"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.
INTRO
Let’s start with just the basics then
I’m sure that we can fake it when
It’s time to say how much it meant
And we walk out so innocent
VERSE 1
You can be so persuasive
When you say it’s
More than a day trip
And convince me
I’m condescending
When I ask, “Will this be ending?”
How quickly lust can pretend it's love
CHORUS
We’re just the boys and girls that think they always know (we are the boys and the girls)
With answers for the world
The ambiguity shows
We’re just the boys and girls that dance with all their clothes (we are the boys and the girls)
Hiding under the sheets
Believing nobody knows
VERSE 2
All the suspense
That we’ve created
Now it’s wasted
And we can’t change it
The beginning to the ending
I find myself remembering
PRE-CHORUS
How quickly lust can pretend it's love
Designing words to help us believe
It’s so much more than just tonight
So we have got to get this right
How quickly words can become our hands
Resigning everything we believe
You wanted, you wanted
More
CHORUS
We’re just the boys and girls that think they always know (we are the boys and the girls)
With answers for the world
The ambiguity shows
We’re just the boys and girls that dance with all their clothes (we are the boys and the girls)
Hiding under the sheets
Believing nobody knows
VERSE 3
You could be the one to stay
Made from birth for just this day
But something tells me it’s not right
If we could lose it all tonight
I’m no better on my own
Leave the message on your phone
Always trying what I can to be a child and not a man
CHORUS
We’re just the boys and girls that think they always know (we are the boys and the girls)
With answers for the world
The ambiguity shows
We’re just the boys and girls that dance with all their clothes (we are the boys and the girls)
Hiding under the sheets
Believing nobody knows
OUTRO
My hands across your clothes (my hands across your clothes)
And me without a plan
(Something I'll miss)
To keep us boys and girls (to keep us boys and girls)
Another woman and man?
(Something I will always miss)
Let’s start with just the basics then
I’m sure that we can fake it when
It’s time to say how much it meant
And we walk out so innocent
VERSE 1
You can be so persuasive
When you say it’s
More than a day trip
And convince me
I’m condescending
When I ask, “Will this be ending?”
How quickly lust can pretend it's love
CHORUS
We’re just the boys and girls that think they always know (we are the boys and the girls)
With answers for the world
The ambiguity shows
We’re just the boys and girls that dance with all their clothes (we are the boys and the girls)
Hiding under the sheets
Believing nobody knows
VERSE 2
All the suspense
That we’ve created
Now it’s wasted
And we can’t change it
The beginning to the ending
I find myself remembering
PRE-CHORUS
How quickly lust can pretend it's love
Designing words to help us believe
It’s so much more than just tonight
So we have got to get this right
How quickly words can become our hands
Resigning everything we believe
You wanted, you wanted
More
CHORUS
We’re just the boys and girls that think they always know (we are the boys and the girls)
With answers for the world
The ambiguity shows
We’re just the boys and girls that dance with all their clothes (we are the boys and the girls)
Hiding under the sheets
Believing nobody knows
VERSE 3
You could be the one to stay
Made from birth for just this day
But something tells me it’s not right
If we could lose it all tonight
I’m no better on my own
Leave the message on your phone
Always trying what I can to be a child and not a man
CHORUS
We’re just the boys and girls that think they always know (we are the boys and the girls)
With answers for the world
The ambiguity shows
We’re just the boys and girls that dance with all their clothes (we are the boys and the girls)
Hiding under the sheets
Believing nobody knows
OUTRO
My hands across your clothes (my hands across your clothes)
And me without a plan
(Something I'll miss)
To keep us boys and girls (to keep us boys and girls)
Another woman and man?
(Something I will always miss)
Lyrics submitted by GrOoDmAn
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