"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.
slave with words to form your dig in
got half a hand in hardly missing
in spitting distance
spit the image
got your lips swimming in it
the home is stormed
the nightmare fires
right on time to filter light in
in my jacket you've got back ache
now you've come back for my spine
happens every time
i need it, i need it
everyday pores suck in
in mean reverberations
electricity is conversation
plug in love in saved my life
all the days i've lived all i give
you've given back all of it times everything
why am i so down like this
who am i
the race car
might miss the mouth
i missed the mouth and got it all down the front of your shirt
left a stain to remind you i came and went
and i will remember everything
i need it, i need it
everyday pores suck in
in mean reverberations
electricity is conversation
plug in love in saved my life
all the days i've lived all i give
you've given back all of it times everything
the deep end contriver
drowns a million times
the soar soar soar soldier swims up to the lip
suck in what ever you can
red eyed now every time i try to begin
still calves kick
tick with the tide and i hate every line i ever met
i need it, i need it
everyday pores suck in
in mean reverberations
electricity is conversation
plug in love in saved my life
all the days i've lived all i give
you've given back all of it times everything
got half a hand in hardly missing
in spitting distance
spit the image
got your lips swimming in it
the home is stormed
the nightmare fires
right on time to filter light in
in my jacket you've got back ache
now you've come back for my spine
happens every time
i need it, i need it
everyday pores suck in
in mean reverberations
electricity is conversation
plug in love in saved my life
all the days i've lived all i give
you've given back all of it times everything
why am i so down like this
who am i
the race car
might miss the mouth
i missed the mouth and got it all down the front of your shirt
left a stain to remind you i came and went
and i will remember everything
i need it, i need it
everyday pores suck in
in mean reverberations
electricity is conversation
plug in love in saved my life
all the days i've lived all i give
you've given back all of it times everything
the deep end contriver
drowns a million times
the soar soar soar soldier swims up to the lip
suck in what ever you can
red eyed now every time i try to begin
still calves kick
tick with the tide and i hate every line i ever met
i need it, i need it
everyday pores suck in
in mean reverberations
electricity is conversation
plug in love in saved my life
all the days i've lived all i give
you've given back all of it times everything
Lyrics submitted by inretrospect
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Fast Car
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