"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.
When i was a child, everbody smiled, nobody knows me at all. Very late at night and in the morning light, nobody knows me at all. Now I got lots of friends, yes, but then again, nobody knows me at all. Kids and a wife, it's a beautiful life, nobody knows me at all. And oh, when the lights are low. Oh, with someone i dont know. I dont give a damn, i'm happy as a clam, nobody knows me at all. Ah, what can you do? There's nobody like you. Nobody knows me at all. I know how you feel, no secrets to reveal, nobody knows me at all. Very late at night and in the morning light, nobody knows me at all. Nobody knows me, nobody knows me, nobody knows me at all.
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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 a lot of it is about becoming more complicated as you grow older. As a child, you're not so emotionally complex and everybody smiles, you feel known and accepted, but then as you get older, you might still be happy, but you become a much more complicated person and nobody REALLY knows you anymore.
I think there is this aspect to the song where one includes themselves in not knowing who they are. There are so many layers and sides and complexities of a human personality that even you are on a journey to discover who you are. If you like yourself, who you've become after everything life throws at you, then that process of discovery is enjoyable.. which sort of relates to the "happy as a clam" tone of this song. Its also separate from narcissm, where you just can't get over youself and this feeling is no way is related to that. Do I make sense?<br /> <br /> I'm constantly smiling when I listen to this beautifully simple song because I think about who I am, how I got here and what other sides of me I have yet to discover.