"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.
At once
It doesn't have to happen all at once
Take as long as you will take
We can build it brick by brick
Everything collides at once
A sudden jolt and then you're gone
Done without a second thought
You pluck the flower from these thorns
As you leave
And it's not bad blood I'm bleeding
Just the big drop I'm feeling
From my blind spot you see me
Everything that matters
Is broken, lost and shattered all at once
Yeah, once
When I was six the world looked on
At sixty miles an hour I'd run
With you the air inside my lungs
Everything collides at once
As the flowers break the earth
So you and me can make this work
But you only drag the dirt
Under your feet
Looking at me wasting all my words
Knowing it's the years that do the work
Show me that you're fearless, drag the dirt down
And it's not bad blood I'm bleeding
Just the big drop I'm feeling
From my blind spot you see me
Everything that matters
Is broken, lost and shattered all at once
And it's not bad blood I'm bleeding
Just the big drop I'm feeling
From my blind spot you see me
Everything that matters
Is broken, lost and shattered all at once
By the way, I still break down
Thirty more and I lost count
A sucker punch will knock me out
It doesn't have to happen all at once
Take as long as you will take
We can build it brick by brick
Everything collides at once
A sudden jolt and then you're gone
Done without a second thought
You pluck the flower from these thorns
As you leave
And it's not bad blood I'm bleeding
Just the big drop I'm feeling
From my blind spot you see me
Everything that matters
Is broken, lost and shattered all at once
Yeah, once
When I was six the world looked on
At sixty miles an hour I'd run
With you the air inside my lungs
Everything collides at once
As the flowers break the earth
So you and me can make this work
But you only drag the dirt
Under your feet
Looking at me wasting all my words
Knowing it's the years that do the work
Show me that you're fearless, drag the dirt down
And it's not bad blood I'm bleeding
Just the big drop I'm feeling
From my blind spot you see me
Everything that matters
Is broken, lost and shattered all at once
And it's not bad blood I'm bleeding
Just the big drop I'm feeling
From my blind spot you see me
Everything that matters
Is broken, lost and shattered all at once
By the way, I still break down
Thirty more and I lost count
A sucker punch will knock me out
Lyrics submitted by Mellow_Harsher
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