"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.
Know me broken by my master
Teach thee on child love hereafter
Into the flood again
Same old trip it was back then
So I made a big mistake
Try to see it once my way
Drifting body it's sole desertion
Flying not yet quite the notion
Into the flood again
Same old trip it was back then
So I made a big mistake
Try to see it once my way
Into the flood again
Same old trip it was back then
So I made a big mistake
Try to see it once my way
Am I wrong
Have I run too far to get home
Have I gone
Left you here alone
Am I wrong
Have I run too far to get home yeah
Have I gone
Left you here alone
If I would, could you
Teach thee on child love hereafter
Into the flood again
Same old trip it was back then
So I made a big mistake
Try to see it once my way
Drifting body it's sole desertion
Flying not yet quite the notion
Into the flood again
Same old trip it was back then
So I made a big mistake
Try to see it once my way
Into the flood again
Same old trip it was back then
So I made a big mistake
Try to see it once my way
Am I wrong
Have I run too far to get home
Have I gone
Left you here alone
Am I wrong
Have I run too far to get home yeah
Have I gone
Left you here alone
If I would, could you
Lyrics submitted by Ice, edited by staycool72
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Fast Car
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To me, this is definitely a song about regret and asking for forgiveness. I'm too tired to break it down line by line, but the main points are that the narrator (for lack of a better term) has been slipping into old habits and mistakes, slowly falling back into the 'flood' of regret/depression. However, they still believe that anyone could make the same mistakes if in their shoes, and ask for the listener to "try to see it once my way".
Also, the whole "Am I wrong..." part is the narrator question whether or not they've made too many mistakes to ever live a happy or normal life. "Have I run too far to get home?" = "Have I done more damage than I can repair?". Just a quick interpretation, hopefully someone else here has a similar view.
definitely exactly what i was thinking.
@thecallofktulu1993 Me too! Love this song because the singer is definitely seeking redemption.
@thecallofktulu1993 For me the last verse reference to an overdose gone to far to get home have I gone and leave you here alone\r\nAnd if he did could you...? (forgive him) in an incomplete frase\r\nbecause the person dyes
@thecallofktulu1993 Good observations, as well as the replies. The song was well-known to be written about Andy Wood (one of the few AIC songs with a truly well-documented source). Sadly, hearing Layne sing it on Unplugged, it could have been written about himself.