"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.
All sewn up
Pull out the seams
Take your call
Your voice is static
For from my reach
I burn the page
Imaged are blurred
Am I afraid?
Around my throat
You came so close
To stopping me
Alive in jail, alive and well
I cannot leave
Innocent, accident
Find my pulse
Trapped in a locked box
Teeth in a grind
All night amphetamine
Noise to the tape
Comes like a shattered beast
Cast a shade
Your mouths destroys me
Come down dawn in one piece
Come down dawn to find some peace
Driven to shambles on a tip
I never said that I would quit
And the next song takes over
Quickly I said
Because your feet need to hit the floor
And wake your mind up
Because the body needs a little more
And you step out from the porch
Into the street
And the night will have its way with you
And you find a paper on the wall
And see the slogan needs an audience
And you give it a new look
You were trying to take a stab
You try to take a stab
You try to make something happen
And the colors saturate into the walls of the buildings
A defeated deposition
A nexus
A movement to fruition
A middle finger to the institution
A middle finger to the institution
A middle finger to the institution
Pull out the seams
Take your call
Your voice is static
For from my reach
I burn the page
Imaged are blurred
Am I afraid?
Around my throat
You came so close
To stopping me
Alive in jail, alive and well
I cannot leave
Innocent, accident
Find my pulse
Trapped in a locked box
Teeth in a grind
All night amphetamine
Noise to the tape
Comes like a shattered beast
Cast a shade
Your mouths destroys me
Come down dawn in one piece
Come down dawn to find some peace
Driven to shambles on a tip
I never said that I would quit
And the next song takes over
Quickly I said
Because your feet need to hit the floor
And wake your mind up
Because the body needs a little more
And you step out from the porch
Into the street
And the night will have its way with you
And you find a paper on the wall
And see the slogan needs an audience
And you give it a new look
You were trying to take a stab
You try to take a stab
You try to make something happen
And the colors saturate into the walls of the buildings
A defeated deposition
A nexus
A movement to fruition
A middle finger to the institution
A middle finger to the institution
A middle finger to the institution
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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Yo La Tengo
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This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
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So monstrous...