"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.
When I was a child and the road was dark and the way was long and alone
My heart would lift as I turned the bend and saw the lights of home
Now high above in a silent sky
In a still and starry space
A man looks down on the earth below
And that blue and green and shining glow
To him is the lights of home
It's the good earth, yes the good earth
It's a land of sun and rain and snow
And mulberry trees and mistletoe
And burning plains and raging seas
And Sunday morning taking your ease
Watching your children grow
It's the good earth, yes the good earth
Where we fought and loved and killed and died
And ruined and ravished the countryside
But now, from a million miles away
From another world that's cold and gray
Someone is able to look and say
"That's the good earth."
So isn't it time we stopped the tears?
We've lived together for thousands of years
And whether I'm wrong, and whether you're right
Whether you're black, and whether I'm white
One day we'll stand on the edge of the world
And someone will ask us the land of our birth
And we'll look into his eyes and quietly say:
"It's the good earth, yes the good earth."
Why can't we be good on the good earth?
My heart would lift as I turned the bend and saw the lights of home
Now high above in a silent sky
In a still and starry space
A man looks down on the earth below
And that blue and green and shining glow
To him is the lights of home
It's the good earth, yes the good earth
It's a land of sun and rain and snow
And mulberry trees and mistletoe
And burning plains and raging seas
And Sunday morning taking your ease
Watching your children grow
It's the good earth, yes the good earth
Where we fought and loved and killed and died
And ruined and ravished the countryside
But now, from a million miles away
From another world that's cold and gray
Someone is able to look and say
"That's the good earth."
So isn't it time we stopped the tears?
We've lived together for thousands of years
And whether I'm wrong, and whether you're right
Whether you're black, and whether I'm white
One day we'll stand on the edge of the world
And someone will ask us the land of our birth
And we'll look into his eyes and quietly say:
"It's the good earth, yes the good earth."
Why can't we be good on the good earth?
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings, edited by Mellow_Harsher
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