"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.
Now, in this faraway land
Strange, that the palms of my hands
Should be damp with expectancy
Spring, and the air's turning mild
City lights, and the glimpse of a child
Of the alleyway infantry
Friends, do they know what I mean
Rain, and the gathering green
Of an afternoon out-of-town
But Lord I had to go
My trail was laid too slow behind me
To face the call of fame
Or make a drunkard's name for me
Though now this better life
Has brought a different understanding
And through these endless days
Shall come a broader sympathy
And though I count the hours
To be alone's no injury
My home, was a place near the sand
Cliffs, and a military band
Blew and air of normality
ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh
ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh
ooh, ooh
aah aah
Strange, that the palms of my hands
Should be damp with expectancy
Spring, and the air's turning mild
City lights, and the glimpse of a child
Of the alleyway infantry
Friends, do they know what I mean
Rain, and the gathering green
Of an afternoon out-of-town
But Lord I had to go
My trail was laid too slow behind me
To face the call of fame
Or make a drunkard's name for me
Though now this better life
Has brought a different understanding
And through these endless days
Shall come a broader sympathy
And though I count the hours
To be alone's no injury
My home, was a place near the sand
Cliffs, and a military band
Blew and air of normality
ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh
ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh
ooh, ooh
aah aah
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Fast Car
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Always been a big Crimson fan and Lark’s tongues (other than the title track from their first album) was my real introduction. I “got" these lyrics from the very beginning and they have always been an inspiration to me in so many circumstances.
For me it was an encouragement about having the courage to step out of the safety of one’s comfort zone. Whether it was leaving your hometown, quitting a job if you will, or starting out on any new quest. And finding myself in this new place there is a kind of nervousness, an ”expectancy” for what is to come. It is being and feeling alive.
"But lord I had to go” my trail was laid out so slow behind me” knowing that I would never accomplish anything at the present rate. Coming to understand that the only way, for me, was to exile myself, to put myself in an unfamiliar place.
My decision to go live in a mountain cabin or move to New York or Go to Peru or move to Santa Fe. In each case, I put myself in an unknown situation, in some cases risking life and limb. And I came to know and to see and to finally trust that each time I did that, I gained new understandings, “ and in time over the many years "a broader sympathy” has made me a better person, an empathetic person, a person who feels things deeply.
And now that though I sit here alone, I reflect back and see the course that I have taken and the course that could have been had I simply stayed in that place that "blew an air of normality”.