to me. But I guess you didn't need to hear that from a 3rd person