"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 wanna wake where I was born and breathe the old air in
I need a haunt from a ghost that I knew way back then
Oh I hope they left the light on
I want someone who knows me just to say my name
To tell me though things are different now somehow I'm still the same
Oh I can almost hear them calling
I don't know if I'll be back again
It turns out they were right again
(Get back to what you know)(Get back to what you do)
I gotta get back to me, ooh
If it's true home is where the heart is
I guess now I'm homeless
(Get back to what you know)(Get back to what you do)
I gotta get back to me without you
For two years I've lived my life way out on a limb
I put my faith in you not knowing you would break in the end
Oh I hate feeling fallen
I don't know if I'll be back again
It turns out they were right again
(Get back to what you know) (Get back to what you do)
Gotta get back to me, ooh
If it's true home is where the heart is
I guess now I'm homeless
(Get back to what you know)(Get back to what you do)
Gotta get back to me without you
I added rain to your ocean
What did it do, it meant nothing to you
You made grief my chief emotion
Why'd you have to do what you thought you had to do
Get back to what know
I don't know if I'll be back again
Turns out they were right again
(Get back to what you know)(Get back to what you do)
Gotta get back to me, ooh
If it's true home is where the heart is
Oh I guess now I'm homeless
(Get back to what you know)(Get back to what you do)
Gotta get back to me without you
The slow death of a slow dance
The tailspin of a romance
Gotta get back and breathe the old air in
I need a haunt from a ghost that I knew way back then
Oh I hope they left the light on
I want someone who knows me just to say my name
To tell me though things are different now somehow I'm still the same
Oh I can almost hear them calling
I don't know if I'll be back again
It turns out they were right again
(Get back to what you know)(Get back to what you do)
I gotta get back to me, ooh
If it's true home is where the heart is
I guess now I'm homeless
(Get back to what you know)(Get back to what you do)
I gotta get back to me without you
For two years I've lived my life way out on a limb
I put my faith in you not knowing you would break in the end
Oh I hate feeling fallen
I don't know if I'll be back again
It turns out they were right again
(Get back to what you know) (Get back to what you do)
Gotta get back to me, ooh
If it's true home is where the heart is
I guess now I'm homeless
(Get back to what you know)(Get back to what you do)
Gotta get back to me without you
I added rain to your ocean
What did it do, it meant nothing to you
You made grief my chief emotion
Why'd you have to do what you thought you had to do
Get back to what know
I don't know if I'll be back again
Turns out they were right again
(Get back to what you know)(Get back to what you do)
Gotta get back to me, ooh
If it's true home is where the heart is
Oh I guess now I'm homeless
(Get back to what you know)(Get back to what you do)
Gotta get back to me without you
The slow death of a slow dance
The tailspin of a romance
Gotta get back and breathe the old air in
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings
Back to Me Without You Lyrics as written by Brian Henningsen Aaron Henningsen
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I think this song is about the feelings that come about after a relationship ends: "The tailspin of a romance." It seems that the personage is trying to find herself and return to the way she was before the relationship began: "Gotta get back to me without you."
The person who is seemingly lost put more into the relationship "I added rain to your ocean" and didn't get a lot back out of the relationship.
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