"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. First Of The Last
Long before the living past
Had ripped it all apart
Something still remained
Until It flashed back to the start
Where it stands, nobody saw
Behind the blackest eyes
Show them how you're stronger now
It pays to advertise wisely
Day after day with you in my head
I said some things I shouldn't have said
For reasons unknown that I now forget
I gave you no love, which I now regret
What I'd give to hear again
Those everlasting songs
Why did all the accidents
Contrive to fall at once?
Only day after day
With you in my thoughts
I never knew time was so short
For once in my life I wasn't alone
With blood on my hands,
How could I have known?
Used to be the great white hope
Once I walked on water
Now I barely stay afloat
Balance out of order
With every sympathy worn away
Who can I return to now?
For the time that I have left
I scan that cold horizon
Searching for a kindred soul,
Someone to rely upon
We disconnected and Heaven sent
Sheltered in dead air,
Hidden everywhere
II. The Wrong Host
The sky lights up above America
The world is lost but loves America
When the eyes of children
See the ones left standing
And the rest begin to finally understand
The hand of God defends America
And who would not defend America?
We've got light on our side
We're in pole position
So praise the Lord
And raise the ammunition high
Raise it high
Hide where you can
We will shoot you where you stand
I've walked a million miles
Upon an open road
And once in every while
Without the will to carry on
Hours held me too long
In one location
An old familiar tale,
A glory to behold
A work of genius,
The greatest story ever sold
As you sign on the line,
As you do what you're told
All you sell is your soul
I've been this way before
I've seen it many times
Collision on the track
The fiction turning into fact
No-one dares to look back
Best you start to prepare
For the harvest ahead
All you lose is yourself
III. Nocturne
I'm brought to life with a series of shocks
I realise that you are gone from my life
And still I cling to the fear of the dark
Don't follow them for
They don't care how you are
And I'm finding a way of being
Accepting life all alone
And I'm hoping I'll wake up seeing
A way to live on my own
It wasn't hard to believe in the lie
Although I've come to know it wasn't my fault
Why does the world continue to spin
While everything around me grinds to a halt?
And I'm finding a way of being
Accepting life all alone
And I'm hoping I'll wake up seeing
A way to live on my own
IV. Frame And Form
Mine is a real fine line
I get harder the higher I climb
Shine like a star so bright
Anybody can see anytime
No-one will want to follow
This will be gone tomorrow
We enter an age of permanent doubt
Where we communicate without words
But I must be heard
So I cut through the smoke and the noise
Mine is a real fine line
It imagines it's one of a kind
Goodbye to all expression
Farewell to superstition
We enter an age of permanent doubt
Where we communicate without words
And the noise expands
As it covers the lie of the land
Shine like a star so bright
Till we shut out the light,
Put out the fire
Cut through the smoke and the noise
Lately I've been talking to myself
Been remembering and doing little else
The road ahead is anything but clear
Last time around, where did we go from here?
V. Mortal Procession
What about some golden hours?
I was alive, certainly you were wrong
Anyone can be persuaded
Given the time, we all scream alone
What about this good for nothing season again?,
Everything's come and gone
And I can't believe that I'm not watching you
I'm in a sorry state
Return to ordinary thoughts now
If you can
The words I hardly understand
Gather 'round me while I wait
What about those colder rewards
Arming against lost intelligence?
Anyone who saw me crawling there
Would have known that I was normal once
Return to ordinary thoughts
Too young to take the stand
But old enough to kill anyone
HA!
In the days when love divided up the looks
No drastic means were used
Like rod and hooks
To enhance what nature's sculptor
Had designed
No augmentation needed to refine
In the valley of the dollar, we rejoice
For plastic is the currency of choice
And beauty born is strictly for the birds
Your cash is fine but credit is preferred
When I held myself aloft,
I walked across the water
Now I barely cut across,
Lives are getting shorter
And they open up another door
To a border far below
For the time that I'm allowed,
There's a new horizon
But a soul as cold as ice
Is nothing to rely upon
If I'm hanging onto angels' wings
Then I'm safer in the air
Do I still qualify, suspended from on high?
No other sanctuary have I
VI. Ghosts Of Days
And when the eyes of children
See past the ones left standing
And the time has surely come
To understand who we are
Slowly the fires are burning
Bearing their silent witness
And the living past returns
To reap the Harvest of Souls
Long before the living past
Had ripped it all apart
Something still remained
Until It flashed back to the start
Where it stands, nobody saw
Behind the blackest eyes
Show them how you're stronger now
It pays to advertise wisely
Day after day with you in my head
I said some things I shouldn't have said
For reasons unknown that I now forget
I gave you no love, which I now regret
What I'd give to hear again
Those everlasting songs
Why did all the accidents
Contrive to fall at once?
Only day after day
With you in my thoughts
I never knew time was so short
For once in my life I wasn't alone
With blood on my hands,
How could I have known?
Used to be the great white hope
Once I walked on water
Now I barely stay afloat
Balance out of order
With every sympathy worn away
Who can I return to now?
For the time that I have left
I scan that cold horizon
Searching for a kindred soul,
Someone to rely upon
We disconnected and Heaven sent
Sheltered in dead air,
Hidden everywhere
II. The Wrong Host
The sky lights up above America
The world is lost but loves America
When the eyes of children
See the ones left standing
And the rest begin to finally understand
The hand of God defends America
And who would not defend America?
