"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.
Well Jolene unlocked the thick breezeway door
Like she'd done one hundred times before.
Jolene smoothed her dark hair in the mirror.
She folded the towel carefully and put it back in place.
Yeah I want to pull you down into bed.
I want to cast your face in lead.
Well every time I pull you close
Push my face into your hair
Cream rinse and tobacco smoke
That sickly scent is always always there.
Jolene heard her father's uneven snores.
Right then she knew there must be something more.
Jolene heard the singing in the forest.
She opened the door quietly and stepped into the night.
Yeah I want to throw you out into space.
I want to do whatever it takes, takes, takes.
Well every time I pull you close,
Push my face into your hair,
Cream rinse and tobacco smoke,
That sickly scent is always, always there.
Like she'd done one hundred times before.
Jolene smoothed her dark hair in the mirror.
She folded the towel carefully and put it back in place.
Yeah I want to pull you down into bed.
I want to cast your face in lead.
Well every time I pull you close
Push my face into your hair
Cream rinse and tobacco smoke
That sickly scent is always always there.
Jolene heard her father's uneven snores.
Right then she knew there must be something more.
Jolene heard the singing in the forest.
She opened the door quietly and stepped into the night.
Yeah I want to throw you out into space.
I want to do whatever it takes, takes, takes.
Well every time I pull you close,
Push my face into your hair,
Cream rinse and tobacco smoke,
That sickly scent is always, always there.
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I am gonna just throw a thought into this conversation...
Jolene was also a song by Dolly Parton about a woman named Jolene who stole her lover away from her...could this possibly be a "musical rebuttal" to Parton's song?
whose to say it isn't? tell me what you think...any ideas.
That's what I was thinking...but then after listening, I think she may be another "Jolene" entirely...or maybe an innocent Jolene, who hasn't got into adultress mischief yet...