"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.
The passage of a thousand sunrises came and went with calm resolve
And like clockwork they shone on
The one that we’d forgot
Her truth entrenched by eight decades in a white flag of bitter wisdom
Leavin' her front door with no more than the odd cursory knock
A classic two story terrace
On a central sloping street
Affluent couples would cast their eyes as they looked to buy in Sydney's east
Three-quarter eight-hundred at least
But this lady wasn't selling in fact
No one ever saw her
But that's the city for ya
She was there with a low profile
Never made a sound it ain’t her style
At her age didn’t want no one to rile up till she invited nobody else to her island
When the sirens drowned out the silence quietly her pension cheques kept arriving
They cut her telephone line she wasn't dialing
Killed the electricity the damn wiring
Operator said they could not get through on the phone
For all they care there ain’t nobody at home
Little do they know that she on her own
Disconnection notes come and they come and they go
And the junk mail collected in the letter box
Constant papers stuck together squashed
The neighbors wonder why it never stops
Cause she never answered if they ever knocked
Oh my love
You’ve been sleeping so long
In a world where you don’t belong
Its time to get you back home
Where the sun meets the sky you’ll be resting tonight
Gotta let it go
Gotta let it get away back home
Gotta let it go
Gotta let it go
Gotta let it get away back home
And as real as she was maybe she was just somebody I dreamt
Like her presence was passing the brim
Of all the people that she had never met
Wondered if it could’ve happened, could it happen again
The passage of a thousand sunsets had walked her to the end
Her signal lost strength and she fell right out of range
The truth sealed in eight decades when she closed her door on the world
And all that lonely sorrow set free and washed away
And that terrace on the sloping street did not change
Real estate agents still cast their eyes as they drove past in cars they leased
Three-quarter eight-hundred at least and they say
Did ya hear the story
Apparently the neighbors they never saw her, but that’s the city for ya
And like clockwork they shone on
The one that we’d forgot
Her truth entrenched by eight decades in a white flag of bitter wisdom
Leavin' her front door with no more than the odd cursory knock
A classic two story terrace
On a central sloping street
Affluent couples would cast their eyes as they looked to buy in Sydney's east
Three-quarter eight-hundred at least
But this lady wasn't selling in fact
No one ever saw her
But that's the city for ya
She was there with a low profile
Never made a sound it ain’t her style
At her age didn’t want no one to rile up till she invited nobody else to her island
When the sirens drowned out the silence quietly her pension cheques kept arriving
They cut her telephone line she wasn't dialing
Killed the electricity the damn wiring
Operator said they could not get through on the phone
For all they care there ain’t nobody at home
Little do they know that she on her own
Disconnection notes come and they come and they go
And the junk mail collected in the letter box
Constant papers stuck together squashed
The neighbors wonder why it never stops
Cause she never answered if they ever knocked
Oh my love
You’ve been sleeping so long
In a world where you don’t belong
Its time to get you back home
Where the sun meets the sky you’ll be resting tonight
Gotta let it go
Gotta let it get away back home
Gotta let it go
Gotta let it go
Gotta let it get away back home
And as real as she was maybe she was just somebody I dreamt
Like her presence was passing the brim
Of all the people that she had never met
Wondered if it could’ve happened, could it happen again
The passage of a thousand sunsets had walked her to the end
Her signal lost strength and she fell right out of range
The truth sealed in eight decades when she closed her door on the world
And all that lonely sorrow set free and washed away
And that terrace on the sloping street did not change
Real estate agents still cast their eyes as they drove past in cars they leased
Three-quarter eight-hundred at least and they say
Did ya hear the story
Apparently the neighbors they never saw her, but that’s the city for ya
Lyrics submitted by nlenkowski
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