"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.
No, I'm not color blind
I know the world is black and white
I try to keep an open mind
But I just can't sleep on this, tonight
Stop this train
I want to get off and go home again
I can't take the speed it's moving in
I know I can't
But, honestly, won't someone stop this train?
Don't know how else to say it
I don't want to see my parents go
One generation's length away
From fighting life out on my own
Stop this train
I want to get off and go home again
I can't take the speed it's moving in
I know I can't
But, honestly, won't someone stop this train?
So scared of getting older
I'm only good at being young
So I play the numbers game
To find a way to say that life has just begun
Had a talk with my old man
Said, "Help me understand"
He said, "Turn sixty-eight
You'll renegotiate"
"Don't stop this train
Don't for a minute change the place you're in
And don't think I couldn't ever understand
I tried my hand
John, honestly, we'll never stop this train"
Once in a while, when it's good
It'll feel like it should
When you're all still around
And you're still safe and sound
And you don't miss a thing
'Till you cry when you're driving away in the dark
Singing, stop this train
I want to get off and go home again
I can't take the speed it's moving in
I know, I can't
'Cause now I see I'll never stop this train.
I know the world is black and white
I try to keep an open mind
But I just can't sleep on this, tonight
Stop this train
I want to get off and go home again
I can't take the speed it's moving in
I know I can't
But, honestly, won't someone stop this train?
Don't know how else to say it
I don't want to see my parents go
One generation's length away
From fighting life out on my own
Stop this train
I want to get off and go home again
I can't take the speed it's moving in
I know I can't
But, honestly, won't someone stop this train?
So scared of getting older
I'm only good at being young
So I play the numbers game
To find a way to say that life has just begun
Had a talk with my old man
Said, "Help me understand"
He said, "Turn sixty-eight
You'll renegotiate"
"Don't stop this train
Don't for a minute change the place you're in
And don't think I couldn't ever understand
I tried my hand
John, honestly, we'll never stop this train"
Once in a while, when it's good
It'll feel like it should
When you're all still around
And you're still safe and sound
And you don't miss a thing
'Till you cry when you're driving away in the dark
Singing, stop this train
I want to get off and go home again
I can't take the speed it's moving in
I know, I can't
'Cause now I see I'll never stop this train.
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This was tear-jerker No.3 for me. Especially the part where he says "Don't know how else to say it, don't want to see my parents go".I feel that way for my parents, especially mom. I don't know what life would be like without her. I don't want to know. John also says, "so afraid of getting older i'm only good at being young". I know how he feels. I'm so scared of being away from my mom, staying in one job for the rest of your life, getting laid off from that job, getting married, having kids, becoming the same parent my dad is or being less than what a great mom my mom is, fights with my kids...ALL THAT STUFF SCARES THE CRAP OUT OF ME. I wish I could just go back to the time dad and I were ok, and I was great in school and my cousins were here and my mom was happy and young...
We're all afraid of getting older. I know I am.
But I love the sudden realization "don't stop this train don't for a minute change the place you're in". He says, be fortunate with where you are now. Take advantage of this time. Don't wish that you were older or younger. (You know how children always want to grow up).
so cool to be sharing these words.. and yeah.. is like how he says on another song: the quarter life crisis, just before turning 30.. the feeling you can´t do other than accepting you are becoming a "grown up".. just when you are enjoying being young the most.. love the live version in Where the light is.. such an intimate message.. impossible not to empathize with such a statement..