"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.
Bill Barilko disappeared that summer
He was on a fishing trip
The last goal he ever scored
Won the Leafs the cup
They didn't win another 'til nineteen-sixty-two
The year he was discovered
I stole this from a hockey card
I keep tucked up under
My fifty-mission cap
I worked it in
I worked it in to look like that
It's my fifty-mission cap
It's his fifty-mission cap
And I worked it in (worked it in)
I worked it in
And I worked it in to look like that
And I worked it in to look like that
Bill Barilko disappeared that summer (in nineteen-fifty-one)
He was on a fishing trip (in a plane)
The last goal he ever scored (in overtime)
Won the Leafs the cup
They didn't win another 'til nineteen-sixty-two
The year he was discovered
In my fifty-mission cap
I worked it in
I worked it in to look like that
It's my fifty-mission cap
It's his fifty-mission cap
And I worked it in (worked it in)
I worked it in
And I worked it in to look like that
And I worked it in to look like that
It's my fifty-mission cap
It's my fifty-mission cap
It's my fifty-mission cap
It's my fifty-mission cap
He was on a fishing trip
The last goal he ever scored
Won the Leafs the cup
They didn't win another 'til nineteen-sixty-two
The year he was discovered
I stole this from a hockey card
I keep tucked up under
My fifty-mission cap
I worked it in
I worked it in to look like that
It's my fifty-mission cap
It's his fifty-mission cap
And I worked it in (worked it in)
I worked it in
And I worked it in to look like that
And I worked it in to look like that
Bill Barilko disappeared that summer (in nineteen-fifty-one)
He was on a fishing trip (in a plane)
The last goal he ever scored (in overtime)
Won the Leafs the cup
They didn't win another 'til nineteen-sixty-two
The year he was discovered
In my fifty-mission cap
I worked it in
I worked it in to look like that
It's my fifty-mission cap
It's his fifty-mission cap
And I worked it in (worked it in)
I worked it in
And I worked it in to look like that
And I worked it in to look like that
It's my fifty-mission cap
It's my fifty-mission cap
It's my fifty-mission cap
It's my fifty-mission cap
Lyrics submitted by black_cow_of_death
Fifty-Mission Cap Lyrics as written by Gordon Sinclair Gordon Downie
Lyrics © Peermusic Publishing
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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A plane crash killed Bill Barilko back in 1944 or something like that. That was the last time the Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup. The searchers could never find Barilko's body until 1962, which was the next time the Leafs won the cup. Freaky story I think.