"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.
I start up in the north, I grow from special seed
I sprinkle it with sensibility
From French and Hungarian snow
I linger in the sprouting until my engine's full
Then I move across the sea
To European bliss
To language of poets
As I cut the cord of home
I kiss my mother's mother
Look to the horizon
Wide-eyed, new ground
Humbled by my new surroundings
I am a citizen of the planet
My president is kwan yin
My frontier is on an airplane
My prisons, homes for rehabilitating
Then I fly back to my nest
I fly back with my nuclear but everything is different
So I wait, my yearn for home is broadened
Patriotism expanded by callings from beyond
So I pack my things nothing precious, all things sacred
I am a citizen of the planet
My laws are all of attraction
My punishments are consequences
Separating from source, the original sin
I am a citizen of the planet
Democracy's kids are sovereign
Where the teachers are the sages
And pedestals fill with every parent
And so, the next few years are blurry
The next decade's a flurry of smells and tastes unknown
Threads sewn straight through this fabric
Through fields of every color one culture to another
And I come alive and I get giddy
And I am taken and globally naturalized
I am a citizen of the planet
From simple roots through high vision
I am guarded by the angels
And my body guides the direction I go in
I am a citizen of the planet
My favorite pastime edge stretching
Besotten with human condition
These ideals are borne from my deepest within
I sprinkle it with sensibility
From French and Hungarian snow
I linger in the sprouting until my engine's full
Then I move across the sea
To European bliss
To language of poets
As I cut the cord of home
I kiss my mother's mother
Look to the horizon
Wide-eyed, new ground
Humbled by my new surroundings
I am a citizen of the planet
My president is kwan yin
My frontier is on an airplane
My prisons, homes for rehabilitating
Then I fly back to my nest
I fly back with my nuclear but everything is different
So I wait, my yearn for home is broadened
Patriotism expanded by callings from beyond
So I pack my things nothing precious, all things sacred
I am a citizen of the planet
My laws are all of attraction
My punishments are consequences
Separating from source, the original sin
I am a citizen of the planet
Democracy's kids are sovereign
Where the teachers are the sages
And pedestals fill with every parent
And so, the next few years are blurry
The next decade's a flurry of smells and tastes unknown
Threads sewn straight through this fabric
Through fields of every color one culture to another
And I come alive and I get giddy
And I am taken and globally naturalized
I am a citizen of the planet
From simple roots through high vision
I am guarded by the angels
And my body guides the direction I go in
I am a citizen of the planet
My favorite pastime edge stretching
Besotten with human condition
These ideals are borne from my deepest within
Lyrics submitted by Waterkisses
Citizen of the Planet Lyrics as written by Guy Sigsworth Alanis Morissette
Lyrics © WARP MUSIC LIMITED, Universal Music Publishing Group, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Toward the end there, I could have sworn she was saying "etcha-sketching." Whoops, my bad!