"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'm going up the 'Pool
From down the smoke below
To taste me mum's jam sarnies
And see our Aunty Flo.
The candy floss salesman
Watches ladies in then sand
Down for a freaky weekend in the hope
That they'll be meeting Mr. Universe.
The iron tower smiles down upon the silver sea
And along the Golden Mile
They'll be swigging mugs of tea.
The politicians there,
Who've come to take the air,
While posing for the daily press
Will look around and blame
The mess on Edward Pier.
There'll be buckets, spades and bingo,
Cockles, mussels, rainy days,
Seaweed and sand castles, icy waves,
Deck chairs, rubber dinghies,
Old vests, braces dangling down,
A suntanned stranded starfish in a daze.
I'm going up the 'Pool
From down the smoke below
To taste me mum's jam sarnies
And see our Aunty Flo.
The candy flosses salesman
Watches ladies in then sand
Down for a freaky weekend
In the hope that
They'll be meeting Mr. Universe.
There'll be buckets, spades and bingo,
Cockles, mussels, rainy days,
Seaweed and sand castles, icy waves,
Deck chairs, rubber dinghies,
Old vests, braces dangling down,
A suntanned stranded starfish in a daze.
Oh, Blackpool,
Oh, Blackpool.
From down the smoke below
To taste me mum's jam sarnies
And see our Aunty Flo.
The candy floss salesman
Watches ladies in then sand
Down for a freaky weekend in the hope
That they'll be meeting Mr. Universe.
The iron tower smiles down upon the silver sea
And along the Golden Mile
They'll be swigging mugs of tea.
The politicians there,
Who've come to take the air,
While posing for the daily press
Will look around and blame
The mess on Edward Pier.
There'll be buckets, spades and bingo,
Cockles, mussels, rainy days,
Seaweed and sand castles, icy waves,
Deck chairs, rubber dinghies,
Old vests, braces dangling down,
A suntanned stranded starfish in a daze.
I'm going up the 'Pool
From down the smoke below
To taste me mum's jam sarnies
And see our Aunty Flo.
The candy flosses salesman
Watches ladies in then sand
Down for a freaky weekend
In the hope that
They'll be meeting Mr. Universe.
There'll be buckets, spades and bingo,
Cockles, mussels, rainy days,
Seaweed and sand castles, icy waves,
Deck chairs, rubber dinghies,
Old vests, braces dangling down,
A suntanned stranded starfish in a daze.
Oh, Blackpool,
Oh, Blackpool.
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Fast Car
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Blackpool was a famous seaside vacation spot for Londoners around the time that Anderson wrote these lyrics. Thus the lyric "going up the pool, from down the smoke(london) below". The Iron Tower was basically a lighthouse and politicians are mentioned because they tended to frequent the vacation spot as well... Edward Bear refers to a politician that took a lot of criticism around Andersons time.
Blackpool was Ian Anderson's childhood home. It is also a seaside resort as described in the song, but Londoners would not normally visit it.
In the song, Anderson is on a journey from his base in London ("the Smoke") to visit his mother and describing Blackpool as he expects to find it.
Candyfloss = cotton candy. The Iron Tower is the famous Blackpool Tower, which was inspired by the Eiffel Tower. The Golden Mile is a stretch of the promenade (sea-front road) with entertainment establishments covered in colorful flashing lights.
Blackpool is frequently a venue for political conferences. I take Edward Bear to refer to Edward Heath, the then Prime Minister, but it might just mean the politicians are blaming anyone but themselves. Anyway, it rhymes.
I think the Edward Bear reference may be a nod to the politicians blaming rock and roll for the problems of the UK back then. People were calling Rock and roll the spawn of the devil, in that era, and Anderson may have been citing edward bear the rock and roll group who sang: This is the last song, I'll ever write for you. Edward Bear was a a particularly tame rock and roll group, so the joke would be that much more incisive towards the politicians.
@GiordanoBruno1 Edward Bear was a Canadian group, you hardly think they'd be referenced in a song about England. Maybe Anderson was referring to Winnie the Pooh.
I heard the lyric as "Edward, Peer.". I took it to be a reference to Sir Edward Heath, former Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative (Tory) Party until 1975. Heath led England into the Common Market, which was not universally popular. People were afraid England might end up in a Euro Zone.