"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.
Louis Lichtman had a bakery at 86th and Amsterdam
You'd smell the rising bread at least a couple blocks away
For forty years a wedding cake of one kind or another
Would occupy the Lichtman's Bakery window every day
Then the world turned from pastry and from challah and from cookies
From the independent merchant to the supermarket mall
And the rents were rising faster than the loaves that they were earned on
So the "Going Out of Business" sign appeared on Lichtman's wall
The lights are out at Lichtman's now
The building's cold and empty, with a cake stand in the window
Your credit's fine, no money down
And the Upper West Side doesn't smell as sweetly as it used to
Back when Lichtman's Bakery graced our little town
The final day of business came and with it Lichtman's regulars
Paying their respects and taking in the sad details
Mrs. Kaplan bought a dozen cakes, another, thirty strudels
As the auctioneer prepared to start the sale
Some sixty other bakers bid on ovens and on boxes
There were mixers, there was shortening, there were bowls, and there were pans
And the years were sifting through the racks at Louis Lichtman's bakery
Like the flour and the sugar through his hands
The lights are out at Lichtman's now
The building's cold and empty, with a cake stand in the window
The Daily Special sign fell down
And the Upper West Side doesn't smell as sweetly as it used to
Back when Lichtman's Bakery graced our little town
The last of all the lots was sold, the frosting tubes and freezer
Mr. Lichtman clutched his rolling pin and went to stand outside
He didn't want to watch the auctioneer conclude his business
And he didn't want his friends to see him cry
A note left hanging on the wall
It said that Mrs. Rosenthal still owed him 7 dollars
That was a long, long time ago
And the ceiling fan once spinning round for one last time was slowing down
As forty years came turning to a close
The lights are out at Lichtman's now
The building's cold and empty, Mr. Lichtman moved to Jersey
The neighborhood has changed around
The Upper West Side doesn't smell as sweetly as it used to
Back when Lichtman's Bakery graced our little town
You'd smell the rising bread at least a couple blocks away
For forty years a wedding cake of one kind or another
Would occupy the Lichtman's Bakery window every day
Then the world turned from pastry and from challah and from cookies
From the independent merchant to the supermarket mall
And the rents were rising faster than the loaves that they were earned on
So the "Going Out of Business" sign appeared on Lichtman's wall
The lights are out at Lichtman's now
The building's cold and empty, with a cake stand in the window
Your credit's fine, no money down
And the Upper West Side doesn't smell as sweetly as it used to
Back when Lichtman's Bakery graced our little town
The final day of business came and with it Lichtman's regulars
Paying their respects and taking in the sad details
Mrs. Kaplan bought a dozen cakes, another, thirty strudels
As the auctioneer prepared to start the sale
Some sixty other bakers bid on ovens and on boxes
There were mixers, there was shortening, there were bowls, and there were pans
And the years were sifting through the racks at Louis Lichtman's bakery
Like the flour and the sugar through his hands
The lights are out at Lichtman's now
The building's cold and empty, with a cake stand in the window
The Daily Special sign fell down
And the Upper West Side doesn't smell as sweetly as it used to
Back when Lichtman's Bakery graced our little town
The last of all the lots was sold, the frosting tubes and freezer
Mr. Lichtman clutched his rolling pin and went to stand outside
He didn't want to watch the auctioneer conclude his business
And he didn't want his friends to see him cry
A note left hanging on the wall
It said that Mrs. Rosenthal still owed him 7 dollars
That was a long, long time ago
And the ceiling fan once spinning round for one last time was slowing down
As forty years came turning to a close
The lights are out at Lichtman's now
The building's cold and empty, Mr. Lichtman moved to Jersey
The neighborhood has changed around
The Upper West Side doesn't smell as sweetly as it used to
Back when Lichtman's Bakery graced our little town
Lyrics submitted by bananahero
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Fast Car
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