"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.
Unravel me
A distant cord
On the outside is forgotten
A constant need
To get along
And the animal awakens
And all I feel is black and white
The road is long
The memory slides
To the whole of my undoing
Put aside
I put away
I push it back to get through each day
And all I feel is black and white
And I'm wound up small and tight
And I don't know who I am
Everybody loves you when you're easy
Everybody hates when you're a bore
Everyone is waiting for your entrance so
Don't disappoint them
Unravel me
Untie this cord
The very center of our union
Is caving in
I can't endure
I am the archive of our failure
And all I feel is black and white
And I'm wound up small and tight
And I don't know who I am
Everybody loves you when you're easy
Everybody hates when you're a bore
Everyone is waiting for your entrance so
Don't disappoint them
Da, ba, da, ba, da, ba, ba, ba
Da, ba, da, ba, da, ba, ba, ba, ba
Da, ba, da, ba, da, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba
Da, ba, da, ba, da, ba, ba, ba, ba
Everybody loves you when you're easy so
Don't disappoint them
Don't disappoint them
Don't disappoint them
Don't disappoint them
A distant cord
On the outside is forgotten
A constant need
To get along
And the animal awakens
And all I feel is black and white
The road is long
The memory slides
To the whole of my undoing
Put aside
I put away
I push it back to get through each day
And all I feel is black and white
And I'm wound up small and tight
And I don't know who I am
Everybody loves you when you're easy
Everybody hates when you're a bore
Everyone is waiting for your entrance so
Don't disappoint them
Unravel me
Untie this cord
The very center of our union
Is caving in
I can't endure
I am the archive of our failure
And all I feel is black and white
And I'm wound up small and tight
And I don't know who I am
Everybody loves you when you're easy
Everybody hates when you're a bore
Everyone is waiting for your entrance so
Don't disappoint them
Da, ba, da, ba, da, ba, ba, ba
Da, ba, da, ba, da, ba, ba, ba, ba
Da, ba, da, ba, da, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba
Da, ba, da, ba, da, ba, ba, ba, ba
Everybody loves you when you're easy so
Don't disappoint them
Don't disappoint them
Don't disappoint them
Don't disappoint them
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Fast Car
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I think this is just about feeling like you have to live up to standards of society, and just not being able to handle it anymore, and not knowing yourself.
"Everybody loves you when you're easy everybody hates when you're a bore everyone is waiting for your entrance so don't disappoint them"
I feel these lyrics are so true. Who hasn't at one point felt that? That you have to do things to please people or you're nothing. It's like a constant pressure to feel like you have to measure up to something. Totally awesome song