"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.
Well Heaven rode my back
And the angels dragged my throne.
Only yesterday.
Only yesterday
I carved out your name.
Only yesterday
I built you a shrine
On the side of the road.
And I shut my eyes
And laid my hands to rest.
In dreams
There's a way
To die.
Well I towed you from the wreck
Of dimming shadows in my head
Only yesterday.
Only yesterday
I laid you to rest.
Only yesterday
I wept for your shape
In it's endless decay.
And I raised your voice from a stone
With the song of the dead.
In dreams
There's a way
To die.
And the angels dragged my throne.
Only yesterday.
Only yesterday
I carved out your name.
Only yesterday
I built you a shrine
On the side of the road.
And I shut my eyes
And laid my hands to rest.
In dreams
There's a way
To die.
Well I towed you from the wreck
Of dimming shadows in my head
Only yesterday.
Only yesterday
I laid you to rest.
Only yesterday
I wept for your shape
In it's endless decay.
And I raised your voice from a stone
With the song of the dead.
In dreams
There's a way
To die.
Lyrics submitted by TheWrongGirl
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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Page
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