"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.
Got guns
Do you wanna take aim at each other?
Scratch the itch? Give the finger?
'Cause we don't care
Anyway
Got knives,
Have you seen 'em?
In your back's where we keep 'em
And your never gonna reach 'em
Now that sounds fair
Oh, this is bound to be good
You can't, but you thought that you could
How you like your position?
You ain't Robert Mitchum
You say you give and you give
Why don't you just give in?
Tra la la
Young, dumb, drinkin semen
Small pond kind of dreamin'
If you don't like the raft,
Why don't you take a swim?
Ooh, this is bound to be good
You can't, but you thought that you could
Ooh, how can you win?
Against yourself again
Do you wanna take aim at each other?
Scratch the itch? Give the finger?
'Cause we don't care
Anyway
Got knives,
Have you seen 'em?
In your back's where we keep 'em
And your never gonna reach 'em
Now that sounds fair
Oh, this is bound to be good
You can't, but you thought that you could
How you like your position?
You ain't Robert Mitchum
You say you give and you give
Why don't you just give in?
Tra la la
Young, dumb, drinkin semen
Small pond kind of dreamin'
If you don't like the raft,
Why don't you take a swim?
Ooh, this is bound to be good
You can't, but you thought that you could
Ooh, how can you win?
Against yourself again
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Fast Car
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
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Does anybody know why this song didn't make it onto Lullabies To Paralyze? Was it really lost in the recording process like it says in the booklet?