"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.
Julie catch a rabbit by his hair
Come back steppin' like to walk on air
Get back home where you belong
And don't you run off no more
Don't hang your head, let the two time roll
Grass shack nailed to a pine wood floor
Ask the time baby I don't know
Come back later, gonna let it show
I say row Jimmy row, gonna get there, I don't know
Seems a common way to go, get out and row, row, row, row, row
Here's a half dollar if you dare
Double twist when you hit the air
Look at Julie down below
The levee doin' the do-pas-o
I say row Jimmy row, gonna get there, I don't know
Seems a common way to go, get out and row, row, row, row, row
Broken heart don't feel so bad
You ain't got half of what you thought you had
Rock you baby to and fro
Not too fast and not too slow
I say row Jimmy row, gonna get there, I don't know,
Seems a common way to go, get out and row, row, row, row, row.
That's the way it's been in town,
Ever since they tore the jukebox down
Two bit piece don't buy no more
Not so much as it done before
I say row Jimmy row, gonna get there I don't know
Seems a common way to go, get out and row, row, row, row, row
Come back steppin' like to walk on air
Get back home where you belong
And don't you run off no more
Don't hang your head, let the two time roll
Grass shack nailed to a pine wood floor
Ask the time baby I don't know
Come back later, gonna let it show
I say row Jimmy row, gonna get there, I don't know
Seems a common way to go, get out and row, row, row, row, row
Here's a half dollar if you dare
Double twist when you hit the air
Look at Julie down below
The levee doin' the do-pas-o
I say row Jimmy row, gonna get there, I don't know
Seems a common way to go, get out and row, row, row, row, row
Broken heart don't feel so bad
You ain't got half of what you thought you had
Rock you baby to and fro
Not too fast and not too slow
I say row Jimmy row, gonna get there, I don't know,
Seems a common way to go, get out and row, row, row, row, row.
That's the way it's been in town,
Ever since they tore the jukebox down
Two bit piece don't buy no more
Not so much as it done before
I say row Jimmy row, gonna get there I don't know
Seems a common way to go, get out and row, row, row, row, row
Lyrics submitted by itsmyownmind
Row Jimmy Lyrics as written by Robert C. Hunter Jerome J. Garcia
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
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Such a great depiction of a great song.
Think Jerry always took Hunter tunes and made a lot of the words his own through passion, emotion or just interpretation. Row Jimmy, when I listen to it, comes down to the idea of working hard...And for all his demons, one thing Jerry did was always "Get Down and Row!"