"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.
The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness
Worked by a father stern and harder than most of us ever now know
A child's hands blistered raw from the plough and the hoe
But in free moments running through valleys is where your life began
The child is the father of the man
Seeing the world through once blind eyes
You saw the earth as heaven in disguise
So plain folk please now rise
For John
Oddly obsessed by the possibilities and properties found within wood
And then doing with it as many things as a young mind could
Making clocks that creaked along keeping perfect time
Machines that tipped you sleepy from your bed before the sun could shine
Shepard, farmer, theorist, writer
Wearer of the dungaree
Naturalist, explorer, child of the forest
A climber of the trees
Like a friendly, bearded, wily Womble wandering free
You were fathered by "The Nature"
And you fathered Yosemite
For everyone
By scientists with grants your ideas were
Poo pooed and feared
But you knew better and sat patiently
Knowing behind your beard
That one day they would make the trek right to your cabin door
And they did
We're sorry John you were right
Our science was flawed
It would seem "The Nature" taught you more
So thank you now for so very many generations to come
For your glaciation theories and for all you have done
Far and wide people now care, your influence is felt
The sierra club, Laconte, Emerson, Teddy Roosevelt
Seeing the world through once blind eyes
Music in the animal cries
So plain folk please now rise
For John
Seeing the world through once blind eyes
You wander on through starry skies
So plain folk please now rise
For John
Worked by a father stern and harder than most of us ever now know
A child's hands blistered raw from the plough and the hoe
But in free moments running through valleys is where your life began
The child is the father of the man
Seeing the world through once blind eyes
You saw the earth as heaven in disguise
So plain folk please now rise
For John
Oddly obsessed by the possibilities and properties found within wood
And then doing with it as many things as a young mind could
Making clocks that creaked along keeping perfect time
Machines that tipped you sleepy from your bed before the sun could shine
Shepard, farmer, theorist, writer
Wearer of the dungaree
Naturalist, explorer, child of the forest
A climber of the trees
Like a friendly, bearded, wily Womble wandering free
You were fathered by "The Nature"
And you fathered Yosemite
For everyone
By scientists with grants your ideas were
Poo pooed and feared
But you knew better and sat patiently
Knowing behind your beard
That one day they would make the trek right to your cabin door
And they did
We're sorry John you were right
Our science was flawed
It would seem "The Nature" taught you more
So thank you now for so very many generations to come
For your glaciation theories and for all you have done
Far and wide people now care, your influence is felt
The sierra club, Laconte, Emerson, Teddy Roosevelt
Seeing the world through once blind eyes
Music in the animal cries
So plain folk please now rise
For John
Seeing the world through once blind eyes
You wander on through starry skies
So plain folk please now rise
For John
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Fast Car
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