"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.
When will we notice, the faces we see everyday? The ones that matter most are the ones that I will see pass before me when I go. I can’t but help to wish we’d all be stuck here and never grow, never leave, never change. I will never forget you. I’m so sick of all the so-called failures and the blame we put on ourselves. There is so much more to this. There is so much more when you have given up on the world and whatever holds us past the sky.
Lyrics submitted by demimondaine
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Fast Car
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These lyrics are freaking fantastic. I fell in love as soon as I saw them.