"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 exit through the spotlight glare
I stepped out into thin air
Into a perfume so rarefied
"Here comes the bride"
Not quite aside, they snide, "she's number four"
"There's number three just by the door"
Those in the know, don't even flatter her, they go one better
"She was selling speedboats in a trade show when I met her"
Look at her now
She's starting to yawn
She looks like she was born to it
But it was so much easier
When I was cruel
She reaches out her arms to me
Imploring "another melody?"
So she can dance her husband out on the floor
The captains of industry just lie there where they fall
In an eau-de-nil and pale carnation
A satin sash and velvet elevation
She straightens the tipsy headdress of her spouse
While hers recalls a honey house
There'll be no sorrows left to drown
Early in the morning in your evening gown
But it was so much easier
When I was cruel
The entrance hall was arranged with hostesses and ushers
Who turned out to be the younger wives nursing schoolgirl crushes
Parting the waves of those few feint friends
Fingers once offered are now too heavy to extend
The ghostly first wife glides up on stage whispering to raucous talkers
Spilling family secrets out to flunkies and castrato walkers
See that girl
Watch that scene
Digging the "Dancing Queen"
Two newspaper editors like playground sneaks
Running a book on which of them is going to last the week
One of them calls to me and he says, "I know you"
"You gave me this tattoo back in eighty-two"
"You were a spoilt child then with a record to plug"
"And I was a shaven-headed seaside thug"
"Things haven't really changed that much"
"One of us is still getting paid too much"
There are some things I can't report
The memory of his last retort
But it was so much easier
When I was cruel
Look at me now
She's starting to yawn
She looks like she was born to it
Ah, but it was so much easier
When I was cruel
I stepped out into thin air
Into a perfume so rarefied
"Here comes the bride"
Not quite aside, they snide, "she's number four"
"There's number three just by the door"
Those in the know, don't even flatter her, they go one better
"She was selling speedboats in a trade show when I met her"
Look at her now
She's starting to yawn
She looks like she was born to it
But it was so much easier
When I was cruel
She reaches out her arms to me
Imploring "another melody?"
So she can dance her husband out on the floor
The captains of industry just lie there where they fall
In an eau-de-nil and pale carnation
A satin sash and velvet elevation
She straightens the tipsy headdress of her spouse
While hers recalls a honey house
There'll be no sorrows left to drown
Early in the morning in your evening gown
But it was so much easier
When I was cruel
The entrance hall was arranged with hostesses and ushers
Who turned out to be the younger wives nursing schoolgirl crushes
Parting the waves of those few feint friends
Fingers once offered are now too heavy to extend
The ghostly first wife glides up on stage whispering to raucous talkers
Spilling family secrets out to flunkies and castrato walkers
See that girl
Watch that scene
Digging the "Dancing Queen"
Two newspaper editors like playground sneaks
Running a book on which of them is going to last the week
One of them calls to me and he says, "I know you"
"You gave me this tattoo back in eighty-two"
"You were a spoilt child then with a record to plug"
"And I was a shaven-headed seaside thug"
"Things haven't really changed that much"
"One of us is still getting paid too much"
There are some things I can't report
The memory of his last retort
But it was so much easier
When I was cruel
Look at me now
She's starting to yawn
She looks like she was born to it
Ah, but it was so much easier
When I was cruel
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Fast Car
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Is this autobiographical... "You were a spoilt child then with a record to plug" --?
Or is this about someone else - a rich dude marrying a pretty young thing who came from nothing? I don't know much about Elvis Costello's personal life except that his real name is Decclan McMannus (sorry if I misspelled it). I am a fan but never thought to learn his life history. Just listen to the music and WONDER what the hell the lyrics mean. The mysterious Mr McMannus!!