"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.
The first time I saw her
I couldn't be sure
But the sin of impatience
Said, "She's just what you're looking for"
So I walked right up to her
And with the part of me that talks
I introduced myself as Frank
From New York, New York
She's so hot
She's so cool
I'm not
I'm just a fool in love
With darling Lorraine
All my life, I've been a wanderer
Not really, I mostly lived near my parents' home
Anyway, Lorraine and I got married
And the usual marriage stuff
Then one day she says to me
From out of the blue
She says, "Frank, I've had enough
Romance is a heart breaker
I'm not meant to be a homemaker
And I'm tired of being darling Lorraine"
What, you don't love me anymore?
What, you're walking out the door?
What, you don't like the way I chew?
Hey, let me tell you
You're not the woman that I wed
You say you're depressed, but you're not
You just like to stay in bed
I don't need you, darling Lorraine
Darling Lorraine
Lorraine
I long for your love
Financially speaking
I guess I'm a washout
Everybody's buy and sell, and sell and buy
And that's what the whole thing's all about
If it had not been for Lorraine
I'd have left here long ago
I should have been a musician
I love the piano
She's so light
She's so free
I'm tight, well, that's me
But I feel so good
With darling Lorraine
On Christmas morning Frank awakes
To find Lorraine has made a stack of pancakes
They watch the television, husband and wife
All afternoon, "It's A Wonderful Life"
What, you don't love me anymore?
What, you're walking out the door?
What, you don't like the way I chew?
Hey, let me tell you
You're not the woman that I wed
Gimme my robe, I'm going back to bed
I'm sick to death of you, Lorraine
Darling Lorraine
Lorraine
Her hands like wood
The doctor was smiling
But the news wasn't good
Darlin' Lorraine
Please don't leave me yet
I know you're in pain
Pain you can't forget
Your breathing is like an echo of our love
Maybe I'll go down to the corner store
And buy us something sweet
Here's an extra blanket honey
To wrap around your feet
All the trees were washed with April rain
And the moon in the meadow
Took darling Lorraine
I couldn't be sure
But the sin of impatience
Said, "She's just what you're looking for"
So I walked right up to her
And with the part of me that talks
I introduced myself as Frank
From New York, New York
She's so hot
She's so cool
I'm not
I'm just a fool in love
With darling Lorraine
All my life, I've been a wanderer
Not really, I mostly lived near my parents' home
Anyway, Lorraine and I got married
And the usual marriage stuff
Then one day she says to me
From out of the blue
She says, "Frank, I've had enough
Romance is a heart breaker
I'm not meant to be a homemaker
And I'm tired of being darling Lorraine"
What, you don't love me anymore?
What, you're walking out the door?
What, you don't like the way I chew?
Hey, let me tell you
You're not the woman that I wed
You say you're depressed, but you're not
You just like to stay in bed
I don't need you, darling Lorraine
Darling Lorraine
Lorraine
I long for your love
Financially speaking
I guess I'm a washout
Everybody's buy and sell, and sell and buy
And that's what the whole thing's all about
If it had not been for Lorraine
I'd have left here long ago
I should have been a musician
I love the piano
She's so light
She's so free
I'm tight, well, that's me
But I feel so good
With darling Lorraine
On Christmas morning Frank awakes
To find Lorraine has made a stack of pancakes
They watch the television, husband and wife
All afternoon, "It's A Wonderful Life"
What, you don't love me anymore?
What, you're walking out the door?
What, you don't like the way I chew?
Hey, let me tell you
You're not the woman that I wed
Gimme my robe, I'm going back to bed
I'm sick to death of you, Lorraine
Darling Lorraine
Lorraine
Her hands like wood
The doctor was smiling
But the news wasn't good
Darlin' Lorraine
Please don't leave me yet
I know you're in pain
Pain you can't forget
Your breathing is like an echo of our love
Maybe I'll go down to the corner store
And buy us something sweet
Here's an extra blanket honey
To wrap around your feet
All the trees were washed with April rain
And the moon in the meadow
Took darling Lorraine
Lyrics submitted by shadowboxing
Darling Lorraine Lyrics as written by Paul Simon
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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This is 1 of many of my VERY favorite Paul tunes.
I actually feel that it's 1 of the most REAL love songs of our time.
It's not all goo-goo, gah-gah 'oh I'm soooo in love with you' as many love songs are written. I feel that it's actually REAL & a far more realistic & accurate vantage point for the vast majority of real relationships.
The fact of the matter is that we all wish for fairy tale, epic love story's where we fall in love with and marry our very best friend & ride off into the sunset forever - but that is not often reality.
We fall in love, start a relationship, get married & over time things evolve & change. People fall in & out of love. That doesn't mean they ever stop loving each other, necessarily, but that love changes over time. Couples argue, cuss & fight doing & saying hurtful things to each other that they don't really mean. They love passionately & fight fiercely, so to speak.
I feel like the story of Frank & Lorraine is one of 2 average people somewhat out of sorts falling in love & sharing a union & I look at it more as the story of their relationship over many years. They're SO in love & then they HATE each others guts & around & around it goes. But in the end, when she gets sick & dies, Frank is there by her side every step till the very end & anything & everything bad & negative in their past drifts away from memory & he's just so in love with her & all he wants is for her to stay & not leave him because he feels that he'll be lost without her because the roller coaster of their love story is all he's ever known.
They never had a 'perfect' relationship or a fairy tale life per say, but Lorraine is / was the love of his life at the end of the day.
Bravo to Paul! Like I said, I really feel that this is 1 of the more realistic love songs of our time. It's deep & passionate & not always pretty - but more true & still such a bittersweet & beautiful love song!
This song, like Girlfriend in a Coma, by the Smiths, is a statement about how we do seem to always hurt the ones we love. We get angry and insults fly, but the thought of losing them tears us apart. I know from personal experience just what he means here. At least I'd like to think I do.
So why change from first to third person, and only in the 3rd verse? (Could easily have been something like, "On Christmas morning I awake".
It could lead to the interpretation that "I" am not Frank. So is Frank Lorraine's second? Because then "I" come back...
@SteveP I thought perhaps that 3rd person section was either a dream sequence or a way of showing time passed.