"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.
I'm the neon rat hiding in the palm trees,
watching midwestern tourists guzzle giant martinis.
We were part time lovers on prime time TV.
Her name was Esmerelda, the smart but sexy type,
a young housewife, in Hawaiian mansion alright...
Crystal beaches on TV,
perfume dumped into sea,
bleached smile shaved bikini,
every thing you want but will never be.
Her husband was a CEO,
she spent her nights all alone,
you fall in love with her misery,
she's like a tan version of you with plastic surgery.
Enter the sophisticated brute, with VIP attitude.
He the recurring character you love to hate, the back door boy.
Now I'm the neon rat with a mouth full of grinning sharp dentures.
Sleeping in a married woman's bedcover's, a televised affair with million dollar commercials.
Yeah this is the 1-hour holiday special
where Esmerelda's husband comes home and walks in on the two of us in the shower.
He breaks down in tears on the bathroom floor.
Close up on his face frowning like a slit open throat.
Then cut to a commercial.
Crystal Beaches on TV,
sunset on the digital sea,
shaved smiled bleached bikini,
paradise's legs are spread just out of reach.
Those tears streaming down your face
are dollar signs for the marketing team.
Will she leave her bland husband?
You just have to wait till the start of next season.
You'll just have to go back to your job selling lingerie at the shopping mall,
those diets that never work, those blind dates with fucking jerks.
Crystal Beaches on TV,
Crystal Beaches you'll never see,
Crystal Beaches got you hooked.
And I'm the neon rat inside your pocketbook.
watching midwestern tourists guzzle giant martinis.
We were part time lovers on prime time TV.
Her name was Esmerelda, the smart but sexy type,
a young housewife, in Hawaiian mansion alright...
Crystal beaches on TV,
perfume dumped into sea,
bleached smile shaved bikini,
every thing you want but will never be.
Her husband was a CEO,
she spent her nights all alone,
you fall in love with her misery,
she's like a tan version of you with plastic surgery.
Enter the sophisticated brute, with VIP attitude.
He the recurring character you love to hate, the back door boy.
Now I'm the neon rat with a mouth full of grinning sharp dentures.
Sleeping in a married woman's bedcover's, a televised affair with million dollar commercials.
Yeah this is the 1-hour holiday special
where Esmerelda's husband comes home and walks in on the two of us in the shower.
He breaks down in tears on the bathroom floor.
Close up on his face frowning like a slit open throat.
Then cut to a commercial.
Crystal Beaches on TV,
sunset on the digital sea,
shaved smiled bleached bikini,
paradise's legs are spread just out of reach.
Those tears streaming down your face
are dollar signs for the marketing team.
Will she leave her bland husband?
You just have to wait till the start of next season.
You'll just have to go back to your job selling lingerie at the shopping mall,
those diets that never work, those blind dates with fucking jerks.
Crystal Beaches on TV,
Crystal Beaches you'll never see,
Crystal Beaches got you hooked.
And I'm the neon rat inside your pocketbook.
Lyrics submitted by chemicalgun
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I think you could be right, but he's calling himself a neon rat, and it sounds as though rats symbolise an unsavoury person in other songs. Personally, I think he's a "rat", a cruel, unsavoury person who's having his way with Esmerelda. Because he's a "rat" he sees splitting the couple up and the husband being heartbroken as entertainment, as if it were a soap opera.