"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.
John the Revelator, put him in an elevator
Take him up to the highest high
Take him up to the top where the mountains stop
Let him tell his book of lies
John the Revelator, he's a smooth operator
It's time we cut him down to size
Take him by the hand And put him on the stand
Let us hear his alibis
By claiming God as his only rock
He's stealing a God from the Israelite
Stealing a God from a Muslim, too
There is only one God through and through
Seven lies, multiplied by seven, multiplied by seven again
Seven angels with seven trumpets
Send them home on the morning train
Well, who's that shouting?
John the Revelator
All he ever gives us is pain
Well, who's that shouting?
John the Revelator
He should bow his head in shame
Bye-bye
Bye-bye
Bye-bye
Bye-bye
Seven lies, multiplied by seven, multiplied by seven again
Seven angels with seven trumpets
Send them home on the morning train
Well, who's that shouting?
John the Revelator
All he ever gives us is pain
Well, who's that shouting?
John the Revelator
He should bow his head in shame
Bye-bye
Bye-bye (John the Revelator)
Bye-bye (John the Revelator)
Bye-bye (John the Revelator)
Take him up to the highest high
Take him up to the top where the mountains stop
Let him tell his book of lies
John the Revelator, he's a smooth operator
It's time we cut him down to size
Take him by the hand And put him on the stand
Let us hear his alibis
By claiming God as his only rock
He's stealing a God from the Israelite
Stealing a God from a Muslim, too
There is only one God through and through
Seven lies, multiplied by seven, multiplied by seven again
Seven angels with seven trumpets
Send them home on the morning train
Well, who's that shouting?
John the Revelator
All he ever gives us is pain
Well, who's that shouting?
John the Revelator
He should bow his head in shame
Bye-bye
Bye-bye
Bye-bye
Bye-bye
Seven lies, multiplied by seven, multiplied by seven again
Seven angels with seven trumpets
Send them home on the morning train
Well, who's that shouting?
John the Revelator
All he ever gives us is pain
Well, who's that shouting?
John the Revelator
He should bow his head in shame
Bye-bye
Bye-bye (John the Revelator)
Bye-bye (John the Revelator)
Bye-bye (John the Revelator)
Lyrics submitted by psychobain
John the Revelator Lyrics as written by Martin Gore
Lyrics © Royalty Network, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Gosh, I would think this song to be obvious. It's flat out saying that John, the writer of the Book of Revelation is a fraud and a false prophet, thus the predictions in Revelation would also be false.
The book of Revelation wasn't a book to begin with. It was originally a set of letters to 7 churches in the Roman Empire by a man named John who was predicting the end of a city named Har Megiddo (Armegeddon in English). Only John who wrote it, claimed that 666 would be the destroyer of the city of Har Megiddo. 666 in numerology is allegedly Nero Caesar's name in numbers. Har Megiddo was destroyed, but not by Nero Caesar as predicted and the prediction didn't quite happened the way it was foreseen.
But no one could understand the code and imagery that John was using, so later it was turned into the Book Revelation. Those people changing the letters to 7 churches into a book of the Bible, most likely didn't translate it properly, may have twisted the letters around. And even though Har Megiddo was already destroyed, there was no second coming up Christ upon the city's destruction, making John the writer, a false prophet.
Revelation was never about the "end of the world", it was only about the end of a city called Har Megiddo which is gone, Christ never came upon its destruction, thus, John the Revelator would be a false prophet.