"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.
"Speak the truth and speak it ever
Cause when it what it will,
Cause he who hides the wrong he did
Did the wrong thing still"
Come back sweet Saint Anne
Come love me again,
Cos I broke again,
Yeah I, broken man
And down on St. Andrew,
I'll buy it back from you
But you ain't no lover,
No, you're just a pusher
And I've been down to St. Andrew
To pay for my sins on you
Love come save,
Love come save me soon
Now I've sung midnight choirs
With baseheads, drunks, and liars
But there's never fire,
No we never get higher
So lines I've rocked and rolled
Amongst those midnight souls
That we're only stealing
Yeh stealing for feeling
One day my time will end
And who I've been, I've been
And bells they are ringing
And the band it is marching, marching
"Love come save me soon."
Cause when it what it will,
Cause he who hides the wrong he did
Did the wrong thing still"
Come back sweet Saint Anne
Come love me again,
Cos I broke again,
Yeah I, broken man
And down on St. Andrew,
I'll buy it back from you
But you ain't no lover,
No, you're just a pusher
And I've been down to St. Andrew
To pay for my sins on you
Love come save,
Love come save me soon
Now I've sung midnight choirs
With baseheads, drunks, and liars
But there's never fire,
No we never get higher
So lines I've rocked and rolled
Amongst those midnight souls
That we're only stealing
Yeh stealing for feeling
One day my time will end
And who I've been, I've been
And bells they are ringing
And the band it is marching, marching
"Love come save me soon."
Lyrics submitted by jujube111
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I agree. It's definitely a confessional-type song.
"Now I've sung midnight choirs With baseheads, drunks, and liars But there's never fire,"
I think this means he's starting to come around and realize that there isn't any meaning in a life of drugs and alcohol and that he's ready to leave.