"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.
All the ways I think I'm a man
I'm still just a boy and
Every time I think I have a plan
The road ahead gets destroyed
I'm chewing off the skin from my fingernails
Hoping some half-studied drug is gonna tip the scales
Am I just hyper-motivated or a masochist
I'd take a tub filled with bleach over a life with this
Staring at a stucco ceiling I just can't stop
Feeling like I'm falling back on every little thought-crime
It worked out for me big time thinking on the old life
Back when I was always very thirst
Now gaining weight and thirty
I'm getting pretty thirsty, thirsty, thirsty
If I was just crazy
We could work through things in good time, but I'm too lazy
So it's back to the couch where I find my days get hazy
Watching lots of (events that ain't mine?)
Does it amaze thee, that I can be this bent up and still thrive?
Every inch of ground I think I've gained
Comes at much deeper grade
I've lost my place for the hundredth time today
So I re-read the same page
I'm wiping off blood from my fingernails
Because I bit too much as the thought prevailed
And the words that dissolved my mental dam:
Is this all I want or all I am?
I wish that I could just stop
Wishing I was punk rock
I hear every tick-tock
Counting down the stressing over grey hairs
interviews and day-cares
Wishing I was still where
everything was dirty clothes and knapsacks
rocking for a six-pack
I could never go back, I will never go back
If I was just crazy
We could work through things in good time, but I'm too lazy
So it's back to the couch where I find my days get hazy
Watching lots of (events that ain't mine?)
Does it amaze thee, that I can be this bent up and still thrive?
Too much everything everywhere all the time (x8)
If I was just crazy
We could work through things in good time, but I'm too lazy
So it's back to the couch where I find my days get hazy
Watching lots of (events that ain't mine?)
Does it amaze thee, that I can be this bent up and still thrive?
I'm still just a boy and
Every time I think I have a plan
The road ahead gets destroyed
I'm chewing off the skin from my fingernails
Hoping some half-studied drug is gonna tip the scales
Am I just hyper-motivated or a masochist
I'd take a tub filled with bleach over a life with this
Staring at a stucco ceiling I just can't stop
Feeling like I'm falling back on every little thought-crime
It worked out for me big time thinking on the old life
Back when I was always very thirst
Now gaining weight and thirty
I'm getting pretty thirsty, thirsty, thirsty
If I was just crazy
We could work through things in good time, but I'm too lazy
So it's back to the couch where I find my days get hazy
Watching lots of (events that ain't mine?)
Does it amaze thee, that I can be this bent up and still thrive?
Every inch of ground I think I've gained
Comes at much deeper grade
I've lost my place for the hundredth time today
So I re-read the same page
I'm wiping off blood from my fingernails
Because I bit too much as the thought prevailed
And the words that dissolved my mental dam:
Is this all I want or all I am?
I wish that I could just stop
Wishing I was punk rock
I hear every tick-tock
Counting down the stressing over grey hairs
interviews and day-cares
Wishing I was still where
everything was dirty clothes and knapsacks
rocking for a six-pack
I could never go back, I will never go back
If I was just crazy
We could work through things in good time, but I'm too lazy
So it's back to the couch where I find my days get hazy
Watching lots of (events that ain't mine?)
Does it amaze thee, that I can be this bent up and still thrive?
Too much everything everywhere all the time (x8)
If I was just crazy
We could work through things in good time, but I'm too lazy
So it's back to the couch where I find my days get hazy
Watching lots of (events that ain't mine?)
Does it amaze thee, that I can be this bent up and still thrive?
Lyrics submitted by ibemonty2000
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