"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.
Thrifts store cowboys
Five and dime junkies
Red dirt plow boys
Asphalt monkeys
Holly rollers
Signal callers
Truck stop angels
Backstreet brawlers
Van zant groupies
Guitar slingers
Hallelujah
Gospel singers
Freight train mommas
Pistol shooters
My first girlfriend
works at Hooters
Beans and biscuits
in my cupboard
Listen to Ray Wylie Hubbard
All gone down the road tonight
Drunken’ angels
Blacktop racers
Holly rollers
Whiskey chasers
Lone star drinkers
Midnight ramblers
Dirty road divas
Highway gamblers
Moonshine mommas
Panty droppers
Dali llamas
Old pill poppers
High school heroes
Back road preachers
Pool hall hustlers
Tantric teachers
Teenage cuties
Politking
Hare Krishna
Feed me chicken
All gone down, on the road tonight
Blue jean babies
Old heart breakers
Had a party
with some Quakers
Hard-worn highways
Country singers
Radios full of
old right-wingers
? players
Duck tape dealers
Outlaw country
Hubcap stealers
Aint no money
in my wallet
Broke again is
what they call it
My grandmamma’s
name was Stella
Michael Jackson
peaked at thriller
All gone down the road tonight
Jukebox gypsies
Mustang sallies
Don’t go walkin’
down dark alleys
Needle pushers
? rim glasses
Rhinestone jumpsuit
Backstage passes
Blue plate specials
Lou Ann platters
Japanese is
all that matters
?
Gulf coast kickers
Who’s your daddy
bumper stickers
da da da da
da da da da
da da da da da da
Oooh yeah
Oh uh uh uh
“I’m outta words people
That’s all I got
Americana woman
Hip shake with me baby”
Five and dime junkies
Red dirt plow boys
Asphalt monkeys
Holly rollers
Signal callers
Truck stop angels
Backstreet brawlers
Van zant groupies
Guitar slingers
Hallelujah
Gospel singers
Freight train mommas
Pistol shooters
My first girlfriend
works at Hooters
Beans and biscuits
in my cupboard
Listen to Ray Wylie Hubbard
All gone down the road tonight
Drunken’ angels
Blacktop racers
Holly rollers
Whiskey chasers
Lone star drinkers
Midnight ramblers
Dirty road divas
Highway gamblers
Moonshine mommas
Panty droppers
Dali llamas
Old pill poppers
High school heroes
Back road preachers
Pool hall hustlers
Tantric teachers
Teenage cuties
Politking
Hare Krishna
Feed me chicken
All gone down, on the road tonight
Blue jean babies
Old heart breakers
Had a party
with some Quakers
Hard-worn highways
Country singers
Radios full of
old right-wingers
? players
Duck tape dealers
Outlaw country
Hubcap stealers
Aint no money
in my wallet
Broke again is
what they call it
My grandmamma’s
name was Stella
Michael Jackson
peaked at thriller
All gone down the road tonight
Jukebox gypsies
Mustang sallies
Don’t go walkin’
down dark alleys
Needle pushers
? rim glasses
Rhinestone jumpsuit
Backstage passes
Blue plate specials
Lou Ann platters
Japanese is
all that matters
?
Gulf coast kickers
Who’s your daddy
bumper stickers
da da da da
da da da da
da da da da da da
Oooh yeah
Oh uh uh uh
“I’m outta words people
That’s all I got
Americana woman
Hip shake with me baby”
Lyrics submitted by ssg3487
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I LOVE THIS SONG :D And I'm glad the lyrics are here cos for so long all I could hear was "Hare Krishna pygmy chicken," and as great a mental image as that is it was getting scary. I think it's 'horn rim glasses,' as well, but ... i did think it was pygmy chicken, so I wouldn't listen to me. Whatever. Absolute legend song!
I LOVE THIS SONG :D And I'm glad the lyrics are here cos for so long all I could hear was "Hare Krishna pygmy chicken," and as great a mental image as that is it was getting scary. I think it's 'horn rim glasses,' as well, but ... i did think it was pygmy chicken, so I wouldn't listen to me. Whatever. Absolute legend song!
just a fun, tongue-in-cheek song about the things you can come across in life [i.e. down the road]. a fun song to hear in a dive bar, driving beer with your buddies.