"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.
And everybody here is a cloud
And everybody here will evaporate
You came up from the ground
From a million little pieces, have you found where your place is?
Have you found where your place is?
Have you found where your place is?
You've been spending your time
Thinkin' about why you think so much
If there ever was a time
Now would be the time to see your time here is limited
Everybody here is a crowd
We all walk around with a million faces
Somebody turn the lights out
There's so much more to see in the darkest places
In the darkest places
In the darkest places
And everybody here is a cloud
And everybody here will evaporate
You came up off the ground
From a million little pieces, have you found where your place is?
Everybody here is waiting for the next creation
They say oh-oh-oh-oh
Everybody here is waiting for the next creation
They say go-go-go-go
Everybody here is a crowd
We each walk around with a million faces
You came up from the ground
From a million little pieces, have you found where your place is?
Have you found where your place is?
Have you found where your place is?
And everybody here will evaporate
You came up from the ground
From a million little pieces, have you found where your place is?
Have you found where your place is?
Have you found where your place is?
You've been spending your time
Thinkin' about why you think so much
If there ever was a time
Now would be the time to see your time here is limited
Everybody here is a crowd
We all walk around with a million faces
Somebody turn the lights out
There's so much more to see in the darkest places
In the darkest places
In the darkest places
And everybody here is a cloud
And everybody here will evaporate
You came up off the ground
From a million little pieces, have you found where your place is?
Everybody here is waiting for the next creation
They say oh-oh-oh-oh
Everybody here is waiting for the next creation
They say go-go-go-go
Everybody here is a crowd
We each walk around with a million faces
You came up from the ground
From a million little pieces, have you found where your place is?
Have you found where your place is?
Have you found where your place is?
Lyrics submitted by Ultimationismist
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Fast Car
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It is apparent that these lyrics say different things to different people. I hear it as a call to arms. This world has gotten pretty screwed up; that much is obvious, now what are we going to do about it? Just go on skipping and dancing our way into extinction? Is it all out of our hands anyway? And if so, does that give us the right to just be complacent? Wake the F up people!
"This world has gotten pretty screwed up; that much is obvious"<br /> <br /> What do you mean by that? I think the human race has always had its problems, could it perhaps be the opposite, that we've in fact gotten "better"? After all none of us has personally witnissed all of humanity, at best we see our development throughout a period of 100 years or so.<br /> <br /> Anyway, this song is brilliant, and beautifully truthful. They project the true emotion of simply feeling human, which I love.