"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.
There's a world where I can go
And tell my secrets to
In my room
In my room
In this world I lock out
All my worries and my fears
In my room
In my room
Do my dreaming and my scheming lie awake and pray
Do my crying and my sighing laugh at yesterday
Now it's dark and I'm alone
But I won't be afraid
In my room
In my room
And tell my secrets to
In my room
In my room
In this world I lock out
All my worries and my fears
In my room
In my room
Do my dreaming and my scheming lie awake and pray
Do my crying and my sighing laugh at yesterday
Now it's dark and I'm alone
But I won't be afraid
In my room
In my room
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Fast Car
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Another interesting thing to note about this song is the fact that allegedly Brian hated writing in straight 4/4. ONE two THREE four ONE two THREE four - as this was the pattern for a lot of the songs in the charts at the time. This piece is actually written in compound 12/8. What this means is, four sets of quaver triplets in 4/4 equals four sets of three notes of the same length in 12/8.