"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 don't want to talk.
I roll my red eyes back,
closed and latched;
still you watch.
Sweep from left to right.
Frame six hundred nine,
it never lies,
like some electric eye.
Iodine night sky, straight to veins through eyes.
Iodine night sky, diagnose this time: sickness or a crime?
profane something fine; so you define.
Say it like you mean it, boy.
Shut your mouth until you can.
Ten times, ten times fast.
Dye infection black.
A note pinned on your back,
painfully exact.
Iodine night sky, straight to veins through eyes.
Iodine night sky, diagnose this time.
Now pathologize: sickness or a crime,
as you define.
Say it like you mean it, boy.
Shut your mouth until you can.
Ten times, ten times.
Say it like you mean it, boy.
Shut your mouth until you can.
Say it like you mean it, boy.
Shut your mouth until you can.
Ten times, ten times fast.
I roll my red eyes back,
closed and latched;
still you watch.
Sweep from left to right.
Frame six hundred nine,
it never lies,
like some electric eye.
Iodine night sky, straight to veins through eyes.
Iodine night sky, diagnose this time: sickness or a crime?
profane something fine; so you define.
Say it like you mean it, boy.
Shut your mouth until you can.
Ten times, ten times fast.
Dye infection black.
A note pinned on your back,
painfully exact.
Iodine night sky, straight to veins through eyes.
Iodine night sky, diagnose this time.
Now pathologize: sickness or a crime,
as you define.
Say it like you mean it, boy.
Shut your mouth until you can.
Ten times, ten times.
Say it like you mean it, boy.
Shut your mouth until you can.
Say it like you mean it, boy.
Shut your mouth until you can.
Ten times, ten times fast.
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