"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.
With her hair up in his fingers
The fish and chips smell lingers
Under amber streetlamps
She holds the law in her hands
The moistness of the damp night
Falls silent through the lamplight
Although she's only fourteen
She really knows her courting
And up the railway sidings
There's him and her
They're lying
Hand in hand they whisper
You're my missus and I'm your mister
The moon as white and virgin
And she was on the turning
Remember your first nibble
When best friends were so little
They really trooped the colors
When walking with each other
And all her mates would giggle
As ladylike she'd wiggle
All along the high street
They'd splash out on an ice cream
He'd sometimes really treat her
But he'd done his mother's meter
Well he went off to borstal
He said that he was forced to
Rob the flats of hi fi's
'cause she was ill
And she would cry
Each morning she got sicker
Her mother sometimes hit her
If she'd have known the story
She would have been so sorry
He received a letter and admitted it
There was nothing else to do but get rid of it
Lonely in his dormitory
He'd sit and stare
If this is for real
And is it really fair
Summer came so they went
Down to the coast in his tent
She cooked upon his primus
And sampled local cider
She told him in his rucksack
I think i want that chance back
To be perhaps the one who
Will forever love you
The fish and chips smell lingers
Under amber streetlamps
She holds the law in her hands
The moistness of the damp night
Falls silent through the lamplight
Although she's only fourteen
She really knows her courting
And up the railway sidings
There's him and her
They're lying
Hand in hand they whisper
You're my missus and I'm your mister
The moon as white and virgin
And she was on the turning
Remember your first nibble
When best friends were so little
They really trooped the colors
When walking with each other
And all her mates would giggle
As ladylike she'd wiggle
All along the high street
They'd splash out on an ice cream
He'd sometimes really treat her
But he'd done his mother's meter
Well he went off to borstal
He said that he was forced to
Rob the flats of hi fi's
'cause she was ill
And she would cry
Each morning she got sicker
Her mother sometimes hit her
If she'd have known the story
She would have been so sorry
He received a letter and admitted it
There was nothing else to do but get rid of it
Lonely in his dormitory
He'd sit and stare
If this is for real
And is it really fair
Summer came so they went
Down to the coast in his tent
She cooked upon his primus
And sampled local cider
She told him in his rucksack
I think i want that chance back
To be perhaps the one who
Will forever love you
Lyrics submitted by jjust a phase
Vicky Verky Lyrics as written by Glenn Martin Tilbrook Christopher Henry Difford
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Well... not quite, I think. Maybe I'm wrong. Here goes.
I think it goes, they fuck and they're happy together for some time. Then, the guy gets screwed into comitting heavy amounts of theft for some Robin Hood-type reason, gets sent to juvenile hall, and the girl's mother scolds her for getting involved with him in the first place (note "He said that he was forced to..." and "If she'd have known the story, she would have been so sorry"). Then while he's wasting away there, they write back and forth and realize they're not going really be able to continue their relationship. Fortunately, unlike the song's direct ancestor (Up the Junction), this story ends on a positive note, with the two reconciling during the summer.