"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.
This might just be a waste of time
There's no one I'd rather waste
My time with than all my best friends
So start the car up
We'll all take turns, not for the worst
We're all has-beens and never-weres
And we're all in the back singing Roxanne
Just watching life pass us by
Pass us by
As if we cared
Enough to try to catch up
Enough to make up for lost time
Enough to make up for lost time, yeah
We've been down
We've been out
We've been hanging 'round
Tip our glasses to no direction, yeah
Start the van, get me out of this one horse town
Waste this night
Woo!
We've been down
We've been out
We've been hanging 'round
Tip our glasses to no direction, yeah
Start the van, get me out of this one horse town
Waste this night
Waste this night
We've been down
We've been out
We've been hanging 'round (waste this night)
Tip our glasses to no direction, yeah (waste this night)
Start the van, get me out of this one horse town
Waste this night
There's no one I'd rather waste
My time with than all my best friends
So start the car up
We'll all take turns, not for the worst
We're all has-beens and never-weres
And we're all in the back singing Roxanne
Just watching life pass us by
Pass us by
As if we cared
Enough to try to catch up
Enough to make up for lost time
Enough to make up for lost time, yeah
We've been down
We've been out
We've been hanging 'round
Tip our glasses to no direction, yeah
Start the van, get me out of this one horse town
Waste this night
Woo!
We've been down
We've been out
We've been hanging 'round
Tip our glasses to no direction, yeah
Start the van, get me out of this one horse town
Waste this night
Waste this night
We've been down
We've been out
We've been hanging 'round (waste this night)
Tip our glasses to no direction, yeah (waste this night)
Start the van, get me out of this one horse town
Waste this night
Lyrics submitted by xxsweetashevnxx, edited by Mellow_Harsher
The World's Not Waiting (For Five Tired Boys in a Broken Van) Lyrics as written by Patrick Martin Stump Joseph Mark Trohman
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
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