"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.
...Doubting
...Trying
Not to look at the face of the man who is dying
To look for the face of the man who is lying
The ambler gambler is low and loaded
His rusty steed turns to burn into my soul
I hear the cries
My body lies in sanctuary
The long way home I cannot seek
He knows the pain its special place
I know its look I know its face
White silver draws black lines
Bright whites the killing kind
Two wrongs don't make a right
Two blacks don't make a white
Devotion isn't what it seems
The broker of my broken dreams
Hell is all that I see
My cell is my sanctuary
There's a black space where my soul should be
A gaping wound where my heart could be
I feel so low I feel like Christ
I see my head is turning white
The knuckles twisted raw and I'm so empty
And there's no respite
You prey together on the small
Hell-vision shows it every night
The ambler gambler is low and loaded
His rusty steed turns to burn into my soul
I hear the cries
My body lies in sanctuary
The long way home is what I seek
He knows the pain its special place
And I know your face
...Trying
Not to look at the face of the man who is dying
To look for the face of the man who is lying
The ambler gambler is low and loaded
His rusty steed turns to burn into my soul
I hear the cries
My body lies in sanctuary
The long way home I cannot seek
He knows the pain its special place
I know its look I know its face
White silver draws black lines
Bright whites the killing kind
Two wrongs don't make a right
Two blacks don't make a white
Devotion isn't what it seems
The broker of my broken dreams
Hell is all that I see
My cell is my sanctuary
There's a black space where my soul should be
A gaping wound where my heart could be
I feel so low I feel like Christ
I see my head is turning white
The knuckles twisted raw and I'm so empty
And there's no respite
You prey together on the small
Hell-vision shows it every night
The ambler gambler is low and loaded
His rusty steed turns to burn into my soul
I hear the cries
My body lies in sanctuary
The long way home is what I seek
He knows the pain its special place
And I know your face
Lyrics submitted by gasmask
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Agreed, the 'Spent Sperm' mix is by far the best. Living in your own personal hell is your sanctuary.