"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.
Earth, stream, and tree encircled by sea
Waves sweep the sand from my island
My sunsets fade
Field and glade wait only for rain
Grain after grain, love erodes my
High weathered walls which fend off the tide
Cradle the wind
To my island
Gaunt granite climbs where gulls wheel and glide
Mournfully cry o'er my island
My dawn bride's veil, damp and pale
Dissolves in the sun
Love's web is spun, cats prowl, mice run
Wreathe snatch-hand briers where owls know my eyes
Violet skies
Touch my island
Touch me
Beneath the wind turned wave
Infinite peace
Islands join hands 'neath heaven's sea
Beneath the wind turned wave
Infinite peace
Islands join hands 'neath heaven's sea
Dark harbor quays like fingers of stone
Hungrily reach from my island
Clutch sailor's words, pearls and gourds
Are strewn on my shore
Equal in love, bound in circles
Earth, stream, and tree return to the sea
Waves sweep the sand from my island
From me
Beneath the wind turned wave
Infinite peace
Islands join hands 'neathe heaven's sea
It-it has a number of high spots, that i enjoy each this time
What are we going to do, um, do it twice more
Once with the oboe, once without it
And then, we've finished for the evening
Right
(It'll be nine o'clock soon, John)
(Okay, we're rolling, whenever you're ready, on three)
Three
One, two, three, two, two, three
Waves sweep the sand from my island
My sunsets fade
Field and glade wait only for rain
Grain after grain, love erodes my
High weathered walls which fend off the tide
Cradle the wind
To my island
Gaunt granite climbs where gulls wheel and glide
Mournfully cry o'er my island
My dawn bride's veil, damp and pale
Dissolves in the sun
Love's web is spun, cats prowl, mice run
Wreathe snatch-hand briers where owls know my eyes
Violet skies
Touch my island
Touch me
Beneath the wind turned wave
Infinite peace
Islands join hands 'neath heaven's sea
Beneath the wind turned wave
Infinite peace
Islands join hands 'neath heaven's sea
Dark harbor quays like fingers of stone
Hungrily reach from my island
Clutch sailor's words, pearls and gourds
Are strewn on my shore
Equal in love, bound in circles
Earth, stream, and tree return to the sea
Waves sweep the sand from my island
From me
Beneath the wind turned wave
Infinite peace
Islands join hands 'neathe heaven's sea
It-it has a number of high spots, that i enjoy each this time
What are we going to do, um, do it twice more
Once with the oboe, once without it
And then, we've finished for the evening
Right
(It'll be nine o'clock soon, John)
(Okay, we're rolling, whenever you're ready, on three)
Three
One, two, three, two, two, three
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Fast Car
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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It's strange to me that when someone writes poetry like this in modern(ish) times it's considered pretentious, but if it's old, it's respectable.