"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.
Wipe the moondust from your feet
But what if the grains are ashes
To commit to the sea, hide into the waves below
The spent shell that held your father
Lowers down in the sea
The vessel bodies will be sewn in Sailcloth
stop the craft we're buried in the cold wind
Balsa wood will make a boat
Pair of cannonballs to anchor
Need a floor of the deep
Fly the flag at half its height
Sink my casket under breakers
All hands buried deceased
But what if the grains are ashes
To commit to the sea, hide into the waves below
The spent shell that held your father
Lowers down in the sea
The vessel bodies will be sewn in Sailcloth
stop the craft we're buried in the cold wind
Balsa wood will make a boat
Pair of cannonballs to anchor
Need a floor of the deep
Fly the flag at half its height
Sink my casket under breakers
All hands buried deceased
Lyrics submitted by demyelinated
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