"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.
And you feel the spiral turning for you alone
And you feel so heavy that you just can't stop it
When you see your madness turns you into stone
A picture of your life she's like a rocket
All the time
Could be if you're crazy it's all right
I see you moving in and out of sight
My friends tell you it'll all come through, yes
From nowhere
To nowhere
Come together
Come through
Have I lived now with a mote inside my eye
And I can't see you breathing as before
I am airless, a vacuum child
And I can't stand to reason at your door
In this time
Could be if you're crazy it's all right
I've seen you moving in and out of sight
My friends tell me it'll all come through, yes
From nowhere
To nowhere
Come together
I'm down in the daytime out of sight
Coming in from dreamland I'm on fire
I can see it's all been here before
Dream a dream that lies right at your door
When the seasons circle sideways without a turn
And words don't speak just fall across the carpet
You're just in time to watch the fire burn
It seems a crime that you face it like you love it
All the time
And you feel so heavy that you just can't stop it
When you see your madness turns you into stone
A picture of your life she's like a rocket
All the time
Could be if you're crazy it's all right
I see you moving in and out of sight
My friends tell you it'll all come through, yes
From nowhere
To nowhere
Come together
Come through
Have I lived now with a mote inside my eye
And I can't see you breathing as before
I am airless, a vacuum child
And I can't stand to reason at your door
In this time
Could be if you're crazy it's all right
I've seen you moving in and out of sight
My friends tell me it'll all come through, yes
From nowhere
To nowhere
Come together
I'm down in the daytime out of sight
Coming in from dreamland I'm on fire
I can see it's all been here before
Dream a dream that lies right at your door
When the seasons circle sideways without a turn
And words don't speak just fall across the carpet
You're just in time to watch the fire burn
It seems a crime that you face it like you love it
All the time
Lyrics submitted by onethinwallaway
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i havnt heard the origional but i love the chorus, i always wanna move to it "could be it you're crazy its alright, i've seen you moving in and out of sight"