"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.
i know what i have to do and do it. i know what i have to do and do it. but don't know what it is until i'm done. i know it must be rough, you're so much smarter than your friends. come clean in jokes. integrity in tennis shoes. waiting thinking only how'd i like to be kept waiting. territory mutinies horizon. disease teaches immunity. a promise implied can't be broken. and even now in the sunlight with grapefruit juice and coffee bound and bountied to winter without end would you two like each other or are you too alike? i know what i have to do and do it. i know what i have to do and do it. but don't know what it is until it's done. i've been inventing you and I'll continue inventing you. may we all make it home safely. i know it must be rough, you're so much smarter than your friends. rehearsing disasters and forecasting all your needs. i dance early then got shy and had to go home early. the mirage will fade as it unfolded. the plot's defamed it's own voltage. a promise at the time can't be beat. and even now as the snow is opening it's whole in pieces and wets each grieving hold of last year's trash it's not impossible to think of you thinking of me. way we all make it home safely.
Lyrics submitted by NeverRememberMe, edited by Malhavic
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