"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.
Let's go to Louisiana boys
Way down in Louisiana where the moss and cypress grew
You'd find old Jack in a shotgun shack
In the back of the black bayou
Some folks called him crazy but I knew better than that
He kept a hundred dollar bill tucked away in the brim
Of his dirty old cowboy hat
Jack told me a story when I was ten years
He said there was once a fool tried to swim this swamp
With his back weighted down with gold
He said you should've seen that alligator smile
He had a meal fit for a king
But he need up on my table son, money ain't everything
He said there's only one way into this world
And one way out it's true
You either eat the alligator
Or he's gonna eat you
There's people livin' in a high-rise
That'll never hear a robin sing
What good is first place when you're in a rat race
Money ain't everything
Little Maggie May lay dying, her heart was about to go
When her daddy found a sack on the porch out back
With a half a million dollars in gold
They still talk about the stranger who saved her life that spring
No name on the note but someone wrote, money ain't everything
He said there's only one way into this world
And one way out it's true
You either eat the alligator
Or he's gonna eat you
There's people livin' in a high-rise
That'll never hear a robin sing
What good is first place when you're in a rat race
Money ain't everything
No name on the note but I know who wrote, money ain't everything
Way down in Louisiana where the moss and cypress grew
You'd find old Jack in a shotgun shack
In the back of the black bayou
Some folks called him crazy but I knew better than that
He kept a hundred dollar bill tucked away in the brim
Of his dirty old cowboy hat
Jack told me a story when I was ten years
He said there was once a fool tried to swim this swamp
With his back weighted down with gold
He said you should've seen that alligator smile
He had a meal fit for a king
But he need up on my table son, money ain't everything
He said there's only one way into this world
And one way out it's true
You either eat the alligator
Or he's gonna eat you
There's people livin' in a high-rise
That'll never hear a robin sing
What good is first place when you're in a rat race
Money ain't everything
Little Maggie May lay dying, her heart was about to go
When her daddy found a sack on the porch out back
With a half a million dollars in gold
They still talk about the stranger who saved her life that spring
No name on the note but someone wrote, money ain't everything
He said there's only one way into this world
And one way out it's true
You either eat the alligator
Or he's gonna eat you
There's people livin' in a high-rise
That'll never hear a robin sing
What good is first place when you're in a rat race
Money ain't everything
No name on the note but I know who wrote, money ain't everything
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings
Money Ain't Everything Lyrics as written by Walker Blazy
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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