"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.
In the future year - 2023
Multinational warlords - build an aquatic colony
In the struggle for - total domination
Corporate powers - move in to take control
Stratagem inset
Manipulate the opposition
Wrath of devastation
to reduce life status
Martial law declared - surveilance over the colonies
Wage and mayhem - put to an end momentarily
Resolving confrontations - over territorial disputes
Battles break out - when negotiations crumble
Charred remains
washing to the shore
Escaped ones flee
to the surface
Vessels patrol
the ocean floor
Maintaining border dominion
through eradication of organisms
Sea and surface life
All is sacrificed
In quest for
reign of the deep
Whosoever
masters the seas
the last remaining frontier
gains the wealth locked in the brine
Precious minerals sought - by the surface
Hostile takeover of - the mining communities
Stormtroopers of technology
Careful to maintain nitrogen balance
Surgically removing
the enemy within
New leaders create - order out of chaos
A civilization - beneath the depths
Arson of power
conquering the oceans - Forming imbalance
Particles react
Expire life from - the precious seas
Thresholds mend
Sludge chain reaction - melts them down again
Depth charge
Destabilizing crust - and floor
Instructed probes
Sear the water from - the toxic veil
Weapons system
Tear the living - from their glory
Vandal masters
carving up - the biosystem
Submerged deep
Fatal dictatorship - of the seas
[spoken verse]
Surface dwellers tremble
from a new superpower
Superior intellect choosing
Base in the seas
Systematically eliminating
All who do not take heed
Stench of the aftermath
confirms Aquatica's victory
No longer shall there be
any separations between cultures
Remaining survivors cast into a
melting pot of conglomerate slavery
Absolute extinction of the once
praised heroic patriot
Lands of solid ground turned into
a biodegradable human wastleland
Pay homage to the ocean
where the kingdom now dwells
Aquatica, the submerged city
Multinational warlords - build an aquatic colony
In the struggle for - total domination
Corporate powers - move in to take control
Stratagem inset
Manipulate the opposition
Wrath of devastation
to reduce life status
Martial law declared - surveilance over the colonies
Wage and mayhem - put to an end momentarily
Resolving confrontations - over territorial disputes
Battles break out - when negotiations crumble
Charred remains
washing to the shore
Escaped ones flee
to the surface
Vessels patrol
the ocean floor
Maintaining border dominion
through eradication of organisms
Sea and surface life
All is sacrificed
In quest for
reign of the deep
Whosoever
masters the seas
the last remaining frontier
gains the wealth locked in the brine
Precious minerals sought - by the surface
Hostile takeover of - the mining communities
Stormtroopers of technology
Careful to maintain nitrogen balance
Surgically removing
the enemy within
New leaders create - order out of chaos
A civilization - beneath the depths
Arson of power
conquering the oceans - Forming imbalance
Particles react
Expire life from - the precious seas
Thresholds mend
Sludge chain reaction - melts them down again
Depth charge
Destabilizing crust - and floor
Instructed probes
Sear the water from - the toxic veil
Weapons system
Tear the living - from their glory
Vandal masters
carving up - the biosystem
Submerged deep
Fatal dictatorship - of the seas
[spoken verse]
Surface dwellers tremble
from a new superpower
Superior intellect choosing
Base in the seas
Systematically eliminating
All who do not take heed
Stench of the aftermath
confirms Aquatica's victory
No longer shall there be
any separations between cultures
Remaining survivors cast into a
melting pot of conglomerate slavery
Absolute extinction of the once
praised heroic patriot
Lands of solid ground turned into
a biodegradable human wastleland
Pay homage to the ocean
where the kingdom now dwells
Aquatica, the submerged city
Lyrics submitted by Disposition_987
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Fast Car
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Page
Ed Sheeran
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