"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.
Our time has come, age of the hammerhead
This is our mission, to be the darlings of God
Too late for silence, too late for anything
It's all too much for me, its roots go down too deep for me
A punishing fire, an animal frenzy
These hammerhead people know what danger is for
You let them in and now they're everywhere
If it's mineral or vegetable it's back a little up a little
Shout, push, hammerheads, bold and resolute
Marching, balancing, in too far to go back
Yes, yes, hammerheads, swimming, kissing
We are big and clever and we don't know anything
Purification by immersion in our filthy demon seed
We know the only things you like are paranoid sex and childish greed
Our own worst enemies, they hollowed us out of wood
Look at all the grease inside us, gonna get us this time but good
Whether we pull it out or push it in it all ends up the same
You know a hammerhead is a hammerhead by any other name
Shout, push, hammerheads, bold and resolute
Marching, balancing, in too far to go back
Yes, yes, hammerheads, swimming, kissing
We are big and clever and we don't know anything
Onward hammerheads, bright and dangerous
Jumping running in the field and factory
God save hammerheads, keeping going
We are sleek and special and we're sure of something
Blessed are the apemen
Blessed are the shit kickers
Blessed are the jack hammers
Blessed is the big damage
Blessed are the faith healers
Blessed are the moon walkers
Blessed are the snake people
Blessed are the heat seekers
Shout, push, hammerheads
Yes, yes, hammerheads
Shout, push, hammerheads, bold and resolute
Marching, balancing, in too far to go back
Yes, yes, hammerheads, swimming, kissing
We are big and clever and we don't know anything
Shout, push, hammerheads, bold and resolute
Marching, balancing, in too far to go back
Yes, yes, hammerheads, swimming, kissing
We are big and clever and we don't know anything
Onward hammerheads, bright and dangerous
Jumping running in the field and factory
God save hammerheads, keeping going
This is our mission, to be the darlings of God
Too late for silence, too late for anything
It's all too much for me, its roots go down too deep for me
A punishing fire, an animal frenzy
These hammerhead people know what danger is for
You let them in and now they're everywhere
If it's mineral or vegetable it's back a little up a little
Shout, push, hammerheads, bold and resolute
Marching, balancing, in too far to go back
Yes, yes, hammerheads, swimming, kissing
We are big and clever and we don't know anything
Purification by immersion in our filthy demon seed
We know the only things you like are paranoid sex and childish greed
Our own worst enemies, they hollowed us out of wood
Look at all the grease inside us, gonna get us this time but good
Whether we pull it out or push it in it all ends up the same
You know a hammerhead is a hammerhead by any other name
Shout, push, hammerheads, bold and resolute
Marching, balancing, in too far to go back
Yes, yes, hammerheads, swimming, kissing
We are big and clever and we don't know anything
Onward hammerheads, bright and dangerous
Jumping running in the field and factory
God save hammerheads, keeping going
We are sleek and special and we're sure of something
Blessed are the apemen
Blessed are the shit kickers
Blessed are the jack hammers
Blessed is the big damage
Blessed are the faith healers
Blessed are the moon walkers
Blessed are the snake people
Blessed are the heat seekers
Shout, push, hammerheads
Yes, yes, hammerheads
Shout, push, hammerheads, bold and resolute
Marching, balancing, in too far to go back
Yes, yes, hammerheads, swimming, kissing
We are big and clever and we don't know anything
Shout, push, hammerheads, bold and resolute
Marching, balancing, in too far to go back
Yes, yes, hammerheads, swimming, kissing
We are big and clever and we don't know anything
Onward hammerheads, bright and dangerous
Jumping running in the field and factory
God save hammerheads, keeping going
Lyrics submitted by anemic_knifeprty, edited by Vulond
Hammerheads Lyrics as written by Carl Marsh Barry William Andrews
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Word Collections Publishing
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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The Hammerheads are mid-80s comic-book sci-fi/fantasy/horror, in the British style: hammerheads, demons gated in, apemen created by evolution gone mad, constructs built in a factory, snakemen from a lost world, everything that ever appeared in the pages of 2000 AD or the early Warhammer Fantasy sourcebooks.
What are they fighting for? Are they government-sanctioned death squads that got out of control, rebels who have become even worse than the fascist government they're fighting, or vigilantes taking over as society collapses?
It doesn't matter. To them, fighting is all that matters. To everyone else, the only thing that matters is that they're here, and it's too late to stop them.
So, what does the song mean? The same thing as all mid-80s grimdark. Civilized peace is only a short-lived temporary state; the couple generations between WWII and the nukes coming any day now are all we'll ever get. Most of us try to make the most of it while we can; the best of us try to preserve things as long as possible—but there are always the hammerheads, the ones who can't wait for that future, and their day is coming. The frenzied, chaotic music is the music of the Hammerheads, the lyrics are their chant. More dakka!