"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.
There's a bear inside your stomach
The cub's been kicking from within
He's loud, though without vocal chords
We'll put an end to him
We'll make all the right appointments
No one ever has to know
And then tomorrow I'll turn 21
We'll script another show
We'll play charades up in the Chelsea
Drink champagne although you shouldn't be
We'll be blind and dumb until we fall asleep
None of our friends will come
They dodge our calls
And they have for quite a while now
It's not a shock
You don't seem to mind and I just can't see how
We're too old
We're not old, old at all
Just too old
We're not old, old at all
There's a bear inside your stomach
The cub's been kicking you for weeks
And if this isn't all a dream
Well then we'll cut him from beneath
Well we're not scared of making caves
Or finding food for him to eat
We're terrified of one another
And terrified of what that means
But we'll make only quick decisions
And you'll just keep my in the waiting room
And all the while I'll know we're fucked
And not getting unfucked soon
When we get home we're bigger strangers than we've ever been before
You sit in front of snowy television, suitcase on the floor
We're too old
We're not old, old at all
Just too old
We're not old, old at all
Just too old
We're not old, old at all
Just too old
We're not old, old at all
Just too old
We're not old, old at all
Just too old
We're not old, old, old, old at all
The cub's been kicking from within
He's loud, though without vocal chords
We'll put an end to him
We'll make all the right appointments
No one ever has to know
And then tomorrow I'll turn 21
We'll script another show
We'll play charades up in the Chelsea
Drink champagne although you shouldn't be
We'll be blind and dumb until we fall asleep
None of our friends will come
They dodge our calls
And they have for quite a while now
It's not a shock
You don't seem to mind and I just can't see how
We're too old
We're not old, old at all
Just too old
We're not old, old at all
There's a bear inside your stomach
The cub's been kicking you for weeks
And if this isn't all a dream
Well then we'll cut him from beneath
Well we're not scared of making caves
Or finding food for him to eat
We're terrified of one another
And terrified of what that means
But we'll make only quick decisions
And you'll just keep my in the waiting room
And all the while I'll know we're fucked
And not getting unfucked soon
When we get home we're bigger strangers than we've ever been before
You sit in front of snowy television, suitcase on the floor
We're too old
We're not old, old at all
Just too old
We're not old, old at all
Just too old
We're not old, old at all
Just too old
We're not old, old at all
Just too old
We're not old, old at all
Just too old
We're not old, old, old, old at all
Lyrics submitted by Normaljeansxxx
Bear Lyrics as written by Peter Joseph Silberman
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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This is just my personal interpretation, because I honestly think just saying "Bear is about abortion" throws the entire album out of whack. There's more to this song than first meets the eye.
When you listen to Hospice, it's important to remember that there are two parallel stories being told. The first and most obvious is the story of the caretaker (the narrator) and the cancer patient (for simplicity's sake, lets call her "Sylvia"). This is used as an allegory to describe the complexities and eventual death of a relationship that Peter Silberman was in.
While the lyrics to this song indicate an abortion, it would be quite irrelevant to the rest of the narrative to put a random abortion song smack-dab in the middle of the album. Perhaps, as previous commentors have speculated, it was an abortion that was necessary to undergo cancer treatment, but let's not label this song "Abortion, abortion, abortion!" and move on, there's a bigger, more important picture here.
How does an abortion tie in to the real-life story of Silberman's relationship? You could say that He and his girlfriend had an abortion, but that's far too simple, and certainly not information normal people flaunt to the public. It makes more sense that the abortion (just like the other events in the doctor/sylvia narrative) is simply an allegory for another event in the relationship.
The rest of Hospice indicates that the real life Sylvia's mental/emotional problems (the cancer) and Silberman's inability to help her deal with them ("Cure her") is what tears apart their relationship. In the narrative, we have an abortion, and this strains the doctor/patient relationship (When we get home we're bigger strangers than we've ever been before/You sit in front of snowy television, suitcase on the floor)Think of it this way: An abortion is snuffing out life from inside a woman, something inside of her dying. Something inside of our real-life Sylvia has died, perhaps the last thing left that made Peter love her, now all that remains is negativity.