"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.
I'm lying to myself
But I don't know if I'm prepared to listen
The answer is skin deep
Where can I find a simpler complexion?
Maybe I can, maybe I can't
Maybe a baby or maybe a plant
I could buy a gun, a new pair of shoes
I'll make you unhappy
So don't make me choose
Between the devil I know, the devil I don't
A lover who loves me and a lover who won't
Accept that I'm so confused
About love and love I have refused
I'll get a lot of ink out of our affair
I'll get a lot of ink out of our affair
It's over the kitchen sink with flowers in our hair
But baby, I don't care
I want what I can't have
But if by chance I get it I don't want it
I want to hold your hand
But holding hands holds
More demands than answers
Give me a kiss, give me a break
Give me a miss 'cause I won't stay awake
Beyond the flattery dash caught in a crush
A moment of pash before the pregnant hush
Is it two hearts or three? Shaken or stirred?
Give me an answer or give me the bird
Oh, won't you tell me about the loves in your life?
You're nobody's fool and nobody's wife
You, you execute love's pas de deux
But you think you're just par for the course
And your kisses have no strings attached
And your love is always left on the latch
You're such a sweet thing
Not a catch phrase or a dance craze
But the nature of my success
Seems to make your tears jingles for singles
But I don't know if I'm prepared to listen
The answer is skin deep
Where can I find a simpler complexion?
Maybe I can, maybe I can't
Maybe a baby or maybe a plant
I could buy a gun, a new pair of shoes
I'll make you unhappy
So don't make me choose
Between the devil I know, the devil I don't
A lover who loves me and a lover who won't
Accept that I'm so confused
About love and love I have refused
I'll get a lot of ink out of our affair
I'll get a lot of ink out of our affair
It's over the kitchen sink with flowers in our hair
But baby, I don't care
I want what I can't have
But if by chance I get it I don't want it
I want to hold your hand
But holding hands holds
More demands than answers
Give me a kiss, give me a break
Give me a miss 'cause I won't stay awake
Beyond the flattery dash caught in a crush
A moment of pash before the pregnant hush
Is it two hearts or three? Shaken or stirred?
Give me an answer or give me the bird
Oh, won't you tell me about the loves in your life?
You're nobody's fool and nobody's wife
You, you execute love's pas de deux
But you think you're just par for the course
And your kisses have no strings attached
And your love is always left on the latch
You're such a sweet thing
Not a catch phrase or a dance craze
But the nature of my success
Seems to make your tears jingles for singles
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