"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.
Little light shining
Little light will guide them to me
My face is all lit up
My face is all lit up
If they find me racing white horses
They'll not take me for a buoy
Let me be weak, let me sleep and dream of sheep
Oh I'll wake up to any sound of engines
Every gull a seeking craft
I can't keep my eyes open
Wish I had my radio
I'd tune into some friendly voices
Talking 'bout stupid things
I can't be left to my imagination
Let me be weak, let me sleep and dream of sheep
Ooh, their breath is warm
And they smell like sleep
And they say they take me home
Like poppies, heavy with seed
They take me deeper and deeper
Little light will guide them to me
My face is all lit up
My face is all lit up
If they find me racing white horses
They'll not take me for a buoy
Let me be weak, let me sleep and dream of sheep
Oh I'll wake up to any sound of engines
Every gull a seeking craft
I can't keep my eyes open
Wish I had my radio
I'd tune into some friendly voices
Talking 'bout stupid things
I can't be left to my imagination
Let me be weak, let me sleep and dream of sheep
Ooh, their breath is warm
And they smell like sleep
And they say they take me home
Like poppies, heavy with seed
They take me deeper and deeper
Lyrics submitted by weezerific:cutlery, edited by Mellow_Harsher
And Dream of Sheep Lyrics as written by Kate Bush
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
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Fast Car
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Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
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'Ev'ry gull a seeking craft...' - The gulls can fly to safety, but she must wait to be rescued...
‘And dream of sheep./Ooh, their breath is warm/And they smell like sleep…’
"I'll wake up to any sound of engines / Every gull a seeking craft ..." <br /> <br /> I always took this to mean that as she falls asleep, she keeps jerking awake when she hears seagulls. The seagull's cry sounds a lot like the squeaking of a rescue boat's engine - so hope jerks her out of sleep, but then she falls back into despair. There are sounds of boats and seagulls all through the Ninth Wave .... just my interp.
"counting sheep" is a method traditionally given by parents to children who can't sleep to try and make them nod off. I imagine it's something to with that rather than any literal reading.