"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'm stronger now, i've been through everything and i won't go down
nothing is bigger than me, i feel empowered
i'm shouting louder now can you hear the sound
just when you're not looking
some things have changed?
they've not
you're looking back
i fought
i'm taller now
you're not
i've got you now
good shot
i know there's nothing better
there's none more supertough
yeah yeah i've got the power
but am i loud enough?
this is the last time that i'll say my name (say my name)
i made mistakes but i am not ashamed (not ashamed)
now am i loud enough d'ya hear my name (hear my name)
i made mistakes but i am not ashamed (not ashamed)
i've come this far, feels like i'm driving in a bullet-proof car
i'm going somewhere fast and that's where you are
tell you my name and tell you that this is war
just when you're not looking
i'm screaming loud
pierced head
should break your bones
instead
say the same words
they're kept
you thought i'd gone
not yet
i know there's nothing better
there's none more supertough
yeah yeah i've got the power
but am i loud enough?
am i loud enough?
you've got to make your own names and in your own way
nothing is bigger than me, i feel empowered
i'm shouting louder now can you hear the sound
just when you're not looking
some things have changed?
they've not
you're looking back
i fought
i'm taller now
you're not
i've got you now
good shot
i know there's nothing better
there's none more supertough
yeah yeah i've got the power
but am i loud enough?
this is the last time that i'll say my name (say my name)
i made mistakes but i am not ashamed (not ashamed)
now am i loud enough d'ya hear my name (hear my name)
i made mistakes but i am not ashamed (not ashamed)
i've come this far, feels like i'm driving in a bullet-proof car
i'm going somewhere fast and that's where you are
tell you my name and tell you that this is war
just when you're not looking
i'm screaming loud
pierced head
should break your bones
instead
say the same words
they're kept
you thought i'd gone
not yet
i know there's nothing better
there's none more supertough
yeah yeah i've got the power
but am i loud enough?
am i loud enough?
you've got to make your own names and in your own way
Lyrics submitted by leloup
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Am I loud enough?
A very good question. Definitely a song about being stronger than before.
My guess is that the narrator recovered from a very traumatizing event and has returned, bigger and stronger than before.
Fuck yeah.
...Upon rereading it, I think my guess may have a couple of flaws in it.
Rather, I think the traumatizing event from before was the fault of a certain person who wished to do him harm--as revenge, perhaps, as the mistakes he mentions may imply--but now that he's recovered, he has come back to settle the score.
He wants the person from his past to hear his name. He wants the person to know that he is no longer his pawn.
Another possibility is that the person had controlled the narrator for a long time--blackmailing him with 'mistakes' he'd made, but now he's become stronger, uncaring of the blackmail and willing to end it there and then.
:3