"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.
we’re out in our fortune so wide and so deep / and during the ride you want to die in your sleep / and you are worried and your eyes are buried / and sleep will get sweeter the more you get angry / we are out with our wings spread in snowy covers / that came down and gave our eyes to another / new insight on how no matter the shape / of the world it gets blessed with a great white cape / and also how we so silly and rough / get rained on and suntanned and pushed in the muck / and put up and kicked out and young and old / and somehow convinced that we never know / so me and you can lose ourselves / and drive all night ‘till we get to the water / you and I with our hearts untied / hear in this mercy / the sound of each other
Lyrics submitted by bluegrassishhh
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Fast Car
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