"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 man of ten broken hearts
He whispers and the crying starts
A man up to here
Defiant to fear
A master of fate
I walk through the corridor
Dance a step on the hallway floor
I know I can say
I’ve had my day
I’ll stay here no more
But where can I go to from here?
I’m standing here
Removing the tears that fall from my face
They dry in the sand
I think I’ll retire
I think I’ll retire
Retire into uncertainty.
The worker on the plantation
The rains begin, the sensation
With one last embrace
I feel no disgrace
For nobody
The day begins before the sun
The moon is high up, all the work is done
The children are fed
And sleeping in bed
Before I arrive.
My hands are bleeding and still
I can’t refuse
The work on this land
Our fathers that lived here before
Won’t tell though I know
I look up to them
And ask them to send
The answers to me
My hands are bleeding and still
I can’t refuse
The work on this land
Our fathers who lived here before
Won’t tell though I know
I look up to them
And ask them to send
The answers to me
I think I’ll retire
I think I’ll retire
Retire into uncertainty.
I think I’ll retire
I think I’ll retire
Retire into uncertainty.
Retire into uncertainty.
I think I’ll retire
I think I’ll retire
Retire into uncertainty…
He whispers and the crying starts
A man up to here
Defiant to fear
A master of fate
I walk through the corridor
Dance a step on the hallway floor
I know I can say
I’ve had my day
I’ll stay here no more
But where can I go to from here?
I’m standing here
Removing the tears that fall from my face
They dry in the sand
I think I’ll retire
I think I’ll retire
Retire into uncertainty.
The worker on the plantation
The rains begin, the sensation
With one last embrace
I feel no disgrace
For nobody
The day begins before the sun
The moon is high up, all the work is done
The children are fed
And sleeping in bed
Before I arrive.
My hands are bleeding and still
I can’t refuse
The work on this land
Our fathers that lived here before
Won’t tell though I know
I look up to them
And ask them to send
The answers to me
My hands are bleeding and still
I can’t refuse
The work on this land
Our fathers who lived here before
Won’t tell though I know
I look up to them
And ask them to send
The answers to me
I think I’ll retire
I think I’ll retire
Retire into uncertainty.
I think I’ll retire
I think I’ll retire
Retire into uncertainty.
Retire into uncertainty.
I think I’ll retire
I think I’ll retire
Retire into uncertainty…
Lyrics submitted by IAmPufferFish
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