"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.
And now I sit in thought as the plot of my days commences,
and I'm left with fences
Put off the thoughts of my end so long to race
to chase after the trend so fleeting
Hours pass unsettled, unresolved my passions
I scrape to win a new day to waste
Misaligned priorities parallel my desires
I hide my eyes to avoid embrace
I smell the stench, unavoidable approach comes against
And yet I'm left asking the question
Denied a way to defend the thoughts
That this side equates with what awaits
I'm ripping right through the masses, sacrifice into ashes
Giving up what was past tense, raising up like Lazarus
I laugh at the strongman who thought he had control
A hold on my eternity-eternal is Christ empowers me
Like the faith that builds my strength
Is like your dreams that fade away
The battlefield we soldiers play
I dance with life beyond the grave
And Jah knows that I will never rest my head --No time for us to sleep
We concentrate on the son until our eyes bleed
Salvation carries a cost, we must prevail
Death creeps like the breeze, but have no fear, watch me inhale
Temporary bliss, the depths await my burial as the hours seem as seconds
The end of your bliss is coming --face the path and sip the last
Embrace ends-every day a new day to die
Die-time-the former life is past
Blindside-I know what awaits my fate
Haste-breath - unavoidable ceasing of days
Today is a good day to die
and I'm left with fences
Put off the thoughts of my end so long to race
to chase after the trend so fleeting
Hours pass unsettled, unresolved my passions
I scrape to win a new day to waste
Misaligned priorities parallel my desires
I hide my eyes to avoid embrace
I smell the stench, unavoidable approach comes against
And yet I'm left asking the question
Denied a way to defend the thoughts
That this side equates with what awaits
I'm ripping right through the masses, sacrifice into ashes
Giving up what was past tense, raising up like Lazarus
I laugh at the strongman who thought he had control
A hold on my eternity-eternal is Christ empowers me
Like the faith that builds my strength
Is like your dreams that fade away
The battlefield we soldiers play
I dance with life beyond the grave
And Jah knows that I will never rest my head --No time for us to sleep
We concentrate on the son until our eyes bleed
Salvation carries a cost, we must prevail
Death creeps like the breeze, but have no fear, watch me inhale
Temporary bliss, the depths await my burial as the hours seem as seconds
The end of your bliss is coming --face the path and sip the last
Embrace ends-every day a new day to die
Die-time-the former life is past
Blindside-I know what awaits my fate
Haste-breath - unavoidable ceasing of days
Today is a good day to die
Lyrics submitted by joshbert13
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Fast Car
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