"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 can't sleep, can't go home
Underneath the branches of a sycamore tree
On a darkened road
With this key, scratched into the wall
I spell out your name, it's fucking with my head
Fucking with my heart
As the autumn leaves begin to fall
Walking down the street where you and I would walk
I see him
Kim, Kim, Kim
I can't sleep, can't let go
Underneath my feet it's miles
Nothing, there's nowhere to go
With this key, scratched into my arm
I spell out your name, it's ringing in my head
Like a false alarm
As the leaves begin to fall and grey
Walking down the street I watched you walk away
To be with him
Kim, Kim, Kim
Oh Kim!
Like a crater, like I've never seen
Walking down the streets we'll never walk again
Kim, Kim, Kim, Kim
Oh Kim!
Underneath the branches of a sycamore tree
On a darkened road
With this key, scratched into the wall
I spell out your name, it's fucking with my head
Fucking with my heart
As the autumn leaves begin to fall
Walking down the street where you and I would walk
I see him
Kim, Kim, Kim
I can't sleep, can't let go
Underneath my feet it's miles
Nothing, there's nowhere to go
With this key, scratched into my arm
I spell out your name, it's ringing in my head
Like a false alarm
As the leaves begin to fall and grey
Walking down the street I watched you walk away
To be with him
Kim, Kim, Kim
Oh Kim!
Like a crater, like I've never seen
Walking down the streets we'll never walk again
Kim, Kim, Kim, Kim
Oh Kim!
Lyrics submitted by meetapossu, edited by LinnyEmG
Kim Lyrics as written by Ryan Adams
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
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Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
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Beginning of last stanza:
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Sounds to me like a song about being cheated on.
I think it’s about the memory of losing somebody. Things remind you of that person everywhere. And as time goes on those things get less and less prominent in your memory. And then everything is eventually gone and it’s like that person never existed.