"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.
Gin, always the gin, always take one on the chin
The devil dogs and scorpions peel away and wear my skin
Smokeless flame, the common name
Less than the angels but more of the same
No paradise, the grateful will lay their claim
Whether the intentions are violent or just mundane
With the wind he disappeared
Confirming everything that I feared
The time passed is shown by the length of his beard
Solomon stands, dead on his feet
Waiting for termites to resolve his conceit
In the mountains, in the seas, in the air waits the disease
We are not Gods, death comes to us all
But tonight I'm invincible; tomorrow I'll crawl.
In the mountains, in the seas, in the air waits the disease
The gin in this bottle, just don't let him drown
Next lesson you swallow, might be hard to keep down
Taste the penalty of the blazing fire
Taste the penalty, sing with the Devil's choir
Gin, always the gin!
Never thick and never thin
Thicker than blood, less than kin
The rattle trap night ends where it begins
The devil dogs and scorpions peel away and wear my skin
Smokeless flame, the common name
Less than the angels but more of the same
No paradise, the grateful will lay their claim
Whether the intentions are violent or just mundane
With the wind he disappeared
Confirming everything that I feared
The time passed is shown by the length of his beard
Solomon stands, dead on his feet
Waiting for termites to resolve his conceit
In the mountains, in the seas, in the air waits the disease
We are not Gods, death comes to us all
But tonight I'm invincible; tomorrow I'll crawl.
In the mountains, in the seas, in the air waits the disease
The gin in this bottle, just don't let him drown
Next lesson you swallow, might be hard to keep down
Taste the penalty of the blazing fire
Taste the penalty, sing with the Devil's choir
Gin, always the gin!
Never thick and never thin
Thicker than blood, less than kin
The rattle trap night ends where it begins
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This song is a cryptic little drinking ditty. It's disguised through a bunch of mixed metaphor and the telling of King Solomon's death from the Islamic perspective. But essentially, I'm just trying to describe what I feel like when I'm good and drunk. - Rody Walker
Bfgoodwin's got it right (can't argue with Rody himself haha)
Interesting tidbit from Wikipedia: "According to Muslim tradition, when Solomon died he was standing watching the work of his Jinn, while leaning on his cane. There he silently died, but did not fall. He remained in this position, and the Jinn, thinking he was still alive watching them work, kept working. But termites were eating the cane, so that the body of Solomon fell after forty days. Thereafter, the Jinn (along with all humans) regretted that they did not know more than God had allotted them to know."
I could be wrong, but I think the following sets of lyrics need to be corrected:
The word "Djinn" should be "gin." I'm almost 100% positive this song is about getting drunk.
"Solomon's stance! dead on his feet" should be "Solomon stands dead on his feet" assuming Solomon is what is being said.
"We are not gods, that goes to us all, but tonight I'm invincible to all who oppose" should be "We are not gods. Death comes to us all, but tonight I'm invincible; tomorrow I'll crawl."
thanks bra! i'll fix it.
Actually, perhaps there could be a double meaning here. While I agree that 'gin' could be correct, a little research into Jinn sheds a little light. In Islamic teachings Jinn are basically genies that were said to be made of a "smokeless flame". They were held in Solomon's service as his slaves. Solomon died leaning upright on his staff and the Jinn believed him to sill be alive. Thus, they continued to work until a creature came out of the ground and gnawed at Solomon's staff, causing him to fall over and revealing his death.
I definitely think it's not 'gin'
As soon as I saw Solomon, I instantly thought Djinn as well. Probably a play on words, but they came from bottles as well. <br /> <br /> "Then, when We decreed (Solomon's) death, nothing showed them his death except a little worm of the earth, which kept (slowly) gnawing away at his staff: so when he fell down, the jinn saw plainly that if they had known the unseen, they would not have tarried in the humiliating Penalty (of their Task)." Qur’an 34:14)<br /> <br />