"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.
The day the devil comes to getcha
You know him by the way he smiles
The day the devil comes to getcha
He's a rusty truck with only twenty miles
He's got bad brakes he's got loose teeth
He's a long way from home
The day the devil comes to getcha
He's got a smile like a scar
He knows the way to your house
He's got the keys to your car
And when he sells you his sport coat
You say, Funny! That's my size
Attention shoppers!
Everybody please rise
Give me back my innocence
Get me a brand new suit
Give me back my innocence Oh Lord!
Cut me down to size
Well you can hide under the porch
And you can hide behind the couch
But the day the devil comes to getcha
He's right on time
Here he comes
Well I'm sick of hearin' bout your problems
Yeah girlie you're breakin' my heart I
'm the original party animal Hey! Hey! Babaloo
So don't come bangin' your Bibles
'Cause you've been laughin' all the way to the bank And don't give me those crocodile tears
'Cause you've been doing it for years
I'm everywhere!
Sign right here Mr. Jones
The day the devil comes to getcha
He's a long way from home
And you know he's gonna getcha
Cause you're stuck in the middle
Everybody please rise
Give me back my innocence
Get me a brand new suit
Give me back my innocence Oh Lord!
Cut me down to size
Give me back my innocence
Get me a new Cadillac
Cause when I get on up to heave Lord
You can have it all back
Cause in heaven, you get it all back
In heaven it all comes back
Cause in heaven, you get it all back
In heaven Cause in heaven...
In heaven...
You know him by the way he smiles
The day the devil comes to getcha
He's a rusty truck with only twenty miles
He's got bad brakes he's got loose teeth
He's a long way from home
The day the devil comes to getcha
He's got a smile like a scar
He knows the way to your house
He's got the keys to your car
And when he sells you his sport coat
You say, Funny! That's my size
Attention shoppers!
Everybody please rise
Give me back my innocence
Get me a brand new suit
Give me back my innocence Oh Lord!
Cut me down to size
Well you can hide under the porch
And you can hide behind the couch
But the day the devil comes to getcha
He's right on time
Here he comes
Well I'm sick of hearin' bout your problems
Yeah girlie you're breakin' my heart I
'm the original party animal Hey! Hey! Babaloo
So don't come bangin' your Bibles
'Cause you've been laughin' all the way to the bank And don't give me those crocodile tears
'Cause you've been doing it for years
I'm everywhere!
Sign right here Mr. Jones
The day the devil comes to getcha
He's a long way from home
And you know he's gonna getcha
Cause you're stuck in the middle
Everybody please rise
Give me back my innocence
Get me a brand new suit
Give me back my innocence Oh Lord!
Cut me down to size
Give me back my innocence
Get me a new Cadillac
Cause when I get on up to heave Lord
You can have it all back
Cause in heaven, you get it all back
In heaven it all comes back
Cause in heaven, you get it all back
In heaven Cause in heaven...
In heaven...
Lyrics submitted by Lepra Messias
The Day the Devil Lyrics as written by Laurie Anderson
Lyrics © Downtown Music Publishing
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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My angel showed up one day--do you have one?--best to check and batten down the hatches ... He knew the way to my house and had the keys to my car and he absolutely adores singing this song. Go figure...
An aimless darting arrow Through the distance flying Never knowing where Its target may be lying
Was she most like the passing of the wind? Or like the first flight of spring? Yes, I find her vague smile within a laugh entwined A banner waving in the air futilely How sad the space between And yet—nothing happens! Nothing!
They call with sorrow and whiteness They call with yellow and weeping They do not go Have you seen a light more cruel? More unkind?
Pure spirit …
Too long is night I have no heart for sleep My hope is dead My tears are blinding me! Oh let me walk alone where breaks the sea!
My baby is asleep The love of loves
[paraphrased]
Oh let me walk alone where breaks the sea! LOL
The devil, like all notorious creatures, has his legends others create about him. Legend One—the Shadow of God—suggests:
A. The shadow side of God existed because God’s light was too fierce for humans to bear. B. The shadow side of God communicated with humans because the bright side of God didn’t have a clue on how to do this. C. The shadow side became Mastema, Prince of Evil Spirits, so it could do all the nasties once attributed to the good God. D. The shadow was lost in Wendy’s bedroom but later found and Wendy was kind enough to sew it back onto Peter who was glad to get his shadow back.
Lilith—Adams’s first wife—proved to be too much for him because:
A. She was wild, crazy and fun loving while Adam was a couch potato. What was God thinking?! B. She knew that men were going to think it was wimpy for them to ever let the woman try anything but the missionary position so she refused to do this—hoping to stir up all kinds of feminist trouble. C. She was itching to frolic with her Lilum—some hot good time girls also known as the Harlots from Hell, the Night Hags and the Succubae. They adored freaking out celibate monks who would tie crucifixes to their cocks to fend the Lilum off.
Because enchanting Lilith was quite the babe, God had considered a hot affair with her but instead, he:
A. Gave her to Satan—no doubt to suggest that high sexuality in a female was demonic. What a spoilsport! B. Gave her to Satan—the dark side—the evil side—and many times, the attractive side—creating considerable allure for female sexuality. Even though it’s rumored you can burn in hell for masturbating, most indulge.
C. Gave her to Satan because she was fascinated by new projects and the Satan deal was on the cutting edge. D. Gave her to Satan because he found his alluring creation a bit intimidating and decided it would be wiser to keep his distance. What a creator! What a creation!
Some suggest God created the Satan legend because --he wanted to have some fun playing the good guy as humans weren’t really too sure he could be this.
-- God wanted some spice in his life and his best friend agreed to deliver it -- God, tangling with ego, wanted to play the nice guy for awhile and his best friend was happy to indulge him -- God alone was boring and creating Satan gave intrigue to a potentially tedious story -- God—wise and studious—recognized good and evil and wished to understand himself better and help others with the same puzzle. His beloved Lucifer said—I’ll be evil. You be good and let’s see if this all makes more sense. It did.
Of course this left the question of where were the ladies? Besides wanton Lilith and sweet Gabriel, ladies of note were scarce but this was eternity with plenty of time for everything …
The song could be about two things:
It could be about being kidnapped and raped and the whole imagery of "The Devil" represents a man who destroys the innocence of victims and he both bribes and manipulates his victims with needful things that causes chaos.
It could also be about a person selling their souls to the Devil for stupid and worthless things that would soon drive them all crazy.
that's just my two interpretations of this song.
Hearing this verse:
Well I'm sick of hearing bout your problems Yeah girlie your breakin' my heart ... Cause you've been laughin' all the way to the bank And don't give me those crocodile tears Cause you've been doing it for years...
...somehow, I imagine, was the sort of thing which might go through Laurie's head when her--shall we say--emotional weather was not the sunniest? Like she was thinking, what do I do for a living? I get up on stage with all this gear, and...and just talk, mostly.
And a lot of people's jobs really suck. And, she knows this. So she's feeling extraordinarily fortunate, and wondered whether eventually some kind of negative counter-reaction would necessarily surface. Well, a Faustian bargain might have seemed apropos, metaphorically speaking.