"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.
The city called me so I came
It isn't mine to question what it said
I sleep until the point when I'm awake
I walk until there's nothing left to trek
And everyone is looking for an answer
And everyone is waiting for a break
I came and I was bored of it soon after
But I had nowhere to go and so I stayed
I dreamed a lifetime of this place
It seemed an awful thing to waste
Well the morning fills my mouth up with decay
I like it, it reminds me how you taste
Sometimes I feel you rising up behind me like the wind
But I still try to look away
What will you look like when you're old?
(What will you look like when you're old?)
What will I do if I don't know you?
(What will I do if I don't know you?)
I guess that I decided not to ask the day I took the road
Down to the city as it called
Sun making silhouettes of gauze
I don't remember you at all
The city called me and I came
It isn't mine to question why
Sometimes the clouds will rise ahead, I hear your name
It's like a choir in the sky
What will you look like when you're old?
(What will you look like when you're old?)
What will I do if I don't know you?
(What will I do if I don't know you?)
I guess that I decided not to know the day I took the road
Down to the city as it called
Sun making silhouettes of gauze
I don't remember you at all
They pulled a human from my waist
It had your mouth, it had your face
I would have kept it if I'd stayed.
It isn't mine to question what it said
I sleep until the point when I'm awake
I walk until there's nothing left to trek
And everyone is looking for an answer
And everyone is waiting for a break
I came and I was bored of it soon after
But I had nowhere to go and so I stayed
I dreamed a lifetime of this place
It seemed an awful thing to waste
Well the morning fills my mouth up with decay
I like it, it reminds me how you taste
Sometimes I feel you rising up behind me like the wind
But I still try to look away
What will you look like when you're old?
(What will you look like when you're old?)
What will I do if I don't know you?
(What will I do if I don't know you?)
I guess that I decided not to ask the day I took the road
Down to the city as it called
Sun making silhouettes of gauze
I don't remember you at all
The city called me and I came
It isn't mine to question why
Sometimes the clouds will rise ahead, I hear your name
It's like a choir in the sky
What will you look like when you're old?
(What will you look like when you're old?)
What will I do if I don't know you?
(What will I do if I don't know you?)
I guess that I decided not to know the day I took the road
Down to the city as it called
Sun making silhouettes of gauze
I don't remember you at all
They pulled a human from my waist
It had your mouth, it had your face
I would have kept it if I'd stayed.
Lyrics submitted by georgiaonmymind
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They pulled a human from my waist It had your mouth, it had your face I would have kept it if I'd stayed.
Most certainly about an abortion, no? Just like "We Almost Had a Baby"
I didn't think "We Almost Had A Baby" is about an abortion, more a bit of carelessness and then uncertainty that came to nothing.