We've got light on our side
We're in pole position
So praise the Lord
And raise the ammunition high
Raise it high
Hide where you can
We will shoot you where you stand
I've walked a million miles
Upon an open road
And once in every while
Without the will to carry on
Hours held me too long
In one location
An old familiar tale,
A glory to behold
A work of genius,
The greatest story ever sold
As you sign on the line,
As you do what you're told
All you sell is your soul
I've been this way before
I've seen it many times
Collision on the track
The fiction turning into fact
No-one dares to look back
Best you start to prepare
For the harvest ahead
All you lose is yourself
III. Nocturne
I'm brought to life with a series of shocks
I realise that you are gone from my life
And still I cling to the fear of the dark
Don't follow them for
They don't care how you are
And I'm finding a way of being
Accepting life all alone
And I'm hoping I'll wake up seeing
A way to live on my own
It wasn't hard to believe in the lie
Although I've come to know it wasn't my fault
Why does the world continue to spin
While everything around me grinds to a halt?
And I'm finding a way of being
Accepting life all alone
And I'm hoping I'll wake up seeing
A way to live on my own
IV. Frame And Form
Mine is a real fine line
I get harder the higher I climb
Shine like a star so bright
Anybody can see anytime
No-one will want to follow
This will be gone tomorrow
We enter an age of permanent doubt
Where we communicate without words
But I must be heard
So I cut through the smoke and the noise
Mine is a real fine line
It imagines it's one of a kind
Goodbye to all expression
Farewell to superstition
We enter an age of permanent doubt
Where we communicate without words
And the noise expands
As it covers the lie of the land
Shine like a star so bright
Till we shut out the light,
Put out the fire
Cut through the smoke and the noise
Lately I've been talking to myself
Been remembering and doing little else
The road ahead is anything but clear
Last time around, where did we go from here?
V. Mortal Procession
What about some golden hours?
I was alive, certainly you were wrong
Anyone can be persuaded
Given the time, we all scream alone
What about this good for nothing season again?,
Everything's come and gone
And I can't believe that I'm not watching you
I'm in a sorry state
Return to ordinary thoughts now
If you can
The words I hardly understand
Gather 'round me while I wait
What about those colder rewards
Arming against lost intelligence?
Anyone who saw me crawling there
Would have known that I was normal once
Return to ordinary thoughts
Too young to take the stand
But old enough to kill anyone
HA!
In the days when love divided up the looks
No drastic means were used
Like rod and hooks
To enhance what nature's sculptor
Had designed
No augmentation needed to refine
In the valley of the dollar, we rejoice
For plastic is the currency of choice
And beauty born is strictly for the birds
Your cash is fine but credit is preferred
When I held myself aloft,
I walked across the water
Now I barely cut across,
Lives are getting shorter
And they open up another door
To a border far below
For the time that I'm allowed,
There's a new horizon
But a soul as cold as ice
Is nothing to rely upon
If I'm hanging onto angels' wings
Then I'm safer in the air
Do I still qualify, suspended from on high?
No other sanctuary have I
VI. Ghosts Of Days
And when the eyes of children
See past the ones left standing
And the time has surely come
To understand who we are
Slowly the fires are burning
Bearing their silent witness
And the living past returns
To reap the Harvest of Souls
Lyrics submitted by inpraiseoffolly, edited by Octavarium64
Harvest of Souls Lyrics as written by Michael Brian Holmes Peter Jonathan Nicholls
Lyrics © CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
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This is one complicated and long song, but I get alot of War motifs coming out of it. The lines about defending america, and Harvest of Souls seems to represent that to me.
It's a recap of the last six years from the perspective of a personification of America. An anthromorphic America, as it were.
The "walk on water" stanzas refers to a period in the past where the west looked on America as a great protector who could do no wrong - the period of the Cold War.
"The sky lights up over America" part of the song is the events of 9/11, "disconnected in Heaven sent" is, from the voice of the personification of America, the deaths of the people in the tower. "We'll shoot you where you stand" refers to the War on Terror that followed.
The next verses ("all you sell is your soul") refer to the eager signing up to the armed forces that occured after 9/11 and of course the wars itself.
This is followed by the realisation of America's people that this war ("harvest of souls") is purposeless and the desertion of America by her allies as America's plans got more harebrained and unrelated to 9/11 (2001-2003 Britain was full of Americophiles. 2003 onwards, complete 180 degrees because of Iraq). "A series of shocks" can refer to the countries in the coalition pulling out one by one or to the terrorist attacks in Spain and the UK.
The "real fine line" reflects the high-visibility of America's actions and the increasing difficulty in justifying the war.
The "age of permanent doubt" is America being torn between fear of terrorism and distrust of its own government, throwing all things into doubt.
The next stanza is the transition between the actual war in Iraq and the disasterous occupation - this is followed by the stanza with "last time round" in it, which could be either referring to the first Gulf War or Vietnam, depending on quite how critical you want the song to be.
The rest is just basically saying "America's gone in for the oil and the money, it's going insane and this has all happened before."