"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.
Clair
The moment I met you, I swear
I felt as if something, somewhere
Had happened to me,
Which I couldn't see
And then
The moment I met you, again
I knew in my heart that we were friends
It had to be so
It couldn't be no
But try
As hard as I might do, I don't know why
You get to me in a way I can't describe
Words mean so little when you look up and smile
I don't care what people say
To me you're more than a child
Oh Clair
Clair
Clair
If ever a moment so rare
Was captured for all to compare
That moment is you
In all that you do
But why
In spite of our age difference do I cry?
Each time I leave you I feel I could die
Nothing means more to me than hearing you say
"I'm going to marry you
Will you marry me, Uncle Ray?"
Oh Clair
Clair
Clair
I've told you before "Don't you dare!"
"Get back into bed"
"Can't you see that it's late"
"No you can't have a drink"
"Oh alright then, but wait just a minute"
While I, in an effort to babysit
Catch of my breath, what there is left of it
You can be murder at this hour of the day
But in the morning the sun
Will see my lifetime away
Oh Clair
Clair
Oh Clair
The moment I met you, I swear
I felt as if something, somewhere
Had happened to me,
Which I couldn't see
And then
The moment I met you, again
I knew in my heart that we were friends
It had to be so
It couldn't be no
But try
As hard as I might do, I don't know why
You get to me in a way I can't describe
Words mean so little when you look up and smile
I don't care what people say
To me you're more than a child
Oh Clair
Clair
Clair
If ever a moment so rare
Was captured for all to compare
That moment is you
In all that you do
But why
In spite of our age difference do I cry?
Each time I leave you I feel I could die
Nothing means more to me than hearing you say
"I'm going to marry you
Will you marry me, Uncle Ray?"
Oh Clair
Clair
Clair
I've told you before "Don't you dare!"
"Get back into bed"
"Can't you see that it's late"
"No you can't have a drink"
"Oh alright then, but wait just a minute"
While I, in an effort to babysit
Catch of my breath, what there is left of it
You can be murder at this hour of the day
But in the morning the sun
Will see my lifetime away
Oh Clair
Clair
Oh Clair
Lyrics submitted by joliejoy, edited by SWLinPHX, TheOldHacker, Wordmaster
Clair Lyrics as written by Gilbert O'sullivan
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I guess that we read or hear these lyrics in the light of recent revelations of sexual predators, but this was written at a time when you could have platonic love for a child without it being considered creepy as there was no sexual intent.
Sadly today what was written in innocence can be misinterpreted. I am sure this is the case with Gilbert O as someone has already said he is still friends with Clair the girl he used to babysit.
Love this song. I have a niece named Claire, and I used to sing it to her.
This was written for his manager's daughter who he used to babysit, as a gift to his parents, and hit it big in many nation, including the U.S. and U.K. There is a video of him playing with Clair at the time with the song playing on YouTube (sort of a makeshift music video from 1973).
Some of the lyrics were questionable with regard to a grown man being so in love with a little girl he was unrelated to. "In spite of our age difference", "each time I leave you I feel I could die", "to me you're more than a child". But it is, in the end, an innocuous tribute to a little girl who he is still friends with today (in her forties).
A gift to "her" parents I meant.
By the way, the correct lyric is, "I want to marry you; will you marry me, Uncle Ray?"<br /> <br /> The singer's real name is Raymond O'Sullivan (he changed it as a play on the famous duo "Gilbert & Sullivan") and Clair used to call him Uncle Ray when he babysat.
I remember this song when I was a kid growing up in the UK. I was a GO'S fan as an 8 year old. Loved Alone Again which I recently bought on iTunes and Get Down which I just heard on Smooth fm, leading me here. But on just reading the lyrics to Claire it comes across somewhat unacceptable!! Creepy really. I can see why the US radio dj suggested G likes little girls. I trust though that it was purely platonic and that despite the choice of words making the lyrics, it was all good and clean.
@Markie Raye Certainly, I want to believe the feelings expressed are innocent. But even when the song was popular, it gave me the creeps to hear a toddler laughing at the end. And I really liked the song otherwise.
Perhaps the song is describing a happy relationship like this, only hopefully without the destructive interference at the end:\n\n"Germaine Greer (1975) ... relates the experience of one of her school friends: [She] enjoyed sex with her uncle throughout her childhood and never realized that anything was unusual until she went away to school. What disturbed her then was not what her uncle had done, but the attitude of her teachers and psychiatrist. They assumed that she must have been traumatized and disgusted and therefore in need of very special help. In order to capitulate to their expectations, she began to fake symptoms she did not feel, until at length she began to feel truly guilty for not having felt guilty. She ended up judging herself quite harshly for this innate lechery. (Page number not given.)"\n\n-- Paul Okami, "Sociopolitical Biases in the Contemporary Scientific Literature on Adult Human Sexual Behavior with Children and Adolescents," p. 11\n\nGreer G. Seduction Is a Four-Letter Word, New York: John Cushman Associates, Inc., 1975