"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.
I'm going for a walk
not the after dinner kind
I'm gonna use my hands
and I'm gonna use my mind
and who the hell are you to tell me what to do?
you can't even tie your own haggard shoes
your closet is a mess, and your backyard's falling down
and I have no grand ideas or intentions of sticking around
I'm gonna build a world
independant and exempt
all alone I'll be an empire
with no mortgage and no rent
and I don't need to live in your stinking zoo
you can't even feed the animals donated to you
your storage sheds are ramshackled, flies decorate the walls
and you expect me to die here in this shit-filled tiny stall?
and I know you're watching! everything I do
call me threat to your children call me socially unglued
call me master of insanity, unable to relate
call me lazy, bane, and filthy
call me monstrous reprobate
I'm going for a walk and there's nothing you can do
'cuz I don't have to live like you
so I'm going for a walk
not the after dinner kind
I'm gonna use my hands
and I'm gonna use my mind
and who the hell are you to tell me what to do?
you can't even tie your own haggard shoes
your closet is a mess, and your backyard's falling down
and I have no grand ideas or intentions of sticking around
I'm gonna build a world
independant and exempt
all alone I'll be an empire
with no mortgage and no rent
and I don't need to live in your stinking zoo
you can't even feed the animals donated to you
your storage sheds are ramshackled, flies decorate the walls
and you expect me to die here in this shit-filled tiny stall?
and I know you're watching! everything I do
call me threat to your children call me socially unglued
call me master of insanity, unable to relate
call me lazy, bane, and filthy
call me monstrous reprobate
I'm going for a walk and there's nothing you can do
'cuz I don't have to live like you
so I'm going for a walk
Lyrics submitted by Misanthropos, edited by DanVitaleRocks
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Fast Car
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
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This song is pretty self-explanatory. He's gonna live his life his own way and in his own world. He' also criticizing the world we live in today by calling it a "stinking zoo". A zoo where the "storage sheds are ramshackled" and "flies decorate the walls". He also saying "why must I listen to your rules, regulations and live my life according to your standards(model citizen) when you cant even keep this filthy dead world you've create alive and functioning".
Frankly i recon this song has a sort of 'Break free' feel about it - And I don't need to live in your stinking zoo...
This song is like waking up and flipping off a globe.
Yo why hasn't anyone said anything about this song!? It's such a great song with such great meaning. i love the "And who the hell are you to tell me what to do?" part. Man Bad Religion is awesome. good good song
Awesome song! Y'know I think the part about a zoo is saying that he doesn't want to be some pseudo-rebel cariacture that people adore, I.E., Kurt Cobain.
make fun of this is right
These lyrics are for "Walk Away," not "A Walk."
ok, you're all retarded, this song is about how god treated the devil, and how the devil has left to make his own world, his own empire (hell obviously). and how he was treated very wrongly, along with the rest of the angels in heaven, and how he needs them to do things for him; eg. to tie his shoelaces
I almost thought you were serious until i read your screen name is makefunofthis. Haha nice
hey makefunofthis, Greg Graffin (the singer of Bad Religion, for those of you who don't know) is a fucking atheist.
No he's not. He's a naturalist. Look it up.
bobby, relax. its not like greg hasnt written songs from god's perspective, or about god. He does it all the time. His opinion is entirely valid.
I disagree Greg Graffin's stated agenda is to spread atheism and get people to live secular lives. How can some one talk about a perspective he doesn't believe in. He is a drive by moron.