"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.
Yesterday
When I was just a boy
In times of youthful hero worship
My kind have been molded by images on the screen
Brought up to emulate the big
Guns
Just another guest on death's best show
The influence cuts deeper than mom knows
Electric waves
The demon's fly
Now could we just be
Bred to kill or DIE
There must be something else
The blame I place on myself
Behind the tired eyes
The tears go uncried
In the Box
Doin' time
In the Box
Just like doin' time
In the Box
Doin' time
In the Box
Now that I'm grown
Abandoned childhood toys
But still what danger
Have I retained
To grab the brass ring
To go in for the kill
And covet the good you know 'dem got for
MURDER
It's just another guest on death's best show
The influence cuts deeper than mom knows
Electric waves
The demon's fly
Now could we just be
Bred to kill or DIE
There got to be something else
The blame I place on myself
Behind tired eyes
The demon's stir
The tears go uncried
In the Box
Doin' time
In the Box
Just like doin' time
In the Box
Doin' time
In the Box
Minds are locked down
(out)
Minds are locked down
(out)
Minds are locked down
(out)
Minds are locked down
(out)
When I was just a boy
In times of youthful hero worship
My kind have been molded by images on the screen
Brought up to emulate the big
Guns
Just another guest on death's best show
The influence cuts deeper than mom knows
Electric waves
The demon's fly
Now could we just be
Bred to kill or DIE
There must be something else
The blame I place on myself
Behind the tired eyes
The tears go uncried
In the Box
Doin' time
In the Box
Just like doin' time
In the Box
Doin' time
In the Box
Now that I'm grown
Abandoned childhood toys
But still what danger
Have I retained
To grab the brass ring
To go in for the kill
And covet the good you know 'dem got for
MURDER
It's just another guest on death's best show
The influence cuts deeper than mom knows
Electric waves
The demon's fly
Now could we just be
Bred to kill or DIE
There got to be something else
The blame I place on myself
Behind tired eyes
The demon's stir
The tears go uncried
In the Box
Doin' time
In the Box
Just like doin' time
In the Box
Doin' time
In the Box
Minds are locked down
(out)
Minds are locked down
(out)
Minds are locked down
(out)
Minds are locked down
(out)
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I think it's obvious that this some is about being in prison or something, and how he used to be so innocent and he's blaming society for corrupting him or something....