"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.
Honey lovin' you is the greatest thing
I get to be myself and I get to sing
I get to play at being irresponsible
I come home late at night and I love your soul
I never forget you in my prayers
I never have a bad thing to report
You're my picture on the wall
You're my vision in the hall
You're the one I'm talking to
When I get in from my work
You are my girl, and you don't even know it
I am livin' out the life of a poet
I am the jester in the ancient court
You're the funny little frog in my throat
My eye sight's fading, my hearing's dim
I can't get insured for the state I'm in
I'm a danger to myself I've been starting fights
At the party at the club on a Saturday night
But I don't get disapproving from my girl
She gets the all highlights wrapped in pearls.
You're my picture on the wall
You're my vision in the hall
You're the one I'm talking to
When I get in from my work
You are my girl, and you don't even know it
I am livin' out the life of a poet
I am the jester in the ancient court
You're the funny little frog in my throat
I had a conversation with you at night
It's a little one sided but that's alright
I tell you in the kitchen about my day
You sit on the bed in the dark changing places
With the ghost that was there before you came
You've come to save my life again
I don't dare to touch your hand
I don't dare to think of you
In a physical way
And I don't know how you smell
You are the cover of my magazine
You're my fashion tip, a living museum
I'd pay to visit you on rainy Sundays
I'll maybe tell you all about it someday
I get to be myself and I get to sing
I get to play at being irresponsible
I come home late at night and I love your soul
I never forget you in my prayers
I never have a bad thing to report
You're my picture on the wall
You're my vision in the hall
You're the one I'm talking to
When I get in from my work
You are my girl, and you don't even know it
I am livin' out the life of a poet
I am the jester in the ancient court
You're the funny little frog in my throat
My eye sight's fading, my hearing's dim
I can't get insured for the state I'm in
I'm a danger to myself I've been starting fights
At the party at the club on a Saturday night
But I don't get disapproving from my girl
She gets the all highlights wrapped in pearls.
You're my picture on the wall
You're my vision in the hall
You're the one I'm talking to
When I get in from my work
You are my girl, and you don't even know it
I am livin' out the life of a poet
I am the jester in the ancient court
You're the funny little frog in my throat
I had a conversation with you at night
It's a little one sided but that's alright
I tell you in the kitchen about my day
You sit on the bed in the dark changing places
With the ghost that was there before you came
You've come to save my life again
I don't dare to touch your hand
I don't dare to think of you
In a physical way
And I don't know how you smell
You are the cover of my magazine
You're my fashion tip, a living museum
I'd pay to visit you on rainy Sundays
I'll maybe tell you all about it someday
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really the state he describes himself to be in, is an unlovable one. When you feel unlovable, what you would really like is for someone to love you. sometimes you imagine somebody to do that job. and then you get carried away (gifting her imaginary pearls). Sometimes (like me) you imagine someone out of thin air to satisfy sexual fantasies... but this one is more of a spiritual support. No disapproval.. but of course he realizes the conversations are "a little one-sided" and so there are real partners he commits to sometimes, but they're less real eventually than his imagined lover.. they fade and all he's left with is his pathetic imaginary friend. But the song is from his perspective, while he's still being half-delusional and in love, so it's positive. but of course it's supposed to be ironically pathetic.