"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.
Oh so the words have been said
The feeling's old but it's new to me
I guess I'm scared to death but
Oh I just love you Oh I just love you
Telling my friends, "I gotta go"
That I need rest
bit I'm running for the phone
I think Casey knows but
Oh I just love you Oh I just love you
A watch now on my wrist, a collard shirt
and hair clean cut sculpted
I'll iron out the flaws
come meet your new in-laws
oh here's the awkward pause
When I look at you,
I've caught myself off-guard a time or two
Those funny times I realize that I've been staring
way too long and you're done talking
not to mention I've stopped breathing
I'm such a mess
Rushing to open your car door
You lean and open mine
before I can turn the key and
Oh I just love you Oh I just love you
Calling to say hi on your break
In less than twenty words you made
my whole damn day and
Oh I just love you Oh I just love you
In the coffee shop you sipped
your drink and we all sat and talked
My mind it wandered off alone
to find a thought as beauty
poured out when you talked
Stand still in my sight, a switch got hit
somewhere back in my mind
Just then I realized there what I have
to do, because I couldn't stand to look
at you across another crowded room
and know that you would not be mine
Time drags its feet
but somehow you sneak it past me
Night after night
At this rate if you stay with me
I'll go to bed at twenty-three
and wake up sixty-five
Well next to you that would be
just fine, that'd be just fine
The feeling's old but it's new to me
I guess I'm scared to death but
Oh I just love you Oh I just love you
Telling my friends, "I gotta go"
That I need rest
bit I'm running for the phone
I think Casey knows but
Oh I just love you Oh I just love you
A watch now on my wrist, a collard shirt
and hair clean cut sculpted
I'll iron out the flaws
come meet your new in-laws
oh here's the awkward pause
When I look at you,
I've caught myself off-guard a time or two
Those funny times I realize that I've been staring
way too long and you're done talking
not to mention I've stopped breathing
I'm such a mess
Rushing to open your car door
You lean and open mine
before I can turn the key and
Oh I just love you Oh I just love you
Calling to say hi on your break
In less than twenty words you made
my whole damn day and
Oh I just love you Oh I just love you
In the coffee shop you sipped
your drink and we all sat and talked
My mind it wandered off alone
to find a thought as beauty
poured out when you talked
Stand still in my sight, a switch got hit
somewhere back in my mind
Just then I realized there what I have
to do, because I couldn't stand to look
at you across another crowded room
and know that you would not be mine
Time drags its feet
but somehow you sneak it past me
Night after night
At this rate if you stay with me
I'll go to bed at twenty-three
and wake up sixty-five
Well next to you that would be
just fine, that'd be just fine
Lyrics submitted by zoeyzoeyzoeyzo
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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Yo La Tengo
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This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
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amazing.