"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.
Music is my sanctuary
Music is my blanket
Emotionless the city lies
Cruel it is, it clouds my eyes
The dull the dark shades on my day
I live inside this place
Locked up inside my metal cage
Always tense and filled with rage
Above the concrete fields below
With you i wanna go, wanna go
Music is my sanctuary
Music is my blanket
I see only what i wanna see
I'll be only what i wanna be
My blanket covers me, yes
"Yeah, check it
Now as a yout man I was body poppin' breakin' on the lino
Traded in my lino for a pad and a biro
Used to stand in line just so as I could sign my giro
But now my ends meet in the best way that I know
(Hat, snare, kick) and the beats that go boom
See the music I consume to escape the doom and gloom
All the beats and melodies keep realities at bay
But what happens when the records done and starts to fade away"
Alone within myself again
I try to veil away my pain
The dirty grey surrounding me 'round
And now I hear no sound
"I feel like Melle Mel from way back in the days
As i wonder how i keep from going under
I got trouble on my mind like my name is chuck d
And like Marvin Gaye it makes me wanna holler
When the music hits me I feel no pain
That's why i gotta put you on again and again
I take the needle off the technics and put it in my vein
All my troubles get crushed as the rush hits my brain
And away goes trouble down the drain"
I see only what I wanna see
I be only who I wanna be
My blanket covers me
Music is my sanctuary
Music is my blanket
I see only what I wanna see
I be only who I wanna be
My blanket covers me
Music is my sanctuary
Music is my blanket
You are my living world
You are my living world
You are you are you are my
My only living world.
Music is my blanket
Emotionless the city lies
Cruel it is, it clouds my eyes
The dull the dark shades on my day
I live inside this place
Locked up inside my metal cage
Always tense and filled with rage
Above the concrete fields below
With you i wanna go, wanna go
Music is my sanctuary
Music is my blanket
I see only what i wanna see
I'll be only what i wanna be
My blanket covers me, yes
"Yeah, check it
Now as a yout man I was body poppin' breakin' on the lino
Traded in my lino for a pad and a biro
Used to stand in line just so as I could sign my giro
But now my ends meet in the best way that I know
(Hat, snare, kick) and the beats that go boom
See the music I consume to escape the doom and gloom
All the beats and melodies keep realities at bay
But what happens when the records done and starts to fade away"
Alone within myself again
I try to veil away my pain
The dirty grey surrounding me 'round
And now I hear no sound
"I feel like Melle Mel from way back in the days
As i wonder how i keep from going under
I got trouble on my mind like my name is chuck d
And like Marvin Gaye it makes me wanna holler
When the music hits me I feel no pain
That's why i gotta put you on again and again
I take the needle off the technics and put it in my vein
All my troubles get crushed as the rush hits my brain
And away goes trouble down the drain"
I see only what I wanna see
I be only who I wanna be
My blanket covers me
Music is my sanctuary
Music is my blanket
I see only what I wanna see
I be only who I wanna be
My blanket covers me
Music is my sanctuary
Music is my blanket
You are my living world
You are my living world
You are you are you are my
My only living world.
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Fast Car
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The meaning is fairly self-explanatory, but I love the idea of the blanket as her emotional comfort. She can't get it from the people around her, so she finds it in her music. Beautiful.