"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.
Dark, small, so fragile
A treasure to your heart
Grace your fingers across the lacquer
Think of someone miles away
Piano sounds that bow in the distance
Bring me back to my room again
Ten thousand miles away
My memory is leaking
She lost a ruby thing
Trying to focus, times in the past
The music has stopped and can't carry on
All of a sudden I start to remember
Summer, Germany, then it's gone
Ten thousand miles away
The dancers are sleepy
The keys are put away
The jewel on my jacket talking, talking
Telling stories everyone's heard
My box of ghosts bids me goodnight
Clockwork spirits have the last word
Ten thousand miles away
A treasure to your heart
Grace your fingers across the lacquer
Think of someone miles away
Piano sounds that bow in the distance
Bring me back to my room again
Ten thousand miles away
My memory is leaking
She lost a ruby thing
Trying to focus, times in the past
The music has stopped and can't carry on
All of a sudden I start to remember
Summer, Germany, then it's gone
Ten thousand miles away
The dancers are sleepy
The keys are put away
The jewel on my jacket talking, talking
Telling stories everyone's heard
My box of ghosts bids me goodnight
Clockwork spirits have the last word
Ten thousand miles away
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It seems as though this was an experience that SKilbey had long ago that he is reminiscing-since Germany is 10,000 miles from Australia;) When I hear this song it makes me think in turquoise irridescence.
There are a couple of lines in this song that suggest a seance is taking place. The laquer being graced by the fingers is probably that of a Ouija board. The fancier ones are made of laquered wood. Many boards are also stored in boxes which is likely what the line about the box of ghosts refers to.
I am with Sozluk. I like the following lines.
"Telling stories everyone's heard" He likes to tell others about it and reminisce aloud and everyone is growing tired of the repeated stories.
"My box of ghosts bids me goodnight" A box of photos and possibly notes he uses to remember those days in Germany.
I like the idea of the séance as being associated with the memory of Germany somehow, perhaps even trying to bring back that memory. MWP wrote this song (not Kilbey, though in my mind the mistake is very reasonably made), and he's into referencing literary works, so I think there's a book out there we're supposed to read if we want to fully get it.