"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.
Mae Esyllt yn hoffi bod'n creadur
A dyle fi gwybod
Cos fi 'di darllen ei dyddiadur
A mafe'n darlleniad da
Ah ah ah y ffordd oren (x4)
Os nhw isie rhoi holion trwy eich gilydd
Wel dyna busnes ni a neb arall i barnu
Mae Steven wedi cwympo mewn cariad gyda'r dyn tywydd
Mae ei ffordd e o chwerthin ar ei tylwyth.
A dyle fi gwybod
Cos fi 'di darllen ei dyddiadur
A mafe'n darlleniad da
Ah ah ah y ffordd oren (x4)
Os nhw isie rhoi holion trwy eich gilydd
Wel dyna busnes ni a neb arall i barnu
Mae Steven wedi cwympo mewn cariad gyda'r dyn tywydd
Mae ei ffordd e o chwerthin ar ei tylwyth.
Lyrics submitted by jpfine
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Well, in English:
Esyllt likes to be a creature And I should know Cos I've read her diary And it's a good read
Ah ah ah the orange road (x4)
If they want to stick nails through each other Well that's our business, and no-one elses to judge Steven has fallen in love with the weatherman It's his way of laughing at the fairies
Pretty sure that's 'teuluoedd' (family) not 'tylwyth' (fairies). Strange how in the Internet blog era, the first verse seems less voyeuristic and sinister than it did in 1994.