"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.
Uh, and he never lies, uh yeah
He just sits, and watches the people in the boxes
Everything he sees he absorbs and adopts it
He mimics and he mocks it
Really hates the box but he can't remember how to stop, it
Uh, so he continues to watch it
Hoping that it'll give him somethin that he can box with
Or how the locksmith, see the box as, locked in the box
Ain't got the combination to unlock, it
That's why he watch-es, scared to look away
'Cause at that moment, it might show him
What to take off the locks with
So he chained himself to the box, took a lock and then he locked it
Swallowed the combination and then forgot, it
As the doctors jot it all down, with they pens and pencils
The same ones that took away his voice
And just left this instrumental, like that
And he never lies (he never lies, he never lies, uh)
And he never lies (uh, he never lies, he never lies, no)
And he never lies (he never lies)
'Cause he never said anything at all
He just sits, and listens to the people in the boxes
Everything he hears he absorbs and adopts it
Anything not comin out the box he blocks it
See he loves the box and hope they never stop it
Anything the box tell him to do, he does it
Anything it tell him to get, he shops and he cops it
He protects the box, locks it in a box
When he goes to sleep, but he never sleeps
'Cause he stays up to watch it, scared to look away
'Cause at that moment, it might get stolen
And that's the last of the boxes
So he chained himself to the box, took a lock and then he locked it
Swallowed the combination and then forgot, it
As the doctors jot it all down, with they pens and pencils
The same ones that took away his voice
And just left this instrumental, like that
And he never lies (he never lies, he never lies, uh)
And he never lies (uh, he never lies, he never lies, no)
And he never lies (he never lies)
'Cause he never said anything at all
(Anything at all) He never lies
Uh, and you can't tell me just who you are
You buyin' them clothes just to hide those scars
You built that roof just to hide those stars
Now you can't take it back to the start
And you can't tell me just who you are
You buyin' them clothes just to hide those scars
You built that roof just to hide those stars
Now you can't take it back to the start
And he never lies (he never lies, he never lies, uh)
And he never lies (uh, he never lies, he never lies, no)
And he never lies (he never lies)
'Cause he never said anything at all
(Anything at all, anything at all)
Uh, and you can't tell me just who you are
You buy new clothes just to hide those scars
You built that roof just to hide those stars
Now you can't take it back to the start
And you can't tell me just who you are
You buy new clothes just to hide those scars
You built that roof just to hide those stars
He just sits, and watches the people in the boxes
Everything he sees he absorbs and adopts it
He mimics and he mocks it
Really hates the box but he can't remember how to stop, it
Uh, so he continues to watch it
Hoping that it'll give him somethin that he can box with
Or how the locksmith, see the box as, locked in the box
Ain't got the combination to unlock, it
That's why he watch-es, scared to look away
'Cause at that moment, it might show him
What to take off the locks with
So he chained himself to the box, took a lock and then he locked it
Swallowed the combination and then forgot, it
As the doctors jot it all down, with they pens and pencils
The same ones that took away his voice
And just left this instrumental, like that
And he never lies (he never lies, he never lies, uh)
And he never lies (uh, he never lies, he never lies, no)
And he never lies (he never lies)
'Cause he never said anything at all
He just sits, and listens to the people in the boxes
Everything he hears he absorbs and adopts it
Anything not comin out the box he blocks it
See he loves the box and hope they never stop it
Anything the box tell him to do, he does it
Anything it tell him to get, he shops and he cops it
He protects the box, locks it in a box
When he goes to sleep, but he never sleeps
'Cause he stays up to watch it, scared to look away
'Cause at that moment, it might get stolen
And that's the last of the boxes
So he chained himself to the box, took a lock and then he locked it
Swallowed the combination and then forgot, it
As the doctors jot it all down, with they pens and pencils
The same ones that took away his voice
And just left this instrumental, like that
And he never lies (he never lies, he never lies, uh)
And he never lies (uh, he never lies, he never lies, no)
And he never lies (he never lies)
'Cause he never said anything at all
(Anything at all) He never lies
Uh, and you can't tell me just who you are
You buyin' them clothes just to hide those scars
You built that roof just to hide those stars
Now you can't take it back to the start
And you can't tell me just who you are
You buyin' them clothes just to hide those scars
You built that roof just to hide those stars
Now you can't take it back to the start
And he never lies (he never lies, he never lies, uh)
And he never lies (uh, he never lies, he never lies, no)
And he never lies (he never lies)
'Cause he never said anything at all
(Anything at all, anything at all)
Uh, and you can't tell me just who you are
You buy new clothes just to hide those scars
You built that roof just to hide those stars
Now you can't take it back to the start
And you can't tell me just who you are
You buy new clothes just to hide those scars
You built that roof just to hide those stars
Lyrics submitted by crookedteeth
The Instrumental Lyrics as written by Wasalu (lupe Fiasco) Jaco Mike Shinoda
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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it also struck me awkward that he said, and left this instrumental like that(and a gunshot comes out) it might have some relation to escaping from your fears.