"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.
Hey Gloria, are you standing close to the edge?
Look out at the setting sun
Brink of your vision
Eternal youth
Is the landscape of a lie
The cracks of my skin can prove
As the years will testify
Say your prayers and light a fire
We're going to start a war
Your slogans a gun for hire
It's what we waited for
Hey Gloria
This is why we're on the edge
The fight of our lives been drawn to
This undying love
Gloria, viva la Gloria
You blast your name
In graffiti on the walls
Falling in broken glass and
Slashing through these spirits
I can hear it like a jilted crowd
Gloria, where are you Gloria?
You found a home
In all your scars and ammunition
You made your bed in salad days
Amongst the ruins
Ashes to ashes of our youth
She smashed her knuckles into winter
As autumns wind fades into black
She is the saint of all the sinners
The one that's fallen through the cracks
So don't put away, your burning light
Gloria, where are you are Gloria
Don't lose your faith
To you lost naivety
Weather the storm and don't look
Back on last November
When your banners were burning down
Gloria, viva la Gloria
Send me your amnesty down
To the broken hearted
Bring us the season
That we always will remember
Don't let the bonfires go out
So Gloria,
Send out your message of
The light that shadows in the night.
Gloria, where's your undying love?
Tell me the story of your life, your life!
Look out at the setting sun
Brink of your vision
Eternal youth
Is the landscape of a lie
The cracks of my skin can prove
As the years will testify
Say your prayers and light a fire
We're going to start a war
Your slogans a gun for hire
It's what we waited for
Hey Gloria
This is why we're on the edge
The fight of our lives been drawn to
This undying love
Gloria, viva la Gloria
You blast your name
In graffiti on the walls
Falling in broken glass and
Slashing through these spirits
I can hear it like a jilted crowd
Gloria, where are you Gloria?
You found a home
In all your scars and ammunition
You made your bed in salad days
Amongst the ruins
Ashes to ashes of our youth
She smashed her knuckles into winter
As autumns wind fades into black
She is the saint of all the sinners
The one that's fallen through the cracks
So don't put away, your burning light
Gloria, where are you are Gloria
Don't lose your faith
To you lost naivety
Weather the storm and don't look
Back on last November
When your banners were burning down
Gloria, viva la Gloria
Send me your amnesty down
To the broken hearted
Bring us the season
That we always will remember
Don't let the bonfires go out
So Gloria,
Send out your message of
The light that shadows in the night.
Gloria, where's your undying love?
Tell me the story of your life, your life!
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings
¡Viva la Gloria! Lyrics as written by Frank E. Billie Joe Armstrong
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I'm seeing it as a manipulation of Gloria. He meets her and uses their 'undying love' to recruit her. She actually loves him, and I would think that he loves her to, but he needs her stability and her ability to cope with the world that he can't to keep him focused on his goal. Great song.