"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.
Wearing an olive drab
But feeling somehow inside opalescent
Wonder how I'm managing to smile oh
When I can't even pay my rent
Maybe it's because I've finally found
My little tulip my Norge dear
Funny how in spite of all my woes
Life can appear rosy and clear
Rosy and clear
And I'm dizzy from her kiss
So vertiginous lost in lysergic bliss
(Because it hurts me so bad)
Love the way you wear your curly hair
Sanguine and spiraling tied in a bun
Love the way it falls about your face
Mercurially gilded by the sun
If we were a pair of jigsaw puzzle pieces
We would connect so perfectly
Creating a still photo of a scene
From the Phantom of Libertay
Of Libertay
And I'm dizzy from her kiss
So vertiginous lost in lysergic bliss
But feeling somehow inside opalescent
Wonder how I'm managing to smile oh
When I can't even pay my rent
Maybe it's because I've finally found
My little tulip my Norge dear
Funny how in spite of all my woes
Life can appear rosy and clear
Rosy and clear
And I'm dizzy from her kiss
So vertiginous lost in lysergic bliss
(Because it hurts me so bad)
Love the way you wear your curly hair
Sanguine and spiraling tied in a bun
Love the way it falls about your face
Mercurially gilded by the sun
If we were a pair of jigsaw puzzle pieces
We would connect so perfectly
Creating a still photo of a scene
From the Phantom of Libertay
Of Libertay
And I'm dizzy from her kiss
So vertiginous lost in lysergic bliss
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Fast Car
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oh, kevin barnes, i love your vocabulary.
It's worth noting that the word "lysergic" is a chemical term, and is what the "L" in LSD stands for (lysergic acid diethylamide).
ok, im not saying the song isnt a love song. but he obivously is taking it a step further than just that. he may be using it as both a metaphor for how she makes him feel, but undoubtedly he is talking about acid. if you are familiar with the drug the lyrics seem quiet... well "rosy and clear".
"If we were a pair of jigsaw puzzle pieces we would connect so perfectly"
When you drop acid, you tend to see the interconnectedness you have with everything around you.
hahahha kevin barnes eats a whole bunch of drugs.
What Kevin is trying to communicate is his affection for his wife, Nina. The shimmering intensity of pure love is akin to the rush of euphoria brought on by substance usage. Those that are drawing conclusions from both column A -and- column B are correct.
hahaha i thought he was saying "dizzy from the gas." i like this better.
the Phantom of Liberty is apparently a surrealist film, which makes sense when you're talking about "lysergic bliss", a high achieved by taking LSD.
When I heard this song...(and most of Satanic Panic in the Attic) for the first time...I started laughing, I just burst out into laughter, like a victorious laughter, an excited fit of happiness that I had found such a great band and such a fantastic musical experience! That breakdown in the middle?....oh my golly!
big difference between this song and the others by the group. whereas they usually display a sort of pop-psychedelic sheen, the beginning is very heavy, LSDian stuff.