"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.
Messages from broken bottles fall
Black sandy beaches
Ink conveying across the page now run from morning dew
Hands which chance upon it lead to eyes that strain to read
Hearts that pound from love long over do
Lips which press together, stifle, rhythmic, heavy breaths
Oh how she smiles from vicarious love from the one he writes about
She must have been so glad for him to throw it out
Further steps lead to yet another broken bottle
Again the words contain have bled the page
Whose tears were these which remit ink
From who they bore to make this streak
Where they his by chance from telling her?
Or hers by chance from reading it?
They could have been collective
They could have been from someone else
Why don’t we see what's at the bottom
Why don’t we see what comes next
Oh how she cries from vicarious pain from the one he writes about
Oh she must have been so sad for him to throw her out
Lets just say, she, she is better
Better off somehow
Lets just say, she, she has never been happier then she is now
We couldn’t fake it so why even try?
Lets just say, she, she is better, better off somehow
Lets just say, she, she has never been happier then she is now
Lets just say, she, she is better, better off somehow
Lets just say, she, she has never been happier
Happier then she is now
Black sandy beaches
Ink conveying across the page now run from morning dew
Hands which chance upon it lead to eyes that strain to read
Hearts that pound from love long over do
Lips which press together, stifle, rhythmic, heavy breaths
Oh how she smiles from vicarious love from the one he writes about
She must have been so glad for him to throw it out
Further steps lead to yet another broken bottle
Again the words contain have bled the page
Whose tears were these which remit ink
From who they bore to make this streak
Where they his by chance from telling her?
Or hers by chance from reading it?
They could have been collective
They could have been from someone else
Why don’t we see what's at the bottom
Why don’t we see what comes next
Oh how she cries from vicarious pain from the one he writes about
Oh she must have been so sad for him to throw her out
Lets just say, she, she is better
Better off somehow
Lets just say, she, she has never been happier then she is now
We couldn’t fake it so why even try?
Lets just say, she, she is better, better off somehow
Lets just say, she, she has never been happier then she is now
Lets just say, she, she is better, better off somehow
Lets just say, she, she has never been happier
Happier then she is now
Lyrics submitted by sonoftheright
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Fast Car
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Kangaroo_cury is right I think. Casey finds the letter written by the dear hunter, this is why it's about a message in a bottle because they never actually get to who their intended. Casey reads the first message and reads about this man who gives up a woman.
"She must have been so glad for him to throw it out." IT being the message that the dear hunter apparently threw out. Casey realizes that since he found this message in a bottle, the girl this letter was written to never got it.
Further down the beach Casey finds another bottle with a letter in it. It also has tears streaking the page and he wonders if its from the dear hunter as he wrote it, or from Ms. Leading as she read it.
I'm not sure what happened to Ms. Leading, but Casey sings about how she is probably better off now. He's taking a "everything happens for a reason" approach, or just can't bear to hear about this little tragic story he happened upon.
The beach and bottles probably aren't literal. They just represent how the letters were thrown out and later turned up and were found by some unknown girl.
In the beginning, the girl who finds the letters assumes that the dear hunter decided not to break up with Ms. Leading and threw the letters away, which is why "Oh how she smiles from vicarious love from the one he writes about She must have been so glad for him to throw it out".
Later, she finds the second letter which is streaked with tears and realizes that Ms. Leading did receive the letters. She wonders whether the tears were hers from reading or his from writing.
At the end of the song, she feels bad for Ms. Leading, so she tries to convince herself that Ms. Leading is better off. However, she admits that that seems unlikely.
Also, since I don't think anyone mentioned it, the letters she is reading are from the previous song "Dear Ms. Leading".
How has no one commented on this yet? The Dear Hunter is bound to be huge, finally a breath of revitalization in the ever cliche'd scene.
This is such a beautiful song.
In this i believe ms. leading is reading the letters or "the message in the message that I sent" from whoever the narrator is (casey most likely). at first she doesnt realize they are to her but then she does and is devastated because only now does she realize how much he loved her "Oh how she cries from vicarious pain from the one he writes about" this is when she realizes its about her. But she is better off without him
do you think the letter hes talking about is "Dear Ms. Leading"?
agreed
she starts reading a letter, moves on further throughout the letter, realizes whats happening, the tears signify the hero was crying as he was writting it.
the rest is the hero's narration, guessing her reaction, and furthermore, convincing himself that he was right in his actions to leave Ms. Leading. "lets just say..." is a convincing tense... so he's seems skeptical, but sure at the same time. "we couldnt fake it, so why even try" further proving that he was convincing either himself or her.
great song... great album... great story.. great play
this song is insane.... casey found the letter and is trying to work out the story from the state of the letter .... and she killed herself so shes at peace? and he says goodbye in vvv.. promote this band they are fkn perfect
this song is insane.... casey found the letter and is trying to work out the story from the state of the letter .... and she killed herself so shes at peace? and he says goodbye in vvv.. promote this band they are fkn perfect
I actually agree with heroicowl on this one. At first I thought it was Casey coming across the letters, but the lines "Oh how she cries from vicarious pain from the one he writes about Oh she must have been so sad for him to throw her out" gives out the fact that she definitely felt pain eventually. I simply think the first half of the song up until that line is Casey describing what she's thinking, but then he becomes a first person narrator, and sees her reaction to realizing it's her. And after that line is what she read to make her feel that pain.