"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.
One night upon my motorcycle through the desert sped
And smashed my body so that all my friends thought I was dead
My sister held me close and whispered to my bleeding head
"You are the son of a motherfucker"
One, two, three, four
I shook all night and held her hand
Chocolate people, well, I'll be damned
Land of plenty, land of fun
To find out I'm Nimrod's son
Oh, bury me
Far away please
Bury me
Ha-ha
The joke has come upon me
In my motorcycle mirror, I think about the life I've led
And how my soul's been leaking out all the holes where I have bled
My image spoke to me, yes, to me it often said
"You are the son of incestuous union"
One, two, three
Now my head is clear, my roof has walls
My daughter's pure, my son is tall
Land of plenty, land of fun
To find out I'm Nimrod's son
Oh, bury me
Far away, please
Bury me
Ha-ha, ha-ha, ha-ha
The joke has come upon me
And smashed my body so that all my friends thought I was dead
My sister held me close and whispered to my bleeding head
"You are the son of a motherfucker"
One, two, three, four
I shook all night and held her hand
Chocolate people, well, I'll be damned
Land of plenty, land of fun
To find out I'm Nimrod's son
Oh, bury me
Far away please
Bury me
Ha-ha
The joke has come upon me
In my motorcycle mirror, I think about the life I've led
And how my soul's been leaking out all the holes where I have bled
My image spoke to me, yes, to me it often said
"You are the son of incestuous union"
One, two, three
Now my head is clear, my roof has walls
My daughter's pure, my son is tall
Land of plenty, land of fun
To find out I'm Nimrod's son
Oh, bury me
Far away, please
Bury me
Ha-ha, ha-ha, ha-ha
The joke has come upon me
Lyrics submitted by riffic, edited by DanVitaleRocks
Nimrod's Son Lyrics as written by Charles Thompson
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Jjoe, just because Frank Black wasn't the product of incestuous union doesn't mean the song's a joke.
It's like listening to "Motorway to Roswell" and thinking "oh Frank Black is an alien."
He is most likely writing from another person's perspective...such as Nimrod's son...Anyways, Nimrod was the founder of Babylon, and a great hunter.
Random fact of the day!
The whole reason "Nimrod" got it's negative connotation is because Elmer Fudd was called Nimrod (since he's a hunter) and since he's such an idiot people associated it with idiocy.
@Audaciousmoose Ha! I love how culture can twist the meaning of something so easily. I remember seeing that Bugs Bunny cartoon as a kid. We used Nimrod as an insult when people did stupid things.
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