"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.
Flash Gordon soundtrack,
I was in second grade.
My first real record, yeah,
worn down it played and played.
Young and blind,
my double mind.
When the world was black and white,
watch me turn my back tonight,
on Freddie Mercury,
Mr. Fahrenheit.
I was in eighth grade,
I said he was a queer,
I thought he had it coming,
he died of AIDs that year.
My liberty,
Like Christ's death meant nothing to me.
When the world was black and white,
watch me turn my back tonight,
on Freddie Mercury,
Mr. Fahrenheit.
When my veins choked thick with spite,
blind man's bluff burns in hindsight,
for Freddie Mercury,
Mr. Fahrenheit.
Predisposed to bigotry,
the regular run-of-the-mill American story.
The stench of greasepaint on our faces,
pass the mask to our next of kin,
instead of wiser idioms,
like "love the sinner, hate the sin".
When the world was black and white,
watch me turn my back tonight,
on Freddie Mercury,
Mr. Fahrenheit.
When my veins choked thick with spite,
blind man's bluff burns in hindsight,
for Freddie Mercury,
Mr. Fahrenheit.
When the world was black and white,
watch me turn my back tonight,
on Freddie Mercury,
Mr. Fahrenheit.
I'm sorry, so sorry.
I'm sorry, so sorry.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
I was in second grade.
My first real record, yeah,
worn down it played and played.
Young and blind,
my double mind.
When the world was black and white,
watch me turn my back tonight,
on Freddie Mercury,
Mr. Fahrenheit.
I was in eighth grade,
I said he was a queer,
I thought he had it coming,
he died of AIDs that year.
My liberty,
Like Christ's death meant nothing to me.
When the world was black and white,
watch me turn my back tonight,
on Freddie Mercury,
Mr. Fahrenheit.
When my veins choked thick with spite,
blind man's bluff burns in hindsight,
for Freddie Mercury,
Mr. Fahrenheit.
Predisposed to bigotry,
the regular run-of-the-mill American story.
The stench of greasepaint on our faces,
pass the mask to our next of kin,
instead of wiser idioms,
like "love the sinner, hate the sin".
When the world was black and white,
watch me turn my back tonight,
on Freddie Mercury,
Mr. Fahrenheit.
When my veins choked thick with spite,
blind man's bluff burns in hindsight,
for Freddie Mercury,
Mr. Fahrenheit.
When the world was black and white,
watch me turn my back tonight,
on Freddie Mercury,
Mr. Fahrenheit.
I'm sorry, so sorry.
I'm sorry, so sorry.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
Lyrics submitted by ThreeMilesDown, edited by CrisMusic
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