"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 want to be your absolute ultimate
Want to be your only one now
Feel the rays come up from your sulkiness
Feel the rays you radiate now
Sweet and plain,
Unsignable name
That rings in my mind now
That strums me like a string
Chime, unsingable name
Over everything.
Beware the thrum of hearts in your presence and
Watch the breeze that snaps at you now
All the dogs that bark from the fences and
Everything is wanting for you
Smirk on the face and fists in the clenches and
Make the radiator blow now
Crack the planks and shatter the lenses and
Mix the salt, the sugar, and flour
Slushing, sleeting through the blue gloom
Some long bell's lonely ring
Chime, unsingable name
Over everything
I want to see the mountains in silhouette
Want to split for Singapore now
Want to see the mystery trees
Want to hear the womanly sound.
I want to see the mystery trees.
I want to hear the womanly sound.
Want to be your only one now
Feel the rays come up from your sulkiness
Feel the rays you radiate now
Sweet and plain,
Unsignable name
That rings in my mind now
That strums me like a string
Chime, unsingable name
Over everything.
Beware the thrum of hearts in your presence and
Watch the breeze that snaps at you now
All the dogs that bark from the fences and
Everything is wanting for you
Smirk on the face and fists in the clenches and
Make the radiator blow now
Crack the planks and shatter the lenses and
Mix the salt, the sugar, and flour
Slushing, sleeting through the blue gloom
Some long bell's lonely ring
Chime, unsingable name
Over everything
I want to see the mountains in silhouette
Want to split for Singapore now
Want to see the mystery trees
Want to hear the womanly sound.
I want to see the mystery trees.
I want to hear the womanly sound.
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I say the unsingable name is "jane." That would make it "sweet jane" like the velvet underground song and "Plain Jane." Plus it fits the rhyme scheme. It's a mono-syballic word that you could say rings or chimes like a bell or like a guitar string. The third verse are all calamities, brilliantly thought up and poetic calamities, which gives us "calamity Jane" as well. I thought this song was amazing even before I realized it was a riddle.