"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.
I remember her standing in the tall grass and cattails
Away from the windows at the end of the day
Watch the men from the landing
With tall hats and coat-tails
She'd never look different
But something would change
A mind, with a heart of its own
A mind, with a heart of its own
Do, do, do, do, do, do
Yeah a mind with a heart of its own
Well the man out to end us had a hurricane business
He'd raise them from babies all by himself
But his teen-age accountant had become surrounded
He drank up the party and everyone left
A mind, with a heart of its own
A mind, with a heart of its own
Do, do, do, do, do, do
Yeah a mind with a heart of its own
Well I been to Brooker and I been to Micanopy
I been to St. Louis too, I been all around the world
I've been over to your house
And you've been over sometimes to my house
I've slept in your tree house
My middle name is Earl
A mind, with a heart of its own
A mind, with a heart of its own
Do, do, do, do, do, do
Yeah a mind with a heart of its own
A mind, with a heart of its own
A mind, with a heart of its own
Do, do, do, do, do, do
Yeah a mind with a heart of its own
Yeah
Oh yeah
Away from the windows at the end of the day
Watch the men from the landing
With tall hats and coat-tails
She'd never look different
But something would change
A mind, with a heart of its own
A mind, with a heart of its own
Do, do, do, do, do, do
Yeah a mind with a heart of its own
Well the man out to end us had a hurricane business
He'd raise them from babies all by himself
But his teen-age accountant had become surrounded
He drank up the party and everyone left
A mind, with a heart of its own
A mind, with a heart of its own
Do, do, do, do, do, do
Yeah a mind with a heart of its own
Well I been to Brooker and I been to Micanopy
I been to St. Louis too, I been all around the world
I've been over to your house
And you've been over sometimes to my house
I've slept in your tree house
My middle name is Earl
A mind, with a heart of its own
A mind, with a heart of its own
Do, do, do, do, do, do
Yeah a mind with a heart of its own
A mind, with a heart of its own
A mind, with a heart of its own
Do, do, do, do, do, do
Yeah a mind with a heart of its own
Yeah
Oh yeah
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