"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.
Poison is bubbling
Beneath your dreamhome
Buried there years before
Kid runs in crying
From playing in the garden
"Mommy, I burned my hands!"
"What's making our eyes so itchy?"
"Don't rub 'em-they'll swell up."
Oh Oh Oh Oh
It's the big waste dump
Oh, yeah
We built your ticky-tacky houses
On landfill soil
To cover up a gift
We left you years before
Of toxic chemicals
And leaking gas
Just dig a little while,
You'll find our acid baths
Cesspools
In Eden
Oozing away:
Groundwater's poisoned
Air stings like hell
The lines for doctors grow long
Over martinis
The company laughs
"We don't owe you one damn thing."
But what about all these fainting spells?
How'd you like a lick
From my open sores
And Oh:.Oh Oh Oh -
Why are our babies stillborn?
A storage tank's leaking
It's about to explode
Why evacuate
When you can watch the fun
Nothing happens here
Get out the lawn chairs
We'll drink pink lemonade
And watch Martinez burn
Cesspools
In Eden
Oozing away
Cesspools in Eden
Leak by the day
The land we sold you
Is right atop our acid pits
We fill them by the truckload
In the dead of night
There's thousands more toxic
Tips of the iceberg
We pay a little bribe
Or we just don't report them
And see what you get-
Cesspools
In Eden
In Eden
No accident-
Just a little of our greed-fueled negligence
So you've found the proof why
Your cancer rate's shot up
But whatcha gonna do
When we've got all the cards
Times Beach, Rocky Flats,
Love Canal & Bhopal
Merry Christmas, hostages
From the folks who care
Cesspools in Eden
Oozing away
Cesspools in Eden
Leak by the day
Cesspools in Eden
Have a nice day
Beneath your dreamhome
Buried there years before
Kid runs in crying
From playing in the garden
"Mommy, I burned my hands!"
"What's making our eyes so itchy?"
"Don't rub 'em-they'll swell up."
Oh Oh Oh Oh
It's the big waste dump
Oh, yeah
We built your ticky-tacky houses
On landfill soil
To cover up a gift
We left you years before
Of toxic chemicals
And leaking gas
Just dig a little while,
You'll find our acid baths
Cesspools
In Eden
Oozing away:
Groundwater's poisoned
Air stings like hell
The lines for doctors grow long
Over martinis
The company laughs
"We don't owe you one damn thing."
But what about all these fainting spells?
How'd you like a lick
From my open sores
And Oh:.Oh Oh Oh -
Why are our babies stillborn?
A storage tank's leaking
It's about to explode
Why evacuate
When you can watch the fun
Nothing happens here
Get out the lawn chairs
We'll drink pink lemonade
And watch Martinez burn
Cesspools
In Eden
Oozing away
Cesspools in Eden
Leak by the day
The land we sold you
Is right atop our acid pits
We fill them by the truckload
In the dead of night
There's thousands more toxic
Tips of the iceberg
We pay a little bribe
Or we just don't report them
And see what you get-
Cesspools
In Eden
In Eden
No accident-
Just a little of our greed-fueled negligence
So you've found the proof why
Your cancer rate's shot up
But whatcha gonna do
When we've got all the cards
Times Beach, Rocky Flats,
Love Canal & Bhopal
Merry Christmas, hostages
From the folks who care
Cesspools in Eden
Oozing away
Cesspools in Eden
Leak by the day
Cesspools in Eden
Have a nice day
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This song is a huge contrast to the rest of the CD but I still think it fucking rocks, it's one of my favorites on Bedtime for Democracy. Dead Kennedys are brilliant.