"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.
Jimmy and Johnny two friends of mine
Skinheads what they claimed
Outside similarities but they don't feel the same
Johnny thinks Jimmy is a mod
And Jimmy thinks Johnny's a punk
Jimmy listens to ska
And Johnny likes last resort
Jimmy and Johnny in the trenches
We down tonight
Drinking Guinness smoking 555's
Once you're in the middle you feel alright
Skinheads tats and a Fred Perry
There's a was in the cemetery
Start to fight stop drinking
What the fuck were they thinking
Jimmy and Johnny tell me what you're seeing
Yeah yeah yeah yeah
Jimmy had his two tone girl on the back of his scooter that night
Johnny had a jacks up Chevy that could blow you right off the line
Skinheads tats and a Fred Perry
There's a was in the cemetery
Start to fight stop drinking
What the fuck were they thinking
Jimmy and Johnny tell me what you're seeing
Yeah yeah yeah yeah
Skinheads what they claimed
Outside similarities but they don't feel the same
Johnny thinks Jimmy is a mod
And Jimmy thinks Johnny's a punk
Jimmy listens to ska
And Johnny likes last resort
Jimmy and Johnny in the trenches
We down tonight
Drinking Guinness smoking 555's
Once you're in the middle you feel alright
Skinheads tats and a Fred Perry
There's a was in the cemetery
Start to fight stop drinking
What the fuck were they thinking
Jimmy and Johnny tell me what you're seeing
Yeah yeah yeah yeah
Jimmy had his two tone girl on the back of his scooter that night
Johnny had a jacks up Chevy that could blow you right off the line
Skinheads tats and a Fred Perry
There's a was in the cemetery
Start to fight stop drinking
What the fuck were they thinking
Jimmy and Johnny tell me what you're seeing
Yeah yeah yeah yeah
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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Ebba Grön
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
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and the lyrics of the NOFX song go:
He's a teenage vegetable He listens to LAST RESORT
(on-line lyrics sites got it wrong)
The lyrics to Jaw Knee Music is literally just a reference to the fact that there are so many songs about someone named Johnny. The "teenage vegetable" line is from Reagan Youth's "Degenerated."