"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.
(Crows, wipe the blood from the end of your claws. said the vulture, Lets gather like storms for the war.
Crows, as the night turns its skin into coal, Dark as corpses but cluttered with gold. They will label you thieves, wolves, and whores but you are nothing less than angels, cast down and covered in black.)
Aint this the bloodiest mess in the world? said the virgin, a torn little girl.
Boy, you went and made a sweet wreck of my soul, and Ive already forgiven you.
And blood was running down
Her dress in streams into her hands where she
Was stitching on the flesh hed left
In sections on the carpet near a bed that
Never slept while she was sleeping
In her clothes that he had laid with on
The floor with all his fingers crossed
In hoping that that distance
Wouldnt grow.
But how it grew,
And how it hurt,
And how it hallowed every memory hed
Never felt was threatened by a thing the world
Could conjure up to kill them, but he let it kill them
What a bunch of fools we lovers are.
And now shes smiling, with her self put back together, just a shadow of the past before the war.
All sewn together, like a city sick from storms and sick of waiting for a god to call the floods out of her home.
what a bunch of fools we lovers are
when tempted by the taste of flesh.
"my boy, you are nothing more than a thief and a whore in a suit of the finest of armor." laughed the vulture.
"pathetic little child, i am embarrassed for you."
Crows, as the night turns its skin into coal, Dark as corpses but cluttered with gold. They will label you thieves, wolves, and whores but you are nothing less than angels, cast down and covered in black.)
Aint this the bloodiest mess in the world? said the virgin, a torn little girl.
Boy, you went and made a sweet wreck of my soul, and Ive already forgiven you.
And blood was running down
Her dress in streams into her hands where she
Was stitching on the flesh hed left
In sections on the carpet near a bed that
Never slept while she was sleeping
In her clothes that he had laid with on
The floor with all his fingers crossed
In hoping that that distance
Wouldnt grow.
But how it grew,
And how it hurt,
And how it hallowed every memory hed
Never felt was threatened by a thing the world
Could conjure up to kill them, but he let it kill them
What a bunch of fools we lovers are.
And now shes smiling, with her self put back together, just a shadow of the past before the war.
All sewn together, like a city sick from storms and sick of waiting for a god to call the floods out of her home.
what a bunch of fools we lovers are
when tempted by the taste of flesh.
"my boy, you are nothing more than a thief and a whore in a suit of the finest of armor." laughed the vulture.
"pathetic little child, i am embarrassed for you."
Lyrics submitted by snoopyhasadeathwish
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I'm gonna break down the song part by part.
And blood was running down Her dress in streams into her hands where she Was stitching on the flesh hed left (Gruesome way of representing her loss of virginity possibly? If anything, a sexual encounter.)
In sections on the carpet near a bed that Never slept while she was sleeping In her clothes that he had laid with on The floor with all his fingers crossed In hoping that that distance Wouldnt grow. (Obvious, he had hoped that this wouldn't ruin their relationship, that it'd bring them closer.)
But how it grew, And how it hurt, And how it hallowed every memory hed Never felt was threatened by a thing the world Could conjure up to kill them, but he let it kill them
What a bunch of fools we lovers are.
And now shes smiling, with her self put back together, just a shadow of the past before the war. All sewn together, like a city sick from storms and sick of waiting for a god to call the floods out of her home. what a bunch of fools we lovers are when tempted by the taste of flesh. (We are. Sexual desires drive everything. He feels guilty for what he's done.)
"my boy, you are nothing more than a thief and a whore in a suit of the finest of armor." laughed the vulture. "pathetic little child, i am embarrassed for you."
Again, the guilt. Driven by the taste of flesh, broke this poor girl's heart.
Pretty simple, guys.