"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.
You could mess up my life in a poem
Have me divorced by the time of the chorus
There's no need to change any sentence
When you always decide where I go next
Many nights you would hide from the audience
When they were not in tune with your progress
In the end you're a fool like the journalist
Who turns what you sing into business
You could use to be more like a hero
A darker shade of damage distortion
Wearing death like a cape or a costume
Cut your ties and leave town when you want to
Killing time 'til I pass through the chamber
Or the room you keep my replacement
so fed up, still you're starving on paper
You're no him, but he's you, only better
Leave me an exit to damage
I could use a ledge to jump off of
I wasn't lying when I said this was over
I have questions that lead to more questions
Running time that will cut off my fingers
You wrote about me on every new record
And I'll show up in a title of your song
I only hope somebody requests it
What's it like for you in Washington
I've only seen photos of Washington
I'll never know
Leave me Manhattan, I want the evergreens
Write me a song I can sing in my sleep
As sure as the rain that will fall where you stand
I want you and the skyline, these are my demands
What's it like for you in Washington
I've only seen photos of Washington
I'll never know, know
Have me divorced by the time of the chorus
There's no need to change any sentence
When you always decide where I go next
Many nights you would hide from the audience
When they were not in tune with your progress
In the end you're a fool like the journalist
Who turns what you sing into business
You could use to be more like a hero
A darker shade of damage distortion
Wearing death like a cape or a costume
Cut your ties and leave town when you want to
Killing time 'til I pass through the chamber
Or the room you keep my replacement
so fed up, still you're starving on paper
You're no him, but he's you, only better
Leave me an exit to damage
I could use a ledge to jump off of
I wasn't lying when I said this was over
I have questions that lead to more questions
Running time that will cut off my fingers
You wrote about me on every new record
And I'll show up in a title of your song
I only hope somebody requests it
What's it like for you in Washington
I've only seen photos of Washington
I'll never know
Leave me Manhattan, I want the evergreens
Write me a song I can sing in my sleep
As sure as the rain that will fall where you stand
I want you and the skyline, these are my demands
What's it like for you in Washington
I've only seen photos of Washington
I'll never know, know
Lyrics submitted by springbreak93, edited by gongniu
Working Titles Lyrics as written by Damien Jurado
Lyrics © SC PUBLISHING DBA SECRETLY CANADIAN PUB.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Beautiful, amazing love song. It's from the point of view of a bitter, probably jilted ex-lover of a travelling musician -- whether that's Jurado himself isn't that important. But I love the turn. It gets increasingly more bitter ("You're no him, but he's you only better") until a sudden lull and a curious change of heart ("...What's it like, for you, in Washington?")
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