"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.
Tricked out our eyelids
So we can dream in chrome
And down at the superdome
Parents are cheering
Cause into the end zone
He pulls off his face guard
And his friends from the vineyard
Are laughing
We hid in the forest and waited till morning
While mics were set up so we couldn’t be boring
We pulled out our nose rings got over our death phase
We put it on pause and taped over the bad days
We earned every dollar and won every trophy
Our stories were told in every foreign country
But now the cartographer called in sick
And the celebrity lawyer has a headache
This won’t go down as planned
This won’t go down as planned
So we can dream in chrome
And down at the superdome
Parents are cheering
Cause into the end zone
He pulls off his face guard
And his friends from the vineyard
Are laughing
We hid in the forest and waited till morning
While mics were set up so we couldn’t be boring
We pulled out our nose rings got over our death phase
We put it on pause and taped over the bad days
We earned every dollar and won every trophy
Our stories were told in every foreign country
But now the cartographer called in sick
And the celebrity lawyer has a headache
This won’t go down as planned
This won’t go down as planned
Lyrics submitted by stayfreshstaycool
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