"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.
Swelling pyres sway restlessly
From bleak to pale adorn the weald
Its wild reflection wondrous
A danse macabre in glass
Glimpse of festive silhouettes
Free of face, of name, of guilt
Enthroned in thorns, abismal eyes
Adorned with fiendish grin
What forbidden feast of sin
Entangles silken nymphs with hordes?
To steal a glance pernicious
To heed diapason divine
The longing gaze toward drifting pairs
Uncovered dreams of gold and silk
Yet gold melts under gruelling blaze
Unbidden sentinel unveiled
Quiescent summons of revelation
From eyes angelic bidding forth
With ghastly fear and awe amassed
Becomes an unexpected guest
In silence takes his outstretched hand
Leads her in the chosen dance
A kind of minuet grotesque
Kindling fire of the profaned
The revelers of dark observe
The nymph in play with incubus
The jealous rage of succubus
Unfolds forbidden passion bold
The embers gasping for a breadth
The last guest crawls to find his rest
As music slowly dissipates
The nymph shares one last toast distressed
But Time unkind does not release
Majestic spirit from this hex
His temptress fair of flesh and blood
His Galatea etched in stone
In watchful eye he spies the night
Dare not disturb her yearning rest
Bestows her dreams by bedside realm
Of dancing silhouettes and pyres
From bleak to pale adorn the weald
Its wild reflection wondrous
A danse macabre in glass
Glimpse of festive silhouettes
Free of face, of name, of guilt
Enthroned in thorns, abismal eyes
Adorned with fiendish grin
What forbidden feast of sin
Entangles silken nymphs with hordes?
To steal a glance pernicious
To heed diapason divine
The longing gaze toward drifting pairs
Uncovered dreams of gold and silk
Yet gold melts under gruelling blaze
Unbidden sentinel unveiled
Quiescent summons of revelation
From eyes angelic bidding forth
With ghastly fear and awe amassed
Becomes an unexpected guest
In silence takes his outstretched hand
Leads her in the chosen dance
A kind of minuet grotesque
Kindling fire of the profaned
The revelers of dark observe
The nymph in play with incubus
The jealous rage of succubus
Unfolds forbidden passion bold
The embers gasping for a breadth
The last guest crawls to find his rest
As music slowly dissipates
The nymph shares one last toast distressed
But Time unkind does not release
Majestic spirit from this hex
His temptress fair of flesh and blood
His Galatea etched in stone
In watchful eye he spies the night
Dare not disturb her yearning rest
Bestows her dreams by bedside realm
Of dancing silhouettes and pyres
Lyrics submitted by Bloodmouth
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Fast Car
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