"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.
West End girls, the West End girls
Sometimes you're better off dead
There's gun in your hand and it's pointing at your head
You think you're mad, too unstable
Kicking in chairs and knocking down tables
In a restaurant in a West End town
Call the police, there's a madman around
Running down underground to a dive bar
In a West End town
In a West End town, a dead end world
The East End boys and West End girls
In a West End town, a dead end world
The East End boys and West End girls, the West End girls
Too many shadows is whispering voices
Faces on posters, too many choices
If, when or why, what? How much have you got?
Have you got it, do you get it, if so, how often?
Which do you choose, a hard or soft option?
(How much do you need?)
In a West End town, a dead end world
The East End boys and West End girls
In a West End town, a dead end world
The East End boys and West End girls
The West End girls, the West End girls
West End girls, the West End girls
You've got a heart of glass or a heart of stone
Just you wait till I get you home we've got no future, we've got no past
Here today, built to last in every city and in every nation
From Lake Geneva to the Finland station
(How far have you been?)
And a West End town, a dead end world
The East End boys and West End girls
A West End town, a dead end world
East End boys, West End girls
The West End girls
The West End girls
The West End girls
(How far have you been?)
Girls
East End boys
Sometimes you're better off dead
There's gun in your hand and it's pointing at your head
You think you're mad, too unstable
Kicking in chairs and knocking down tables
In a restaurant in a West End town
Call the police, there's a madman around
Running down underground to a dive bar
In a West End town
In a West End town, a dead end world
The East End boys and West End girls
In a West End town, a dead end world
The East End boys and West End girls, the West End girls
Too many shadows is whispering voices
Faces on posters, too many choices
If, when or why, what? How much have you got?
Have you got it, do you get it, if so, how often?
Which do you choose, a hard or soft option?
(How much do you need?)
In a West End town, a dead end world
The East End boys and West End girls
In a West End town, a dead end world
The East End boys and West End girls
The West End girls, the West End girls
West End girls, the West End girls
You've got a heart of glass or a heart of stone
Just you wait till I get you home we've got no future, we've got no past
Here today, built to last in every city and in every nation
From Lake Geneva to the Finland station
(How far have you been?)
And a West End town, a dead end world
The East End boys and West End girls
A West End town, a dead end world
East End boys, West End girls
The West End girls
The West End girls
The West End girls
(How far have you been?)
Girls
East End boys
Lyrics submitted by fall poetaster
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so much better than the original