"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 in a skip divided, malfunction
I flap around and dive bomb
Frantically around your lie
Enveloped in a sad distraction
I've got your voice repeating endlessly
Could you guide me in
Could you smother me
I'd swoop around your head
But I never hit
I'm blinded by your daylight
Electric veins passed through me
I thought there was this big connection
I only got my name and I got this situation
I just need a number and location
Without appropriate papers or permissions
I'm no to buy tight situation
And then I head into your french windows
I thought there was this big connection
I only got my name
I only got my situation
I just need my number and location
The wall keeps telling me
Hey Hey, Hey Hey
Hey Hey, The devil may
Hey Hey, Hey Hey, Hey Hey
Yeah, you are a fool, you are a fool
For sticking round, for sticking round
Yeah, you are a fool, you are a fool
For sticking round, for sticking round
I've done every trick in the book
I tried to look at you
Every trick in the book
How come I look?
No more common dress or elliptical caress
Don't look into your eyes cause you're desperately in love, in love, in love
When you walk in a room everything disappears
When you walk in a room it's a terrible mess
When you walk in a room I start to melt
When you walk in a room I follow you 'round
Like a dog I'm a dog, I'm a dog, I'm a dog, I'm a lapdog
I'm your lapdog, yeah
I just got my number and location
I just need my number and location
I flap around and dive bomb
Frantically around your lie
Enveloped in a sad distraction
I've got your voice repeating endlessly
Could you guide me in
Could you smother me
I'd swoop around your head
But I never hit
I'm blinded by your daylight
Electric veins passed through me
I thought there was this big connection
I only got my name and I got this situation
I just need a number and location
Without appropriate papers or permissions
I'm no to buy tight situation
And then I head into your french windows
I thought there was this big connection
I only got my name
I only got my situation
I just need my number and location
The wall keeps telling me
Hey Hey, Hey Hey
Hey Hey, The devil may
Hey Hey, Hey Hey, Hey Hey
Yeah, you are a fool, you are a fool
For sticking round, for sticking round
Yeah, you are a fool, you are a fool
For sticking round, for sticking round
I've done every trick in the book
I tried to look at you
Every trick in the book
How come I look?
No more common dress or elliptical caress
Don't look into your eyes cause you're desperately in love, in love, in love
When you walk in a room everything disappears
When you walk in a room it's a terrible mess
When you walk in a room I start to melt
When you walk in a room I follow you 'round
Like a dog I'm a dog, I'm a dog, I'm a dog, I'm a lapdog
I'm your lapdog, yeah
I just got my number and location
I just need my number and location
Lyrics submitted by black_cow_of_death
Skip Divided Lyrics as written by Thomas Edward Yorke
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
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I think eatenbyworms has a good idea of the song. It seems maybe like the song is about an online relationship...which would explain the vaguely electronic feel to the ambience. Two people are in love in cyberspace and then when they are to meet in real life, the anxiety they feel is detailed by this song.
"i got a number and location" (ip address, a representation of the safe disconnect the internet provides) "i only got my name, i only got my situation" (the other person can't know anything about you but what you let them know)
Thinking about it this way, the first verse (and maybe most of the other lyrics) suggest the singer has given up prematurely on the relationship out of fear of this meeting and curses his stupidity: "enveloped in a sad distraction", "i thought there was this big connection". But then near the end he says, "don't look into your eyes cause i'm desperately in love", so the singer may be trapped in some sort of anguish saying "should I or shouldn't I"
just my disjointed thoughts