"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.
Apehead's brother wants to beat up Paul
The boys have gone to watch
Some of the girls are down at the mall
Justine's got cherry cola and scotch
Later on it's everyone around to Beck's
Her parents are away in New York
Sara, well, she just can't bear
The stupidity, the boredom, the grind
She stays at school so that she can hear
The sound of the life of the mind
And it's noisy up there
It rocks me like a mother
Rosa Parks and DNA
Joan of Arc and JFK
But it's noisy up there
(Noisy up there)
It rocks me like a mother
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh
She's cut 'em all out of her social circle
Won't introduce them to Lincoln or Frost
Doesn't want to let them get to know Keats or Studs Terkel
They'll never know what they have lost
But Sara, well, she just can't bear
The stupidity, the boredom, the grind
She stays at school so that she can hear
The sound of the life of the mind
And it's noisy up there
(Noisy up there)
It rocks me like a mother
Copernicus and Fortune's Wheel
Plato, Glenn Gould, and the New Deal
And it's noisy up there
(Noisy up there)
It rocks me like a mother
Sara already knows pretty soon she'll be leaving
Well, she's hoovered up whatever she can find
But she doesn't want to hear about
Pregnancies, foam fights, TV, take-outs, have sex, weddings
The sound of the life she'll leave behind
Yeah, it's noisy up there
(Noisy up there)
It rocks me like a mother
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh
And it's noisy up there
(Noisy up there)
It rocks me like a mother
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh
The boys have gone to watch
Some of the girls are down at the mall
Justine's got cherry cola and scotch
Later on it's everyone around to Beck's
Her parents are away in New York
Sara, well, she just can't bear
The stupidity, the boredom, the grind
She stays at school so that she can hear
The sound of the life of the mind
And it's noisy up there
It rocks me like a mother
Rosa Parks and DNA
Joan of Arc and JFK
But it's noisy up there
(Noisy up there)
It rocks me like a mother
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh
She's cut 'em all out of her social circle
Won't introduce them to Lincoln or Frost
Doesn't want to let them get to know Keats or Studs Terkel
They'll never know what they have lost
But Sara, well, she just can't bear
The stupidity, the boredom, the grind
She stays at school so that she can hear
The sound of the life of the mind
And it's noisy up there
(Noisy up there)
It rocks me like a mother
Copernicus and Fortune's Wheel
Plato, Glenn Gould, and the New Deal
And it's noisy up there
(Noisy up there)
It rocks me like a mother
Sara already knows pretty soon she'll be leaving
Well, she's hoovered up whatever she can find
But she doesn't want to hear about
Pregnancies, foam fights, TV, take-outs, have sex, weddings
The sound of the life she'll leave behind
Yeah, it's noisy up there
(Noisy up there)
It rocks me like a mother
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh
And it's noisy up there
(Noisy up there)
It rocks me like a mother
Oh, oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh
Lyrics submitted by mike, edited by ApproachLights
The Sound of the Life of the Mind Lyrics as written by Benjamin Scott Folds Ben Folds
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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