"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.
Well this is one place where
Your gods can't dwell
It's like walking in
To the mouth of hell
Sweating our dignities out on the subway
At the beginning of another long, long day
As for my mortal remains
I couldn't care
'Cause when the day is done
She'll be waiting here
That's when I love the accommodations
In a urine smelling transit station
I'll move these rocks
For you my love
I will tear them up out of the Earth
And I will bend my spine
'Til it's quitting time
'Cause I know what your time is worth
And I'll give my days to the Neanderthals
With the classic rock
And the wrecking ball
I'll go swimming in the wet concrete
And I'll cast my pearls at the unpaved streets
I don't mind the mental atrophy
'Cause when the lids come down, you're all I see
You're like a lovely hallucination
You get me through my current occupation
I'll move these rocks
For you my love
I will tear them up out of the Earth
And I will bend my spine
'Til it's quitting time
'Cause I know what your time is worth
See I'm towering
Above mortal men
I'll emerge from the darkness
And there you stand
You're the Queen of all the surface streets
I'm a wiener boy, that you're here to meet
I don't need the money
I couldn't care
'Cause everything I want Is standing right here
I would live on the street
In a cardboard shack
Just the worship the feet
And the curve of your back
You'll be my only preoccupation
On a permanent vacation
Now I will move these rocks
For you my love
I will tear them up out of the Earth
And I will bend my spine
'Til it's quitting time
'Cause I know what your love is worth
What your love is worth
What your love is worth
Your gods can't dwell
It's like walking in
To the mouth of hell
Sweating our dignities out on the subway
At the beginning of another long, long day
As for my mortal remains
I couldn't care
'Cause when the day is done
She'll be waiting here
That's when I love the accommodations
In a urine smelling transit station
I'll move these rocks
For you my love
I will tear them up out of the Earth
And I will bend my spine
'Til it's quitting time
'Cause I know what your time is worth
And I'll give my days to the Neanderthals
With the classic rock
And the wrecking ball
I'll go swimming in the wet concrete
And I'll cast my pearls at the unpaved streets
I don't mind the mental atrophy
'Cause when the lids come down, you're all I see
You're like a lovely hallucination
You get me through my current occupation
I'll move these rocks
For you my love
I will tear them up out of the Earth
And I will bend my spine
'Til it's quitting time
'Cause I know what your time is worth
See I'm towering
Above mortal men
I'll emerge from the darkness
And there you stand
You're the Queen of all the surface streets
I'm a wiener boy, that you're here to meet
I don't need the money
I couldn't care
'Cause everything I want Is standing right here
I would live on the street
In a cardboard shack
Just the worship the feet
And the curve of your back
You'll be my only preoccupation
On a permanent vacation
Now I will move these rocks
For you my love
I will tear them up out of the Earth
And I will bend my spine
'Til it's quitting time
'Cause I know what your love is worth
What your love is worth
What your love is worth
Lyrics submitted by jucho
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