"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.
through war-hollowed buildings and forests of trash,
the tar-thickened waters and wastelands of ash,
now freed of flesh, speeding through the clouds,
the kiss-chase starts as our bones break down,
a nuclear sunset sounds;
the hole where life, for us, was drowned
through cavernous ice floes
and mountains of shale,
the daisy-swept meadows
and oceans so pale.
we'll meet on the iceblink,
some secrets we'll share,
while prismatic light-beams
add color to air.
leave inhibitions there,
the godless skies left unaware...
radiation filled the space where
angels ought to be.
with a disaffected smile she turned
and said to me (this is forever)
whatever cloud you're on i will find you,
i will find you
in time.
the tar-thickened waters and wastelands of ash,
now freed of flesh, speeding through the clouds,
the kiss-chase starts as our bones break down,
a nuclear sunset sounds;
the hole where life, for us, was drowned
through cavernous ice floes
and mountains of shale,
the daisy-swept meadows
and oceans so pale.
we'll meet on the iceblink,
some secrets we'll share,
while prismatic light-beams
add color to air.
leave inhibitions there,
the godless skies left unaware...
radiation filled the space where
angels ought to be.
with a disaffected smile she turned
and said to me (this is forever)
whatever cloud you're on i will find you,
i will find you
in time.
Lyrics submitted by powermuffin
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