"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.
“Why do I have to love?”
asked the man to the wind.
Being undelived
“if it makes me cry,
making me weak,
driving me crazy?”
“’Cause you’re a man,”
said the wind.
“Why do you flow so serene
while I’m crumbling?”
said the man to the summer-end sea.
“Cause there are more waves in you
then in all the flood
I’ve ever brought.
But I’m eternal
I saw thousands of seasons,
And you’re stuck in winter of life.”
Staring at the snow that falls around
(cold seems to know what burns in the man’s heart)
She’s inside, laying on a pallet much lighter
than the icy floor he runs on, alone.
“Peace, silence, stop this violence”
but the furious rain screams now
“love, hate, this is your fate
man, in winter you will live your life”.
“Why do I have to hate Her?
Why do I have to hate myself?
Why do I have to hate you all?
Why do I need you, and why did I forget
the stars talking about Her laughing
while I poison pools?
We are so close and so damn apart.”
“But I will rise from the winter of life
burst by the fears and the tears every night
I’ll see the light in the darkest day
if you will fight by my side, my pain”.
“Why do I have to hate the sparkle of the fire?”
Said the man to the dying sun.
“She gives the life that She always wants to take away.
Why don’t I have the strength to stop, to breathe?”
“I got no answer, you see, I’m burning.
Who do you think that burst me? And why?
I’m condemned to die and to be born again
Burning again, suffering, rejoicing, suffering again.”
“If dreams didn’t want to be reality,”
said the man to the moon in the well.
“Yes, and I wouldn’t be anything but a reflex, man,
I’d shine, I’d cry and I’d delight.
You got hands, you got a tongue,
you’ve felt pain, feel this for me.”
But while the man howls to the silence
While his thousands voices forsake him
She’s inside, laying on a pallet much lighter
than the icy floor he runs on, alone.
There’s a voice in every act of mine
It’s a sound you can’t catch
There’s a strangled scream in my breast
It’s a silence that wouldn’t crash
There’s some lies hidden in my words
They turns to a love you can’t grasp
There’s a deep silence in our worlds
It’s a violence I cannot stand
asked the man to the wind.
Being undelived
“if it makes me cry,
making me weak,
driving me crazy?”
“’Cause you’re a man,”
said the wind.
“Why do you flow so serene
while I’m crumbling?”
said the man to the summer-end sea.
“Cause there are more waves in you
then in all the flood
I’ve ever brought.
But I’m eternal
I saw thousands of seasons,
And you’re stuck in winter of life.”
Staring at the snow that falls around
(cold seems to know what burns in the man’s heart)
She’s inside, laying on a pallet much lighter
than the icy floor he runs on, alone.
“Peace, silence, stop this violence”
but the furious rain screams now
“love, hate, this is your fate
man, in winter you will live your life”.
“Why do I have to hate Her?
Why do I have to hate myself?
Why do I have to hate you all?
Why do I need you, and why did I forget
the stars talking about Her laughing
while I poison pools?
We are so close and so damn apart.”
“But I will rise from the winter of life
burst by the fears and the tears every night
I’ll see the light in the darkest day
if you will fight by my side, my pain”.
“Why do I have to hate the sparkle of the fire?”
Said the man to the dying sun.
“She gives the life that She always wants to take away.
Why don’t I have the strength to stop, to breathe?”
“I got no answer, you see, I’m burning.
Who do you think that burst me? And why?
I’m condemned to die and to be born again
Burning again, suffering, rejoicing, suffering again.”
“If dreams didn’t want to be reality,”
said the man to the moon in the well.
“Yes, and I wouldn’t be anything but a reflex, man,
I’d shine, I’d cry and I’d delight.
You got hands, you got a tongue,
you’ve felt pain, feel this for me.”
But while the man howls to the silence
While his thousands voices forsake him
She’s inside, laying on a pallet much lighter
than the icy floor he runs on, alone.
There’s a voice in every act of mine
It’s a sound you can’t catch
There’s a strangled scream in my breast
It’s a silence that wouldn’t crash
There’s some lies hidden in my words
They turns to a love you can’t grasp
There’s a deep silence in our worlds
It’s a violence I cannot stand
Lyrics submitted by Elimination
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