"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.
Tonight we're going out on the town
To burn every sinner to the fucking ground
Tonight we're gonna please the crowd
You'll be the only one left screaming to the sound of
The bloody cries, the stupid lies
Are what keeps us alive
The sunny skies, the long goodbyes
Are why we strive to survive
The passing planes just ain't the same
Without you next to me
The silent trains won't call my name
Now that you've broken both my knees
Wet your hair down son, the games are about to begin
Let your hair down girl, the night's still young and full of sin
The stage may be set but the play has no name
I hope it's you who will be haunting my grave
Our troops spread from here to the horizon
And we'd never back down
We've come to reclaim all that you took from us
So long ago
Take arms, take heart
Bring it back to the start
Soon the storms of time will cease
As our ghosts float in transit across the sea
What awaits us at the end?
We are what you fear to admit that you will never be
To burn every sinner to the fucking ground
Tonight we're gonna please the crowd
You'll be the only one left screaming to the sound of
The bloody cries, the stupid lies
Are what keeps us alive
The sunny skies, the long goodbyes
Are why we strive to survive
The passing planes just ain't the same
Without you next to me
The silent trains won't call my name
Now that you've broken both my knees
Wet your hair down son, the games are about to begin
Let your hair down girl, the night's still young and full of sin
The stage may be set but the play has no name
I hope it's you who will be haunting my grave
Our troops spread from here to the horizon
And we'd never back down
We've come to reclaim all that you took from us
So long ago
Take arms, take heart
Bring it back to the start
Soon the storms of time will cease
As our ghosts float in transit across the sea
What awaits us at the end?
We are what you fear to admit that you will never be
Lyrics submitted by linoleumxx
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