"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.
I think I was wrong
I think you were right
All my angry words
Will keep me up at night
Through the old screen door
I still can hear you say
Oh, honey won't you stop
Treating me that way
If you could only see
What love has made of me
Then I'd no longer be in your mind
The difficult kind
Because babe I've changed
Tell it to me slow
Tell me with your eyes
If anyone should know
How to let it slide
I swear I can see you
Coming up the drive
And there ain't nothing like regret
To remind you you're alive
If you could only see
What love has made of me
Then I'd no longer be in your mind
The difficult kind
Because babe I've changed
I crossed the canyon a thousand times
But never noticed what was mine
What you'll remember of me tonight
Well, it almost makes me cry
Yeah, it almost makes me cry
Oh ball-breaking moon and ridiculing stars
The older I get, the closer you are
Don't you have somewhere that you need to be
Instead of hanging here making a fool of me
If you could only see
What love has made of me
Then I'd no longer be in your mind
The difficult kind
But you won't see
But you won't see
If you could only see
What love has made of me
Then I'd no longer be in your mind
The difficult kind
But you won't see
No you won't see
The good in me
But babe I've changed
Because babe I've changed
This is Sarah McLachlan
Bring it on
This is a really good friend of mine
This is Eric Clapton
I think you were right
All my angry words
Will keep me up at night
Through the old screen door
I still can hear you say
Oh, honey won't you stop
Treating me that way
If you could only see
What love has made of me
Then I'd no longer be in your mind
The difficult kind
Because babe I've changed
Tell it to me slow
Tell me with your eyes
If anyone should know
How to let it slide
I swear I can see you
Coming up the drive
And there ain't nothing like regret
To remind you you're alive
If you could only see
What love has made of me
Then I'd no longer be in your mind
The difficult kind
Because babe I've changed
I crossed the canyon a thousand times
But never noticed what was mine
What you'll remember of me tonight
Well, it almost makes me cry
Yeah, it almost makes me cry
Oh ball-breaking moon and ridiculing stars
The older I get, the closer you are
Don't you have somewhere that you need to be
Instead of hanging here making a fool of me
If you could only see
What love has made of me
Then I'd no longer be in your mind
The difficult kind
But you won't see
But you won't see
If you could only see
What love has made of me
Then I'd no longer be in your mind
The difficult kind
But you won't see
No you won't see
The good in me
But babe I've changed
Because babe I've changed
This is Sarah McLachlan
Bring it on
This is a really good friend of mine
This is Eric Clapton
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings, edited by Mellow_Harsher
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Fast Car
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This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
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