"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.
just because i'm in love
don't mean i broke my brain
i can see you're mistreatin' me
and i admit i'm a bit ashamed
'cause even a fool
likes himself as much as
anyone else
now i wouldn't do this to you
so i won't let you do it to me
i'd be a fool
so if i were an astronaut
away in outer space
and i could look down on you
and it was enough just to have that taste
well even a fool knows better
than to live for someone else
now i wouldn't watch my life roll by
not even from way up in the sky
i'd be a fool
don't treat me like a servant child
don't show me that you care
and then push me away push me away
until i'm no longer there
cause even a fool knows better
than to live for someone else
that's how you lost me
it couldn't be helped
i'd be a fool
don't mean i broke my brain
i can see you're mistreatin' me
and i admit i'm a bit ashamed
'cause even a fool
likes himself as much as
anyone else
now i wouldn't do this to you
so i won't let you do it to me
i'd be a fool
so if i were an astronaut
away in outer space
and i could look down on you
and it was enough just to have that taste
well even a fool knows better
than to live for someone else
now i wouldn't watch my life roll by
not even from way up in the sky
i'd be a fool
don't treat me like a servant child
don't show me that you care
and then push me away push me away
until i'm no longer there
cause even a fool knows better
than to live for someone else
that's how you lost me
it couldn't be helped
i'd be a fool
Lyrics submitted by happensallthetime
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