"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 head is pounding I can't stop the pounding
I think it is going to explode
and kill everybody who's in close proximity to the place I call my home
and they'll make a moving made for tv movie for Lifetime all about my life
that ends with an epitaph one that will make you laugh
that says "great mom okay wife"
at it'll be funny to the people who know me
who know if my body's not burned
my soul will spend an eternity in misery
teathered and bound to this earth
so I'm not a dick or a stick in the mud always ruining things for my friends
I mustn't forget when I see the sun set that tomorrow it will rise again
so I tattoo instructions on my ass
that say "don't ever put this body is a casket
burn it and put the ashes in a basket
and throw them in the Puget Sound
I don't ever want to be under ground"
oh no, oh no
I'm wearing size thirteen basketball shoes
and lavender fishnets
I'm freaked out and fucked up
and I'm standing alone in an alley with you
wanting to show you a cure for your hiccups
but instead I close my eyes
the needles are numbered so I'm writing you letters
and I cannot disguise the fact that I'm nervous when we are together
and so I fantasize
that the nights will get shorter and the days will get better
I feel a kick inside and decide
if this is a girl I'm naming her Heather
she'll look just like you but her hair will be feathered
she'll say how you died before you ever met her
her hair will be feathered
my head is pounding I can't stop the pounding
I think it is going to explode
there are plus and minuses to sinusitis
like sometimes I get to go home
but mostly it hurts so bad I think I'm dying
I just blew my nose and now I feel like crying
and the dreams that I have are all of my past lives
and the seizures would paralyze me in the night
and I wake up clutching my teddy bear tight
I'm drooling and trying to turn on the light
all I can do is hold fast and sit tight
but what if they forget 'cause you know they just might
so I tattoo instructions on my ass
that say "don't ever put this body is a casket
burn it and put the ashes in a basket
and throw them in the Puget Sound
I don't ever want to be under ground"
oh no, oh no
I think it is going to explode
and kill everybody who's in close proximity to the place I call my home
and they'll make a moving made for tv movie for Lifetime all about my life
that ends with an epitaph one that will make you laugh
that says "great mom okay wife"
at it'll be funny to the people who know me
who know if my body's not burned
my soul will spend an eternity in misery
teathered and bound to this earth
so I'm not a dick or a stick in the mud always ruining things for my friends
I mustn't forget when I see the sun set that tomorrow it will rise again
so I tattoo instructions on my ass
that say "don't ever put this body is a casket
burn it and put the ashes in a basket
and throw them in the Puget Sound
I don't ever want to be under ground"
oh no, oh no
I'm wearing size thirteen basketball shoes
and lavender fishnets
I'm freaked out and fucked up
and I'm standing alone in an alley with you
wanting to show you a cure for your hiccups
but instead I close my eyes
the needles are numbered so I'm writing you letters
and I cannot disguise the fact that I'm nervous when we are together
and so I fantasize
that the nights will get shorter and the days will get better
I feel a kick inside and decide
if this is a girl I'm naming her Heather
she'll look just like you but her hair will be feathered
she'll say how you died before you ever met her
her hair will be feathered
my head is pounding I can't stop the pounding
I think it is going to explode
there are plus and minuses to sinusitis
like sometimes I get to go home
but mostly it hurts so bad I think I'm dying
I just blew my nose and now I feel like crying
and the dreams that I have are all of my past lives
and the seizures would paralyze me in the night
and I wake up clutching my teddy bear tight
I'm drooling and trying to turn on the light
all I can do is hold fast and sit tight
but what if they forget 'cause you know they just might
so I tattoo instructions on my ass
that say "don't ever put this body is a casket
burn it and put the ashes in a basket
and throw them in the Puget Sound
I don't ever want to be under ground"
oh no, oh no
Lyrics submitted by nervous tic, edited by yellowumbrella, hexcodeblah
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Fast Car
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