"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.
Car crash on the open highway
Blood flows from our lifeless body
Transplant the organs at the hospital
The miracle is though we die were saving lives
The requiem unheard by the insides
Bomb blast on a crowded front line
We’re hit and there isn’t much time
Give up our water, food, and bullets to
The soldiers who will run ahead and leave the dead
The battle won before our empty eyes
Everyday I live a life I’m trying to forget
Desperately I want to see the world beyond that reflection I focus on
The mirror’s curse does not come when broken
It’s worse as one
Flags fly over bleak horizons
Countries killing those outside them
Lines drawn in dirt and sand are simply that
Let’s burn the maps that color ground, divide the town
Erase borders until one world is found
‘Cause we say that we want a difference
We say we reject their system
But I see that our own agenda is just theirs polarized
Let’s sacrifice this time
Everyday let’s forget our lives and make our breath a gift
So when we say we hate their lies we are not hypocrites
Blood flows from our lifeless body
Transplant the organs at the hospital
The miracle is though we die were saving lives
The requiem unheard by the insides
Bomb blast on a crowded front line
We’re hit and there isn’t much time
Give up our water, food, and bullets to
The soldiers who will run ahead and leave the dead
The battle won before our empty eyes
Everyday I live a life I’m trying to forget
Desperately I want to see the world beyond that reflection I focus on
The mirror’s curse does not come when broken
It’s worse as one
Flags fly over bleak horizons
Countries killing those outside them
Lines drawn in dirt and sand are simply that
Let’s burn the maps that color ground, divide the town
Erase borders until one world is found
‘Cause we say that we want a difference
We say we reject their system
But I see that our own agenda is just theirs polarized
Let’s sacrifice this time
Everyday let’s forget our lives and make our breath a gift
So when we say we hate their lies we are not hypocrites
Lyrics submitted by DakotaFloyd
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