"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.
Like a walking dog shifting by the flow
Easy slider wants to blow in Budapest
This endless feeling follows ghostly
And vicious as a plague you know where we are now?
In Budapest
A chest with no breath creeping through a darkness
An iced game of chess melting in Budapest
Building a gambling house in my head
Near the castle a cold hunter lays
In Budapest
Now, watch out
It's coming on
Tokaj running in my veins
What was soaking is now croaking in Budapest
Sniper holes across partitions of my soul
Street cars tearing up the skies of Budapest
Travestied gods, Transylvanian guns
I do hear and see surely I should run far from Budapest
Cave-accordions, they taste my flesh
And in fast motion, men are mean, mean, mean, mean and mesh
In Budapest
I may have a few contacts but no peace I could find
And the burning synagogues are lighting up all
Of Budapest
Paranoid express through excess and excess
Here I am just a guest who doesn't need to be blessed
In Budapest
Now, watch out
It's coming on
Paranoid express, take a, take a, take a deep breath
I don't wanna be blessed
I don't wanna be blessed
Suicide lust and no one is really to trust
I am the hider, the midnight rider
Hider, the midnight rider
Easy slider wants to blow in Budapest
This endless feeling follows ghostly
And vicious as a plague you know where we are now?
In Budapest
A chest with no breath creeping through a darkness
An iced game of chess melting in Budapest
Building a gambling house in my head
Near the castle a cold hunter lays
In Budapest
Now, watch out
It's coming on
Tokaj running in my veins
What was soaking is now croaking in Budapest
Sniper holes across partitions of my soul
Street cars tearing up the skies of Budapest
Travestied gods, Transylvanian guns
I do hear and see surely I should run far from Budapest
Cave-accordions, they taste my flesh
And in fast motion, men are mean, mean, mean, mean and mesh
In Budapest
I may have a few contacts but no peace I could find
And the burning synagogues are lighting up all
Of Budapest
Paranoid express through excess and excess
Here I am just a guest who doesn't need to be blessed
In Budapest
Now, watch out
It's coming on
Paranoid express, take a, take a, take a deep breath
I don't wanna be blessed
I don't wanna be blessed
Suicide lust and no one is really to trust
I am the hider, the midnight rider
Hider, the midnight rider
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Fast Car
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When that violin kicks in...TUNE!