"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 was sitting in this five-star place, going nowhere fast
When she caught my attention through the bottom of my glass
She was a waitress in a hotel above this smoky bar
She got up at dawn for breakfast and worked on till it got dark
And at six o'clock when her shift was up she'd drink the night away
Well, wouldn't you if you served gentlemen all day?
Well, she told me where she came from was a petty kind of town
How her parents became born-agains after her brother got knocked down
And how she found the magazines in the boot of Daddy's car
And he told her he was weak sometimes, just like all gentlemen are
And in the summer she'd work in his shop and then cry the night away
Well, wouldn't you if you served gentlemen all day?
So she left her home and family one cloudy afternoon
And she came here with her girlfriend who had found them both a room
And every day they'd wake up early and go looking for a wage
In high-heels and make-up they would lie about their age
And her first job as a barmaid, she'd just dream her shift away
Well, wouldn't you if you served gentlemen all day?
Then one day by the dole office a car window rolled down
And a gentleman asked for directions to her old home town
And it transpired he knew her family and he owned a string of bars
So he offered her a job if she would kiss him in his car
And so it was that she accepted an advance of one week's pay
Well, wouldn't you if you served gentlemen all day?
And as she told me all these tales she picked a scab around her wrist
That she confessed was self-inflicted with a whiskey glass like this
And though she gave her name and number to me, I did not give mine
She said maybe I should call her for some fun some time
And the funniest thing was that that name stuck in my head
And eight months later it was in a headline that I read
They had pulled her out the river in that same black dress
And she lay there quite the lady for the gentlemen of the press
And that picture in the paper looked so small and far away
Well, wouldn't you if you served gentlemen all day?
When she caught my attention through the bottom of my glass
She was a waitress in a hotel above this smoky bar
She got up at dawn for breakfast and worked on till it got dark
And at six o'clock when her shift was up she'd drink the night away
Well, wouldn't you if you served gentlemen all day?
Well, she told me where she came from was a petty kind of town
How her parents became born-agains after her brother got knocked down
And how she found the magazines in the boot of Daddy's car
And he told her he was weak sometimes, just like all gentlemen are
And in the summer she'd work in his shop and then cry the night away
Well, wouldn't you if you served gentlemen all day?
So she left her home and family one cloudy afternoon
And she came here with her girlfriend who had found them both a room
And every day they'd wake up early and go looking for a wage
In high-heels and make-up they would lie about their age
And her first job as a barmaid, she'd just dream her shift away
Well, wouldn't you if you served gentlemen all day?
Then one day by the dole office a car window rolled down
And a gentleman asked for directions to her old home town
And it transpired he knew her family and he owned a string of bars
So he offered her a job if she would kiss him in his car
And so it was that she accepted an advance of one week's pay
Well, wouldn't you if you served gentlemen all day?
And as she told me all these tales she picked a scab around her wrist
That she confessed was self-inflicted with a whiskey glass like this
And though she gave her name and number to me, I did not give mine
She said maybe I should call her for some fun some time
And the funniest thing was that that name stuck in my head
And eight months later it was in a headline that I read
They had pulled her out the river in that same black dress
And she lay there quite the lady for the gentlemen of the press
And that picture in the paper looked so small and far away
Well, wouldn't you if you served gentlemen all day?
Lyrics submitted by Mellow_Harsher
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