"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.
You've seen right through distorted eyes
You know you had to learn
The execution of your mind
You really had to turn
The race is run, the book is read
The end begins to show
The truth is out, the lies are old
But you don't want to know
Nobody will ever let you know
When you ask the reasons why
They just tell you that you're on your own
Fill your head all full of lies
The people who have crippled you
You want to see them burn
The gates of life have closed on you
And there's just no return
You're wishing that the hands of doom
Could take your mind away
And you don't care if you don't see again
The light of day
Nobody will ever let you know
When you ask the reasons why
They just tell you that you're on your own
Fill your head all full of lies
You bastards
Where can you run to?
What more can you do?
No more tomorrow
Life is killing you
Dreams turn to nightmares
Heaven turns to hell
Burned out confusion
Nothing more to tell, yeah
Everything around you
What's it coming to?
God knows as your dog nose
Bog blast all of you
Sabbath bloody Sabbath
Nothing more to do
Living just for dying
Dying just for you, yeah
You know you had to learn
The execution of your mind
You really had to turn
The race is run, the book is read
The end begins to show
The truth is out, the lies are old
But you don't want to know
Nobody will ever let you know
When you ask the reasons why
They just tell you that you're on your own
Fill your head all full of lies
The people who have crippled you
You want to see them burn
The gates of life have closed on you
And there's just no return
You're wishing that the hands of doom
Could take your mind away
And you don't care if you don't see again
The light of day
Nobody will ever let you know
When you ask the reasons why
They just tell you that you're on your own
Fill your head all full of lies
You bastards
Where can you run to?
What more can you do?
No more tomorrow
Life is killing you
Dreams turn to nightmares
Heaven turns to hell
Burned out confusion
Nothing more to tell, yeah
Everything around you
What's it coming to?
God knows as your dog nose
Bog blast all of you
Sabbath bloody Sabbath
Nothing more to do
Living just for dying
Dying just for you, yeah
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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i've read all the comments but sabbath is talking about who when the say " living just for dying dying just for you?" don't you think about the christ ??? well i think this song is a religious one and it talks also abour people who are religious but they don't know the real meaning of religion