"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.
The pillar, peak and palm that makes you dream
O the sun is your alarm, the church that's leaving
Come to Bahamas, to 1971
When you weren't even the grain of an idea
Carpentaria, the midnight seeming longer than we are
Carp are dreaming of sunsets in the casbah
And the world is repeating phrases in a broken down car
In your film noir, on a highway to a star
Waking in the dusty gate
Of men who never arrive, and never really seem to be
Though I can fix the car, and I can drive a thousand miles to find out
where you are
And ask you "Have I really arrived?"
Cast me down a glance at the top, close my eyes
And I'll love you 'til you tell me to stop breathing
Pretty face, human race
Oh yeah, I know
Say, how much for those words?
That's a fifty cent novel on the ecstasy of surds
Seems such a horrible waste when you could buy grass for the yard
Pottery wheels and broken heels are not gonna get very far into these words
That's a fifty cent novel on the ecstasy of surds
Seems such a horrible waste when you could buy grass for the yard
Pottery wheels and broken heels are not gonna get very far into these words
Waking in the dusty gate
Of men who never arrive, and never really seem to be
Though I can fix the car, and I can drive a thousand miles to find out
where you are
And ask you "Have I really arrived?"
Cast me down a glance at the top, close my eyes
And I'll love you 'til you tell me to stop breathing
Pretty face, human race
Oh yeah, I know
You met for your mortar traces, your fifty cent shoelaces
I'm high on your Pulitzer now
Oh you can never ever be, no you can never ever be
The one that got us through the burning sun like you thought you would
Ask me "Have I really arrived?"
Cast me down a glance at the top, close my eyes
And I'll love you 'til you tell me to stop
To stop breathing
I'll kiss you when I know I should not
Close your eyes and I'll love you 'til you tell me to stop
To stop
O cast me down a glance at the top, close my eyes
And I'll love you 'til you tell me to stop
To stop breathing
And I'll kiss you when I know I should not
Close your eyes and I'll love you 'til you tell me to stop
To stop
Stop breathing
Stop breathing
Pretty face, human race
Oh yeah, I know
O the sun is your alarm, the church that's leaving
Come to Bahamas, to 1971
When you weren't even the grain of an idea
Carpentaria, the midnight seeming longer than we are
Carp are dreaming of sunsets in the casbah
And the world is repeating phrases in a broken down car
In your film noir, on a highway to a star
Waking in the dusty gate
Of men who never arrive, and never really seem to be
Though I can fix the car, and I can drive a thousand miles to find out
where you are
And ask you "Have I really arrived?"
Cast me down a glance at the top, close my eyes
And I'll love you 'til you tell me to stop breathing
Pretty face, human race
Oh yeah, I know
Say, how much for those words?
That's a fifty cent novel on the ecstasy of surds
Seems such a horrible waste when you could buy grass for the yard
Pottery wheels and broken heels are not gonna get very far into these words
That's a fifty cent novel on the ecstasy of surds
Seems such a horrible waste when you could buy grass for the yard
Pottery wheels and broken heels are not gonna get very far into these words
Waking in the dusty gate
Of men who never arrive, and never really seem to be
Though I can fix the car, and I can drive a thousand miles to find out
where you are
And ask you "Have I really arrived?"
Cast me down a glance at the top, close my eyes
And I'll love you 'til you tell me to stop breathing
Pretty face, human race
Oh yeah, I know
You met for your mortar traces, your fifty cent shoelaces
I'm high on your Pulitzer now
Oh you can never ever be, no you can never ever be
The one that got us through the burning sun like you thought you would
Ask me "Have I really arrived?"
Cast me down a glance at the top, close my eyes
And I'll love you 'til you tell me to stop
To stop breathing
I'll kiss you when I know I should not
Close your eyes and I'll love you 'til you tell me to stop
To stop
O cast me down a glance at the top, close my eyes
And I'll love you 'til you tell me to stop
To stop breathing
And I'll kiss you when I know I should not
Close your eyes and I'll love you 'til you tell me to stop
To stop
Stop breathing
Stop breathing
Pretty face, human race
Oh yeah, I know
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings
Stop Breathing Lyrics as written by Richards
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Pure poetry. Glenn Richards is a beautiful lyricist. An underrated band, which is shown by such a beautiful song with stunning lyrics not having had any comments here yet.