"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.
Well, I can't recall, one time in my life
I've felt as lonely as I do tonight
I feel like I could lay down, and get up no more
It's the damndest feelin', I never felt it before
Tonight I feel like an old violin
Soon to be put away and never played again
Don't ask me why I feel like this, hell, I can't say
I only wish this feelin' would just go away
I guess it's 'cause the truth
Is the hardest thing I ever faced
'Cause you can't change the truth
In the slightest way, I tried
So I asked myself
I said, "John, where'd you go from here?"
And then like a damned fool
I turned around and looked in the mirror
And there I saw, an old violin
Soon to be put away and never played again
So one more time, just to be sure
I said, "John, where in the hell do you go from here?"
You know that when a nickel's worth of difference
And I looked in the mirror, that's when I knew
That there I was seein', an old violin
Soon to be put away, and never played again
And just like that, it hit me
That old violin and I were just alike
We'd give our all to music
And soon, we'll give our life
I've felt as lonely as I do tonight
I feel like I could lay down, and get up no more
It's the damndest feelin', I never felt it before
Tonight I feel like an old violin
Soon to be put away and never played again
Don't ask me why I feel like this, hell, I can't say
I only wish this feelin' would just go away
I guess it's 'cause the truth
Is the hardest thing I ever faced
'Cause you can't change the truth
In the slightest way, I tried
So I asked myself
I said, "John, where'd you go from here?"
And then like a damned fool
I turned around and looked in the mirror
And there I saw, an old violin
Soon to be put away and never played again
So one more time, just to be sure
I said, "John, where in the hell do you go from here?"
You know that when a nickel's worth of difference
And I looked in the mirror, that's when I knew
That there I was seein', an old violin
Soon to be put away, and never played again
And just like that, it hit me
That old violin and I were just alike
We'd give our all to music
And soon, we'll give our life
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings
Old Violin Lyrics as written by Johnny Paycheck
Lyrics © Songtrust Ave
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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