"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.
At night I cover my ears in tears
The man downstairs must have drank too many beers
But one day you'll pay
Doomed to this kid that you fueled with anger actions
Disgust mostly sick most, never have satisfaction
Till your bones melt high incident clips and crumple zones
Hold a fix on you eternal, intruder interrupting my zone
Dwell the matter I must follow, why you proposed only the lonely know
Swallowed my mother when she was hollow
Who can blame a woman like her, singular parent
One love already dissolved and the solution left polluted
Two kids with a father who broke out as resoluted
So fuck it she needed love and you provided false clout
Stomping on the bottom man and I wish she just walked out
Knew you were Jekyll the stepfather, bit my tongue on the issue
Next to stormy weather and forced tolerance but secretly vexed
Wish I would have spoke on it but why deny the bliss
Mom's with a new husband casting needles puncture pressure
Briefly lifted the guilt from a divorce snuffing her pleasure
Now you're all up in the family tree, come broken nuclear
With termites corroded in your veins and elected to drown the pain
But the pain couldn't quite die with a thrown back whiskey sour
Puritan, crushing Moms between rocks for at least an hour
Until the day I die x2
That's why
At night I cover my ears in tears
The man downstairs must have had too many beers
Now every night of my life he beats his wife
(Until the day I die)
Until the day I die
Timepiece must've read early morning at least
So I lay death's cousin, woken by the sonics of the beast
That somewhere deep beneath me a fracture had seized at my neck
Breath was it, a flag that marked the end of my peace
Conference of the birds I heard my mother dove cry
Not absurd just routined I'd learned
Just keep my fucking grill locked and hope the entropy stops me process
Stepfather's got to fight verbally when his liver's soaked
And products come in bottles stuck with drunken last nerve up too close
But I couldn't sense the distinction from the other nights' livest wires
Ceremony's sparked again a dry one in comparison to this one
Handing crutches to my psyche, I was tripping
Huddled up clutching sis I think I heard a dress ripping
I should've reacted to that
But I didn't know the extent, please
You could've caught him in time
Yeah, that thought's occurred to me constantly
Now I've been digging my head and I don't know what he wants from me
Until one of us is dead I suppose
That's why
At night I cover my ears in tears
The man downstairs must have had too many beers
Now every night of my life he beats his wife
(Until the day I die)
Until the day I die x2
Much more than abrupt I heard the silence erupt
But it was just a touch of tough love that I heard from above
The calm and the climate confused me
The dawn was a floozy
Barely risen but still beckoning to me
The song of the night's events amused me, morbidly
In a petrified state I wait, to Deadwood on duty
Just tempers flared I figured woozily
When all is dead and done a pair is just as fucking happy as they choose to be
Now off to where the wild things dwell for shuteye
The prospect bored me, awokened by the stepsounds coming towards me
A quick glance at my mom's darkened silhouette in the hallway assured me
So I sunk with the hope that hibernation would cure me
And slept my last sleep while I counted clone sheep
And dreamt about nothing for the last time ever
The ignorance was blissful just a recollection
Of the gift of innocent times from a merciful deception
Woke to hazy landscapes to find my world defied the laws my mind mandates
Patching jugulars with Band-aids
The turn on you laid well above my bed
Were here and only barely through the shock of what her broken face told me
You should have known what happened
I was young and oblivous
He almost killed your mom
If I knew I could have done something
You'll never see him again
Yeah but I see him every night
And cover my ears in tears as he beats his fucking wife
At night I cover my ears in tears
The man downstairs must have had too many beers
Now every night of my life he beats his wife
(Until the day I die)
Scott Bivins
Until the day I die x12
The man downstairs must have drank too many beers
But one day you'll pay
Doomed to this kid that you fueled with anger actions
Disgust mostly sick most, never have satisfaction
Till your bones melt high incident clips and crumple zones
Hold a fix on you eternal, intruder interrupting my zone
Dwell the matter I must follow, why you proposed only the lonely know
Swallowed my mother when she was hollow
Who can blame a woman like her, singular parent
One love already dissolved and the solution left polluted
Two kids with a father who broke out as resoluted
So fuck it she needed love and you provided false clout
Stomping on the bottom man and I wish she just walked out
Knew you were Jekyll the stepfather, bit my tongue on the issue
Next to stormy weather and forced tolerance but secretly vexed
Wish I would have spoke on it but why deny the bliss
Mom's with a new husband casting needles puncture pressure
Briefly lifted the guilt from a divorce snuffing her pleasure
Now you're all up in the family tree, come broken nuclear
With termites corroded in your veins and elected to drown the pain
But the pain couldn't quite die with a thrown back whiskey sour
Puritan, crushing Moms between rocks for at least an hour
Until the day I die x2
That's why
At night I cover my ears in tears
The man downstairs must have had too many beers
Now every night of my life he beats his wife
(Until the day I die)
Until the day I die
Timepiece must've read early morning at least
So I lay death's cousin, woken by the sonics of the beast
That somewhere deep beneath me a fracture had seized at my neck
Breath was it, a flag that marked the end of my peace
Conference of the birds I heard my mother dove cry
Not absurd just routined I'd learned
Just keep my fucking grill locked and hope the entropy stops me process
Stepfather's got to fight verbally when his liver's soaked
And products come in bottles stuck with drunken last nerve up too close
But I couldn't sense the distinction from the other nights' livest wires
Ceremony's sparked again a dry one in comparison to this one
Handing crutches to my psyche, I was tripping
Huddled up clutching sis I think I heard a dress ripping
I should've reacted to that
But I didn't know the extent, please
You could've caught him in time
Yeah, that thought's occurred to me constantly
Now I've been digging my head and I don't know what he wants from me
Until one of us is dead I suppose
That's why
At night I cover my ears in tears
The man downstairs must have had too many beers
Now every night of my life he beats his wife
(Until the day I die)
Until the day I die x2
Much more than abrupt I heard the silence erupt
But it was just a touch of tough love that I heard from above
The calm and the climate confused me
The dawn was a floozy
Barely risen but still beckoning to me
The song of the night's events amused me, morbidly
In a petrified state I wait, to Deadwood on duty
Just tempers flared I figured woozily
When all is dead and done a pair is just as fucking happy as they choose to be
Now off to where the wild things dwell for shuteye
The prospect bored me, awokened by the stepsounds coming towards me
A quick glance at my mom's darkened silhouette in the hallway assured me
So I sunk with the hope that hibernation would cure me
And slept my last sleep while I counted clone sheep
And dreamt about nothing for the last time ever
The ignorance was blissful just a recollection
Of the gift of innocent times from a merciful deception
Woke to hazy landscapes to find my world defied the laws my mind mandates
Patching jugulars with Band-aids
The turn on you laid well above my bed
Were here and only barely through the shock of what her broken face told me
You should have known what happened
I was young and oblivous
He almost killed your mom
If I knew I could have done something
You'll never see him again
Yeah but I see him every night
And cover my ears in tears as he beats his fucking wife
At night I cover my ears in tears
The man downstairs must have had too many beers
Now every night of my life he beats his wife
(Until the day I die)
Scott Bivins
Until the day I die x12
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings, edited by azkm
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Fast Car
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"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
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Mountain Song
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Ed Sheeran
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