"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.
Have they put out all the fires yet
Now the celebration's done?
I hope you'll come to see me
Before the summer's gone
My mind still lives in your time
My spirit's up and down
I tried to find some old friends
But nobody's around
Can't understand it
I got my signals crossed
I thought I could do it
But already I've had enough
The buildings they're so graceful here
They barely touch the sky
Sometimes it's so quiet
You can hear your neighbours cry
I miss my messy circus street
With music through the night
I miss the times we'd stumble home
Together in the morning light
Oh my, I wish that I had thought about this more
Maybe then I'd be waking up behind familiar doors
I must be blind
I must be out of my mind
To think I'd come back and everything would change
I must be so naive that I forgot about the pain
Here I am in trouble once again
Now as one day becomes the next
Clearly it's the time
To see the things I never change
And what I leave behind.
Oh my, I wish that I had thought about this more
Maybe then I'd be waking up behind familiar doors
I must be blind
I must be out of my mind
To think I'd come back and everything would change
I must be so naive that I forgot about the pain.
Here I am in trouble once
Here I am in trouble once
Here I am in trouble once again
Now the celebration's done?
I hope you'll come to see me
Before the summer's gone
My mind still lives in your time
My spirit's up and down
I tried to find some old friends
But nobody's around
Can't understand it
I got my signals crossed
I thought I could do it
But already I've had enough
The buildings they're so graceful here
They barely touch the sky
Sometimes it's so quiet
You can hear your neighbours cry
I miss my messy circus street
With music through the night
I miss the times we'd stumble home
Together in the morning light
Oh my, I wish that I had thought about this more
Maybe then I'd be waking up behind familiar doors
I must be blind
I must be out of my mind
To think I'd come back and everything would change
I must be so naive that I forgot about the pain
Here I am in trouble once again
Now as one day becomes the next
Clearly it's the time
To see the things I never change
And what I leave behind.
Oh my, I wish that I had thought about this more
Maybe then I'd be waking up behind familiar doors
I must be blind
I must be out of my mind
To think I'd come back and everything would change
I must be so naive that I forgot about the pain.
Here I am in trouble once
Here I am in trouble once
Here I am in trouble once again
Lyrics submitted by RiotAct
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