"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.
My mate Roger got a girl pregnant when he was fourteen. He was so shit scared he told me, and when he said that her dad was a cop I thought he was joking. I told him he's got to tell someone, and so he went and told a teacher, and the girl eventually got an abortion. He was fucking shitting himself, let me tell you, but six months later he was fucking around like always.
Ooh, aahh, Glenn McGrath
"You betta watch it," I thought to myself. But Roger was pretty fucking sure of himself. He was the guy who first brought a bag of hash to a party. Because I was his friend I was there when he first showed it to people, and we all went down the back yard and he rolled a joint. Where did he get it from? My parents would have killed me if they knew. I thought we'd all turn into junkies or something if we had too much.
The last time I saw Roger was last year at the Boxing Day test. He'd turned into such a fat, normal yobbo cunt. "The wife nearly didn't let me out today," he said, and he did all that chanting yobs do, like "Ooh, Ahh, Glenn McGrath." "It got you in the end," I thought to myself, as I looked at Roger. "Life got you in the end, pal. You were such a cocky, successful winner when we were 16, but now you're just another sad fat prick sitting in the M.C.G. high fiving in self congratulation, as if it's you that had the skill and determination to play for Australia." It's the cunts with the bad haircuts that you've got to watch out for. There's never been a popular teenager yet who's done rat's with their life. It's the fucking dorks that give it a real go. Glenn McGrath got 5 for 50 that day.
Lyrics submitted by caramelprisoner
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Fast Car
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This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
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@[Diderik:33655] "Your a holiday!" Was a popular term used in the 50s/60s to compliment someone on their all around. For example, not only are they beautiful, but they are fun and kind too ... just an all around "holiday".
I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
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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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This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,