"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.
The moon hangs like the blade of an axe tonight,
and it's poised to drop sometime soon enough on this dump truck where I lie mixed up with the morning's trash.
There's a piece of glass sticking in my back and tar covering my mouth.
But it's okay cause I'm still breathing and my hands are free of the heap.
And I think that I see that big blade falling.
And I think that I see that big blade coming.
And the pressure is getting to me and the waste in which I sit is just lurking beside me.
And I can't tell if it's me or the meat that's rotting.
I'm gonna have to give up sometime soon.
But it's okay cause I'm still breathing and my hands are free of the heap.
And I think that I see that big blade falling.
And I think that I see that big blade coming.
You can watch me disappear.
You can watch me.
All I'm losing is me.
And I think that I see that big blade falling.
And I think that I see that big blade coming to slice open a great canyon through the earth so you can watch me disappear.
and it's poised to drop sometime soon enough on this dump truck where I lie mixed up with the morning's trash.
There's a piece of glass sticking in my back and tar covering my mouth.
But it's okay cause I'm still breathing and my hands are free of the heap.
And I think that I see that big blade falling.
And I think that I see that big blade coming.
And the pressure is getting to me and the waste in which I sit is just lurking beside me.
And I can't tell if it's me or the meat that's rotting.
I'm gonna have to give up sometime soon.
But it's okay cause I'm still breathing and my hands are free of the heap.
And I think that I see that big blade falling.
And I think that I see that big blade coming.
You can watch me disappear.
You can watch me.
All I'm losing is me.
And I think that I see that big blade falling.
And I think that I see that big blade coming to slice open a great canyon through the earth so you can watch me disappear.
Lyrics submitted by PLANES
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