"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.
By the bumper cars, in the pretty twining light, I may have gone too far, I may have gone too much too long. I'm a dull and witless boy. In the after bars, think I was sullied by a dream: in the killing jar, you and me at war at arms all falling in embrace.
Tell me why you lied and what it is you do to keep your eyes all shiny.
A tawny gypsy girl, sleeping blanketed by stars beneath the tilt-a-whirl where we were coyly caught alone all fumbling with your blouse.
Tell me why you lied and what it is you do to keep your eyes all shiny.
In the rollercoaster din, by the parachutes in saddle shoes you break your shin. But I have never seen two eyes so shiny.
And the sullen beery swine who try to tangle you in sullen beery balls of twine, have they ever seen two eyes so shiny?
The boys in denim vest, smoking cigarettes between their bootblack fingertips, sweetly tipsy by the half-light. The light and the half-light.
Tell me why you lied and what it is you do to keep your eyes so shiny
Tell me why you lied and what it is you do to keep your eyes all shiny.
A tawny gypsy girl, sleeping blanketed by stars beneath the tilt-a-whirl where we were coyly caught alone all fumbling with your blouse.
Tell me why you lied and what it is you do to keep your eyes all shiny.
In the rollercoaster din, by the parachutes in saddle shoes you break your shin. But I have never seen two eyes so shiny.
And the sullen beery swine who try to tangle you in sullen beery balls of twine, have they ever seen two eyes so shiny?
The boys in denim vest, smoking cigarettes between their bootblack fingertips, sweetly tipsy by the half-light. The light and the half-light.
Tell me why you lied and what it is you do to keep your eyes so shiny
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Fast Car
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what it is you do to keep your eyes so shiny.