"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.
A flask I drink of sober tea
While relay cameras monitor me
And the buzz surrounds it does
Buzz surrounds
Buzz surrounds
Closed eyed, sky wide open
Unlimited girl, unlimited sigh
Elsewhere
Indefinitely
Far away
Magnifies and deepens
Ready to sing
My sixth sense peacefully placed on my breath
And listening
(Keys swing from my hand)
My ears know that my eyes are closed
(Perish thoughts like contraband)
I train myself in martial arts
As advertised
I reinforce my softened parts
As advertised
See through me little glazed lane
A world in myself
Ready to sing
My sixth sense peacefully place on my breath
(Flickering I roam)
And listening
My ears know that my eyes are closed
Ready to sing
My sixth sense peacefully placed on my breath
(Flickering I roam)
And listening
My ears know that my eyes are closed
I see to bolts
Put key to locks
No boats are rocked
I'm free to roam
Among dummy screens
And magazines
Closed eyed sky wide open
Unlimited girl unlimited sigh
To think that I lay next to you
Wasting time when I could do
A simple job in strip lights
A flask I drink of sober tea
'Til daylight sends me home
Flickering I roam
Daydreaming admiring being
Quietly, open the world
I hear the tune of the starry sky
Turning over at midnight
Seen through me little glazed one
A world in myself
Daydreaming admiring being
Quietly, open the world
I hear the tune of the starry sky
Turning over at midnight
While relay cameras monitor me
And the buzz surrounds it does
Buzz surrounds
Buzz surrounds
Closed eyed, sky wide open
Unlimited girl, unlimited sigh
Elsewhere
Indefinitely
Far away
Magnifies and deepens
Ready to sing
My sixth sense peacefully placed on my breath
And listening
(Keys swing from my hand)
My ears know that my eyes are closed
(Perish thoughts like contraband)
I train myself in martial arts
As advertised
I reinforce my softened parts
As advertised
See through me little glazed lane
A world in myself
Ready to sing
My sixth sense peacefully place on my breath
(Flickering I roam)
And listening
My ears know that my eyes are closed
Ready to sing
My sixth sense peacefully placed on my breath
(Flickering I roam)
And listening
My ears know that my eyes are closed
I see to bolts
Put key to locks
No boats are rocked
I'm free to roam
Among dummy screens
And magazines
Closed eyed sky wide open
Unlimited girl unlimited sigh
To think that I lay next to you
Wasting time when I could do
A simple job in strip lights
A flask I drink of sober tea
'Til daylight sends me home
Flickering I roam
Daydreaming admiring being
Quietly, open the world
I hear the tune of the starry sky
Turning over at midnight
Seen through me little glazed one
A world in myself
Daydreaming admiring being
Quietly, open the world
I hear the tune of the starry sky
Turning over at midnight
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Fast Car
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I do think he is a security guard, but he works in a mental hospital or a home, over night, where this girl is staying. She's catatonic due to injury or mental illness, except every now and then she sings, and she beautiful. And he is taken with her. "To think that I lay next to you..." when I could be doing something else other than this job (a simple job in strip lights...maybe some sort of construvtion job). And when the day comes, his shift is up and he goes home...flickering I roam. I always picture him, on a closed circuit B&W monitor, walking the hallways, the picture kind of grainy...flickering I roam.