"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.
So, it must be true
Few are worthy of its weight
Few are meant to know
What the ancients knew
And fewer, still
Dare to test their will
Few possess the strength
Timid and tame, but I
I would return
This race
To its former glory!
I
Have seen
The crumbling face
Of our gilded past;
Wind-worn monuments, of a more glorious age
Mock us with their unchang’d stare
How can we know
What wonders came before us?
I...
I long to feel
That power
Which lies dormant
In our blood
As they assembled, this gleaming precipice
Reaching high, above the clouds
How many lifetimes would I waste
Trying to reach its top
Clutching its edges, higher still
Grasping at the hair-like roots
That grow out from the cracks
Only to swipe through the open air
And fall again and again
What sort of creature am I?
So I bear this burden
I suffer and I grow
I grow in vision and in fortitude
(I grow with the fire that is my soul)
With the fire that is my soul
I’ll teach the world to speak in truer tongues
To ever strive for better days
I’ll let the visage of this mangled form
(I'll teach the world to strive for better days)
Teach me the value of each day
To spend the full force of our energies
Advancing,
Towards a new and glorious morning
The genuine life full of vibrancy and meaning
This shall be our aim.
Let us marshall our motivations to align
With such a high and worthy cause.
Let us set new declarations
And discipline in our lives.
Let the value of freedom run
Through every crevice in our minds,
Through every thought and every action that we choose,
Through every monument we erect
Through the long days and long marches
That lead to our highest selves and (highest) contributions,
Through all the hopeful dreams
Born from a liberated soul.
Few are worthy of its weight
Few are meant to know
What the ancients knew
And fewer, still
Dare to test their will
Few possess the strength
Timid and tame, but I
I would return
This race
To its former glory!
I
Have seen
The crumbling face
Of our gilded past;
Wind-worn monuments, of a more glorious age
Mock us with their unchang’d stare
How can we know
What wonders came before us?
I...
I long to feel
That power
Which lies dormant
In our blood
As they assembled, this gleaming precipice
Reaching high, above the clouds
How many lifetimes would I waste
Trying to reach its top
Clutching its edges, higher still
Grasping at the hair-like roots
That grow out from the cracks
Only to swipe through the open air
And fall again and again
What sort of creature am I?
So I bear this burden
I suffer and I grow
I grow in vision and in fortitude
(I grow with the fire that is my soul)
With the fire that is my soul
I’ll teach the world to speak in truer tongues
To ever strive for better days
I’ll let the visage of this mangled form
(I'll teach the world to strive for better days)
Teach me the value of each day
To spend the full force of our energies
Advancing,
Towards a new and glorious morning
The genuine life full of vibrancy and meaning
This shall be our aim.
Let us marshall our motivations to align
With such a high and worthy cause.
Let us set new declarations
And discipline in our lives.
Let the value of freedom run
Through every crevice in our minds,
Through every thought and every action that we choose,
Through every monument we erect
Through the long days and long marches
That lead to our highest selves and (highest) contributions,
Through all the hopeful dreams
Born from a liberated soul.
Lyrics submitted by Sebastian1985
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Fast Car
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