"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.
In the corner of my eye
I saw you in Rudy's
You were very high
You were high
It was a cryin' disgrace
They saw your face
On the counter by your keys
Was a book of numbers and your remedies
One of these surely will screen out the sorrow
But where are you tomorrow
I can't cry anymore
While you run around, while you run around
Break away
Just when it seems so clear
That it's over now
Drink your big black cow
And get out of here
Down to Greene Street
There you go
Lookin' so outrageous
And they tell you so
You should know
How all the pros play the game
Then you change your name
Like a gangster on the run
You will stagger homeward to your precious one
I'm the one who must make everything right
Talk it out till daylight
I don't care anymore
Why you run around, why you run around
Break away
Just when it seems so clear
That it's over now
Drink your big black cow
And get out of here
I can't cry anymore
While you run around, while you run around
Break away
Just when it seems so clear
That it's over now
Drink your big black cow
And get out of here
I saw you in Rudy's
You were very high
You were high
It was a cryin' disgrace
They saw your face
On the counter by your keys
Was a book of numbers and your remedies
One of these surely will screen out the sorrow
But where are you tomorrow
I can't cry anymore
While you run around, while you run around
Break away
Just when it seems so clear
That it's over now
Drink your big black cow
And get out of here
Down to Greene Street
There you go
Lookin' so outrageous
And they tell you so
You should know
How all the pros play the game
Then you change your name
Like a gangster on the run
You will stagger homeward to your precious one
I'm the one who must make everything right
Talk it out till daylight
I don't care anymore
Why you run around, why you run around
Break away
Just when it seems so clear
That it's over now
Drink your big black cow
And get out of here
I can't cry anymore
While you run around, while you run around
Break away
Just when it seems so clear
That it's over now
Drink your big black cow
And get out of here
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Fast Car
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Great version of a great song,
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I'm through being your crying towell and punching bag, you coked up party girl. See ya!