"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.
what i see is what's to be
cartwheels to eternity
'round and 'round my head she goes
in the good dreams though she wears no clothes
took our picture by the sea
the ocean waits to carry me
carry me back home again
to where she sleeps i lay my head..
saw her running barefoot but the ground there never toucher her feet
watcher her in the shadows while the tide came in and claimed our beach
we could have made it in the dunes we had it all within our reach
but i've got a lot of life to learn and you've got a lot of life to teach..
why do we all end up alone
why do we always have to find our way back home
why do we all end up alone..
we gather no moss just like a rolling..
what i say is what i mean
no definition in between
couldn't make it in the movie scene
you couldn't stay on you couldn't stay clean..
what you wear is who you are
the odds are in and you'll go far
a penny for your thoughts you'll see
a nickel buys you what you needs..
saw you on the big show say you swinging from the big trapeze
standing on my tip toes while you brushed the dirt from off your knees
should have come as no surprise no one else here did have your drive
you got a big white mstretch parked right outside by nobody there to share your ride..
why do we all end up dead drunk or stoned..
what i know is what i hear
the ringing in my ears is clear
is if from the loud guitars or pipe dreams
everyone says i should know what that means..
but who'd be talking bad about me
who am i they'd want to be
a monkey's got it made you see
swinging from the vine of a coconut tree
dead drunk or stoned
just like a rolling stone.
cartwheels to eternity
'round and 'round my head she goes
in the good dreams though she wears no clothes
took our picture by the sea
the ocean waits to carry me
carry me back home again
to where she sleeps i lay my head..
saw her running barefoot but the ground there never toucher her feet
watcher her in the shadows while the tide came in and claimed our beach
we could have made it in the dunes we had it all within our reach
but i've got a lot of life to learn and you've got a lot of life to teach..
why do we all end up alone
why do we always have to find our way back home
why do we all end up alone..
we gather no moss just like a rolling..
what i say is what i mean
no definition in between
couldn't make it in the movie scene
you couldn't stay on you couldn't stay clean..
what you wear is who you are
the odds are in and you'll go far
a penny for your thoughts you'll see
a nickel buys you what you needs..
saw you on the big show say you swinging from the big trapeze
standing on my tip toes while you brushed the dirt from off your knees
should have come as no surprise no one else here did have your drive
you got a big white mstretch parked right outside by nobody there to share your ride..
why do we all end up dead drunk or stoned..
what i know is what i hear
the ringing in my ears is clear
is if from the loud guitars or pipe dreams
everyone says i should know what that means..
but who'd be talking bad about me
who am i they'd want to be
a monkey's got it made you see
swinging from the vine of a coconut tree
dead drunk or stoned
just like a rolling stone.
Lyrics submitted by mumbling
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I think this song talks about a older woman.B-coz of this: (but i've got a lot of life to learn and you've got a lot of life to teach..) Or maybe he had a crush on a star or somebody who worked in a circus (saw you on the big show say you swinging from the big trapeze standing on my tip toes while you brushed the dirt from off your knees should have come as no surprise no one else here did have your drive you got a big white stretch parked right outside by nobody there to share your ride.. )
I think those are just metaphors. It could be about after you break up with someone you end up alone. The other line: 'why do we all end up dead drunk or stoned' could also be about a relationship, when your not stoned or drunk you feel like your dead.
i think nine days is kind of poking fun at the way we live and life itself. Why do we live anyways? just to "end up dead drunk or stoned?" they make a perfect metaphor with the circus. Life is like a circus with balancing acts and people making fools of themselves just to entertain others. i really love this song. it tells what people do to get by and all the things that kinda suck about life but we still keep going on, but isn't it funny how we all end up? its kind of depressing but true. the line about the monkey is the best. "a monkeys got it made you see/swinging from the vine of a coconut tree" monkeys have no worries. they don't have any drama in their life. they just live and don't really think about it. we think too much.
well that's what i got from it.. maybe nine days meant something totally different (=