"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.
Green-leaf dawn implies
Something sweet in mind
But it's still your fingers in my back pocket
Makes me wonder why I sit here so tall
And why I run from the walls
Critters by the litter
Come gushing out my eyes
Like fears yet worth the fright
So, pour me a drink
And I'll spill this dark ink
I'll tell you it's all for you
But it ain't it's just my way of coping
With this bleary-eyed baby girl
Well, it's just my way of coping
With this bleary-eyed baby girl
Dying on my kitchen floor
But it ain't it's just my way of coping
With this bleary-eyed baby girl
Well, it's just my way of coping
With this bleary-eyed baby girl
Dying on my kitchen floor
Something sweet in mind
But it's still your fingers in my back pocket
Makes me wonder why I sit here so tall
And why I run from the walls
Critters by the litter
Come gushing out my eyes
Like fears yet worth the fright
So, pour me a drink
And I'll spill this dark ink
I'll tell you it's all for you
But it ain't it's just my way of coping
With this bleary-eyed baby girl
Well, it's just my way of coping
With this bleary-eyed baby girl
Dying on my kitchen floor
But it ain't it's just my way of coping
With this bleary-eyed baby girl
Well, it's just my way of coping
With this bleary-eyed baby girl
Dying on my kitchen floor
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Fast Car
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what's this one about? a dog dying? fingers in back pocket,running from wall lines..?
i believe it is about an early love that forever linger upon the consciousness
By far my favorite annuals song.
i think he has the best voice.
"Bleary-eyed" makes me think of cocaine... like when someone does a line and the eye on their blow side is glass for a while. and I think it's "bleary-eyed baby girl [downing or drowning] on my kitchen floor"... but maybe I'm wrong. I have the liner notes somewhere, but I don't feel like looking.