"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.
He's a shark in a pool on heavy rotation
But it ain't summer outside.
She plays dumb and falls to the thump
of a heart that's shallow as the waves it makes.
Blow your kisses, kid
But keep your distance.
Promise him it's love
Then walk away.
You'll see his body floating
near the surface-
Oh how he loves,
Oh how he loves to feel the rain
The roots before branches (?)
We fell from these branches
When you opened up your eyes
You found you had landed
In a hole that he dug
Just to be with you
We lost the beat
Before we lost the motion
Somewhere in the backroom
Of your best friends appartment.
Mine(?) still says it was rock and roll
But lord knows this city was built on soul.
When all that she wanted
Was a reason to let go of him.
It's hard to see the sunrise
When you're always at the bottom.
(?) Give me money,
Now I'm gonna make it
Said 'son don't you leave,
'till you find where your heart is.'
That night, when you fell asleep,
I gathered my things, I stuffed the sheets.
But I never really left at all.
I was scared I wouldn't find my soul.
(oh no, oh no)
In Detroit I sleep alone,
And in the wrong hour of the morning,
I'm alone.
With a bug in my head (?)
Seems like every last hoax
Is open wide, darling.
To kiss and kill, what was my goal.
When all that she wanted
Was a reason to let go of him.
It's hard to see the sunrise
When you're always at the bottom.
All that she wanted,
Was a reason to let go of him.
It's hard to see the sunrise (the sunrise)
(we lost the beat before we lost the motion) x 3
(You'll see his body floating near the surface.)
But it ain't summer outside.
She plays dumb and falls to the thump
of a heart that's shallow as the waves it makes.
Blow your kisses, kid
But keep your distance.
Promise him it's love
Then walk away.
You'll see his body floating
near the surface-
Oh how he loves,
Oh how he loves to feel the rain
The roots before branches (?)
We fell from these branches
When you opened up your eyes
You found you had landed
In a hole that he dug
Just to be with you
We lost the beat
Before we lost the motion
Somewhere in the backroom
Of your best friends appartment.
Mine(?) still says it was rock and roll
But lord knows this city was built on soul.
When all that she wanted
Was a reason to let go of him.
It's hard to see the sunrise
When you're always at the bottom.
(?) Give me money,
Now I'm gonna make it
Said 'son don't you leave,
'till you find where your heart is.'
That night, when you fell asleep,
I gathered my things, I stuffed the sheets.
But I never really left at all.
I was scared I wouldn't find my soul.
(oh no, oh no)
In Detroit I sleep alone,
And in the wrong hour of the morning,
I'm alone.
With a bug in my head (?)
Seems like every last hoax
Is open wide, darling.
To kiss and kill, what was my goal.
When all that she wanted
Was a reason to let go of him.
It's hard to see the sunrise
When you're always at the bottom.
All that she wanted,
Was a reason to let go of him.
It's hard to see the sunrise (the sunrise)
(we lost the beat before we lost the motion) x 3
(You'll see his body floating near the surface.)
Lyrics submitted by mathmil
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