"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.
To the haters, the takers, the liars, all the vultures and the bottom feeding scum
The FCC, the FBI and every tin god with a badge and a gun
You talk and talk, you preach and bitch but your words don't mean a thing
You get what you give, you give what you get
Just the way it's always been
I choose death before dishonor
I'd rather die than live down on my knees
Bury me like a soldier, with my dignity!
You imitate the ostracized, put your head beneath the sand
Your cup it runneth over, must be rough to live so grand
You reap what you sew, you pay what you owe unless you bathe yourself in greed
You rob and you take, your world is fake
There's no honor amongst the thieves
I choose death before dishonor
I'd rather die than live down on my knees
Bury me like a soldier, with my dignity!
Fuck!
You're self righteous, self pretentious
Your ways are not for me
You're deluded, so confused
Your world I dominate
I choose death before dishonor
I'd rather die than live down on my knees
Bury me like a soldier
Bury me! (Bury me!)
Bury me! (Bury me!)
Bury me!
With my dignity!
The FCC, the FBI and every tin god with a badge and a gun
You talk and talk, you preach and bitch but your words don't mean a thing
You get what you give, you give what you get
Just the way it's always been
I choose death before dishonor
I'd rather die than live down on my knees
Bury me like a soldier, with my dignity!
You imitate the ostracized, put your head beneath the sand
Your cup it runneth over, must be rough to live so grand
You reap what you sew, you pay what you owe unless you bathe yourself in greed
You rob and you take, your world is fake
There's no honor amongst the thieves
I choose death before dishonor
I'd rather die than live down on my knees
Bury me like a soldier, with my dignity!
Fuck!
You're self righteous, self pretentious
Your ways are not for me
You're deluded, so confused
Your world I dominate
I choose death before dishonor
I'd rather die than live down on my knees
Bury me like a soldier
Bury me! (Bury me!)
Bury me! (Bury me!)
Bury me!
With my dignity!
Lyrics submitted by fallen_sunset
Death Before Dishonor Lyrics as written by Jeremy Spencer Ivan Moody
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
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I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
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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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Page
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There aren’t many things that’ll hurt more than giving love a chance against your better judgement only to have your heart crushed yet again. Ed Sheeran tells such a story on “Page.” On this track, he is devastated to have lost his lover and even more saddened by the feeling that he may never move on from this.
Okay this song is my theme song ... the title says it "Death Before Dishonor".
More and more I see people cheating, and lying and such to succeed, and it sickens me (hell this is why we are in the economic crisis ... don't believe me, watch the movie "Inside Job"). Thank god someone sees in living by an honor code. Doing what's right and earning what they deserve fair and square.
I fight to live by an honor code, and I make sure others know it.
So I say it "Death Before Dishonor"
Just saw them in concert (it was almost a 13 hr day for their 90 minutes .. so worth it) but I was pissed ... they didn't sing this song