"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.
You see the clouds of a hundred storms
We lose ourselves, we're falling over our wounds
You hear the cries right at dawn
You feel the heat, you stumble towards the door
All the lines we've drawn are closing in on
All the fires we've set continue to burn
A second chance is not enough
I need more time to open all of our eyes
I hear the cries of the hundreds born
Theres no more time, we struggle to save them all
All the lines we've drawn are closing in on
All the fires we've set continue to burn
All the lines we've drawn are closing in on
All the fires we've set continue to burn
(You know we came here for this
You know it takes more than us
You know I won't go)
We lose ourselves, we're falling over our wounds
You hear the cries right at dawn
You feel the heat, you stumble towards the door
All the lines we've drawn are closing in on
All the fires we've set continue to burn
A second chance is not enough
I need more time to open all of our eyes
I hear the cries of the hundreds born
Theres no more time, we struggle to save them all
All the lines we've drawn are closing in on
All the fires we've set continue to burn
All the lines we've drawn are closing in on
All the fires we've set continue to burn
(You know we came here for this
You know it takes more than us
You know I won't go)
Lyrics submitted by floatawayinlove
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Fast Car
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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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