"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.
crows pitch on the lawn screeching a song
the inmates wake up and they're pulled to the bars
to pine their regrets and their rusting corvettes
and the tragedy they once had a part... in
they said "you ruined a life--you pissed on a prize"
it's still pulling your knuckles to your palm
(fucking conscience is siding with the wrong side)
you know the devil's not deep--no, no, he's brushing your cheek
and hearing him breathe you remember a song
just another angel through the clouds and into the ground
just another pilot through the clouds and into the ground
just another child through the chrome sets out on his own
birds shit on your car, you're scraping it off
do they know who you are? don't they know who you are?!
they sing "you ruined a life-- you pissed on a prize"
still pulling your knuckles to your tie
you carry on, hunched over your job
(start the engines i'm dying in the long line)
but you wanna get off and run away from it all
and run away from it all...
you plan your escape, at the end of the day, you plan your escape
you take what you saved, and you get on a plane, yeah you take what you saved
and you start fading away, as you're turning the page, you start fading away
(just another angel through the clouds and into the ground
just another pilot flying down
just another devil out of the dirt and back into the earth)
(fucking conscience is siding with the wrong side
start the engines, i'm dying in the long line)
the inmates wake up and they're pulled to the bars
to pine their regrets and their rusting corvettes
and the tragedy they once had a part... in
they said "you ruined a life--you pissed on a prize"
it's still pulling your knuckles to your palm
(fucking conscience is siding with the wrong side)
you know the devil's not deep--no, no, he's brushing your cheek
and hearing him breathe you remember a song
just another angel through the clouds and into the ground
just another pilot through the clouds and into the ground
just another child through the chrome sets out on his own
birds shit on your car, you're scraping it off
do they know who you are? don't they know who you are?!
they sing "you ruined a life-- you pissed on a prize"
still pulling your knuckles to your tie
you carry on, hunched over your job
(start the engines i'm dying in the long line)
but you wanna get off and run away from it all
and run away from it all...
you plan your escape, at the end of the day, you plan your escape
you take what you saved, and you get on a plane, yeah you take what you saved
and you start fading away, as you're turning the page, you start fading away
(just another angel through the clouds and into the ground
just another pilot flying down
just another devil out of the dirt and back into the earth)
(fucking conscience is siding with the wrong side
start the engines, i'm dying in the long line)
Lyrics submitted by robin_ann
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birds shit on your car, you're scraping it off do they know who you are? don't they know who you are?!
I love that line. I think of it every time I see a crow around a car of someone I don't like. I just wish they would shit so I could sing it in their face.