"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're not in this alone
Let me break this awkward silence
Let me go
Go on record
Be the first to say I'm sorry
Hear me out
And if you take me down
Would you lay me out?
And if the world needs something better
Let's give them one more reason now, now, now
We walk in single file
We light our rails and punch our time
Ride escalators colder than a cell
Come on
This broken city sky
Like butane on my skin
And stolen from my eyes
Hello, Angel
Tell me, where are you?
Tell me where we go from here
This broken city sky
Like butane on my skin
Stolen from my eyes
Hello, Angel
Tell me, where are you?
Tell me where we go from here
Tell me we go from -
And in this moment we can't close the lids
On burning eyes
Our memories blanket us with friends we know
Like fallout vapors
Steel corpses stretch out towards an ending sun
Scorched and black
It reaches in and tears your flesh apart
As ice cold hands
Rip into your heart
That's if you've still got one that's left
Inside that cave you call a chest
And after seeing what we saw
Can we still reclaim our innocence?
And if the world needs something better
Let's give them one more reason now
This broken city sky
Like butane on my skin
Stolen from my eyes
Hello, Angel
Tell me, where are you?
Tell me where we go from here
This broken city sky
Like butane on my skin (like butane on my skin)
Stolen from my eyes
Hello, Angel
Tell me, where are you?
Tell me where we go from here
Tell me we go from here
Let me break this awkward silence
Let me go
Go on record
Be the first to say I'm sorry
Hear me out
And if you take me down
Would you lay me out?
And if the world needs something better
Let's give them one more reason now, now, now
We walk in single file
We light our rails and punch our time
Ride escalators colder than a cell
Come on
This broken city sky
Like butane on my skin
And stolen from my eyes
Hello, Angel
Tell me, where are you?
Tell me where we go from here
This broken city sky
Like butane on my skin
Stolen from my eyes
Hello, Angel
Tell me, where are you?
Tell me where we go from here
Tell me we go from -
And in this moment we can't close the lids
On burning eyes
Our memories blanket us with friends we know
Like fallout vapors
Steel corpses stretch out towards an ending sun
Scorched and black
It reaches in and tears your flesh apart
As ice cold hands
Rip into your heart
That's if you've still got one that's left
Inside that cave you call a chest
And after seeing what we saw
Can we still reclaim our innocence?
And if the world needs something better
Let's give them one more reason now
This broken city sky
Like butane on my skin
Stolen from my eyes
Hello, Angel
Tell me, where are you?
Tell me where we go from here
This broken city sky
Like butane on my skin (like butane on my skin)
Stolen from my eyes
Hello, Angel
Tell me, where are you?
Tell me where we go from here
Tell me we go from here
Lyrics submitted by MooWasHere, edited by RemCorona, SmashingDestiny
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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Hayalperest
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Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
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this is such an amazing song! my favorite on the album thats for sure. I love the part that goes "Steel corpses stretch out towards and ending sun scorched and black It reaches in and rips your flesh apart With ice cold hands and grabs a hold of your heart That's if you've still got one that's left inside that cave you call a chest And after seeing what we saw, can we still proclaim our innocence" especially when he screams it in the background part. ohhh man, thats a turn on for me. ahahahahhaha see all you kids at the show!