"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.
Cisco Clifton had a fillin' station
About a mile and a half from town
Most cars passed unless they were out of gas
So Cisco was always around
Regular gas was all that it sold
Except tobacco matches and oil
Other than that he fixed lots of flats
Keepin' Cisco rough hands soiled
He'd wipe the gas and check the air
In a hundred times a day
He patiently gave directions
On how to get to the state highway
Usually he'd give 'em water
Or a tyre or two some air
And once a big black Cadillac
Spent seven dollars there
He'd give anybody anything they'd ask
And lend anything he had
His tools are tyres bumper jacks or wire
To the good ones or the bad
In wintertime there was a depot stove
And a table for a checker game
And every mornin' at sunup
The same checker players came
So Cisco Clifton's fillin' station
Was always in the red
Personal loans were personally gone
But never a word was said
One mornin' at eight, them checker players
Heard a big bulldozer roar like a freight
And Cisco said I hope my kids stay fed
When they build that Interstate
He'd managed to pay for property
Where his little fillin' station sat
And friends still came for checker game
So Cisco settled for that
He wouldn't say so but Cisco knew
That the Interstate was too much to fight
But to keep his will and to pay his bills
He did odd jobs at night
He still opened up at sunrise
And the checker game went on
The cars flew past on highest gas
And the neighbors had sold out and gone
If a car ever did go by he was lost
And if they stopped they were treated the same
So at Cisco Clifton's fillin' station
There's a howdy and a checker game
About a mile and a half from town
Most cars passed unless they were out of gas
So Cisco was always around
Regular gas was all that it sold
Except tobacco matches and oil
Other than that he fixed lots of flats
Keepin' Cisco rough hands soiled
He'd wipe the gas and check the air
In a hundred times a day
He patiently gave directions
On how to get to the state highway
Usually he'd give 'em water
Or a tyre or two some air
And once a big black Cadillac
Spent seven dollars there
He'd give anybody anything they'd ask
And lend anything he had
His tools are tyres bumper jacks or wire
To the good ones or the bad
In wintertime there was a depot stove
And a table for a checker game
And every mornin' at sunup
The same checker players came
So Cisco Clifton's fillin' station
Was always in the red
Personal loans were personally gone
But never a word was said
One mornin' at eight, them checker players
Heard a big bulldozer roar like a freight
And Cisco said I hope my kids stay fed
When they build that Interstate
He'd managed to pay for property
Where his little fillin' station sat
And friends still came for checker game
So Cisco settled for that
He wouldn't say so but Cisco knew
That the Interstate was too much to fight
But to keep his will and to pay his bills
He did odd jobs at night
He still opened up at sunrise
And the checker game went on
The cars flew past on highest gas
And the neighbors had sold out and gone
If a car ever did go by he was lost
And if they stopped they were treated the same
So at Cisco Clifton's fillin' station
There's a howdy and a checker game
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings
Cisco Clifton's Fillin' Station Lyrics as written by Johnny R. Cash
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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