"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.
We still believe in you old friend.
Indifferent helping hands.
Venom's injected by rejects.
"a lie makes it way half-way around the world before the truth can get its pants on."
These lies you speak of are nudists, your honor.
My pants were never on fire.
I'm of changed folk, I've learned every lesson.
Have patience, patient.
Irresistably chronic, fanatically fixated.
An addict of tightropes expanding from here to sooner or later.
Strung out on every blind uncertainty, self-expectations.
To exist is but another quick fix away from dissension.
Expect nothing else from me ever again.
I've made my bed, it's where I'll lie.
Write it down on the walls.
Forge the ivory, plot the whites, entertainer.
Genius perched matching keys.
Prospect, observantly.
Indifferent helping hands.
Venom's injected by rejects.
"a lie makes it way half-way around the world before the truth can get its pants on."
These lies you speak of are nudists, your honor.
My pants were never on fire.
I'm of changed folk, I've learned every lesson.
Have patience, patient.
Irresistably chronic, fanatically fixated.
An addict of tightropes expanding from here to sooner or later.
Strung out on every blind uncertainty, self-expectations.
To exist is but another quick fix away from dissension.
Expect nothing else from me ever again.
I've made my bed, it's where I'll lie.
Write it down on the walls.
Forge the ivory, plot the whites, entertainer.
Genius perched matching keys.
Prospect, observantly.
Lyrics submitted by FurryDonkeyy
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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Yo La Tengo
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This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
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Page
Ed Sheeran
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