"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.
Ringmaster:
Birds flock, when winter settles in
The Harlequin with dunce's cap and silver horn
All mournful, mocking eye and painted tear,
Has seen it all before
The sparrows hurl in the face of glazed imperium,
Then stunned, affronted, fall
Then, picking up perch braggart on the wire and
Launch towards the south, towards the land of fire
"To freeze in the dead of night"
Revolutionary Priest:
To freeze in the dead of night
To burn in divine law
Deep in the crucible brine
The sorrow and the rage entwine
And coil and climb towards the light
The quill is poised above the page
Words like falling rain slake the thirst and dowse the flames
Cooling in the crucible and idea forms
A nugget of belief in the hearts of the poor
That maybe in the dawn's new light
They have a right to the law
"To the streets in the pouring rain"
Ringmaster:
So to the streets in the pouring rain
The dispossessed and the drunk and the lame
Gathered in bands and took the law into their own hands
Like the daring young man on the flying trapeze
Like birds flying into a storm
They took the great leap
And launched themselves into the void
Chorus:
We broke into the arsenal, Les Invalides
Found cannonball and powder, everything we need
We marched on the Bastille
The home of tyranny
Killed the jailer
And set two madmen free
Ringmaster:
When you have an army of your own
You get to choose
Who will live
Who will die
Who will win
Who will lose
Troublemaker:
A piece of prison stone
Is all I have to call my own
Insight to see the other side
Strength and weakness, love and pride
Is all I have to leave my child
If my child survives
He'll judge men by their deeds and not their smiles
He'll keep his taste of good red wine
His pride, his friends, his lust for life
These are the things that will avail him
If my child survives...
Birds flock, when winter settles in
The Harlequin with dunce's cap and silver horn
All mournful, mocking eye and painted tear,
Has seen it all before
The sparrows hurl in the face of glazed imperium,
Then stunned, affronted, fall
Then, picking up perch braggart on the wire and
Launch towards the south, towards the land of fire
"To freeze in the dead of night"
Revolutionary Priest:
To freeze in the dead of night
To burn in divine law
Deep in the crucible brine
The sorrow and the rage entwine
And coil and climb towards the light
The quill is poised above the page
Words like falling rain slake the thirst and dowse the flames
Cooling in the crucible and idea forms
A nugget of belief in the hearts of the poor
That maybe in the dawn's new light
They have a right to the law
"To the streets in the pouring rain"
Ringmaster:
So to the streets in the pouring rain
The dispossessed and the drunk and the lame
Gathered in bands and took the law into their own hands
Like the daring young man on the flying trapeze
Like birds flying into a storm
They took the great leap
And launched themselves into the void
Chorus:
We broke into the arsenal, Les Invalides
Found cannonball and powder, everything we need
We marched on the Bastille
The home of tyranny
Killed the jailer
And set two madmen free
Ringmaster:
When you have an army of your own
You get to choose
Who will live
Who will die
Who will win
Who will lose
Troublemaker:
A piece of prison stone
Is all I have to call my own
Insight to see the other side
Strength and weakness, love and pride
Is all I have to leave my child
If my child survives
He'll judge men by their deeds and not their smiles
He'll keep his taste of good red wine
His pride, his friends, his lust for life
These are the things that will avail him
If my child survives...
Lyrics submitted by thedanman344
Ca Ira - Act I - Scene 5: The Fall of the Bastille song meanings
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