"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.
Good news for beautiful people
Watching the world go by
Make love in the middle of a warzone
Hey, ya never gonna die
Don't rock the boat, keep your head down
Just another fool in the crowd
Everybody knows, you can be a winner
Cmon, shout it out loud
On the fat of the land I been living
Now it's only a matter of time
Sooner or later, you open your eyes
And return to the scene of the crime
Dig deep at the top of the heap
Now you've bitten off the hand that feeds you
You got nothin' but your soul to sell
You got nothin'
When the river runs dry
You will return to the scene of the crime
When the river runs dry
Salvation will rain on you one last time
When the river runs dry
You got the power I got the money
Another million miles to run
I'd cry, cry for the future
But I wouldn't get anything done
Relax, abandon ship
Turn your back on Mother Nature
Blind luck, destiny, do me a favour
When the river runs dry
You will return to the scene of the crime
When the river runs dry
Salvation will rain on you one more time
When the river runs.. dry
Good news for beautiful people
Watching the world go by
Make love in the middle of a war zone
All of God's children
Never gonna die
You will return to the scene of the crime
When the river runs dry
Salvation will rain on you one more time
When the river runs dry
You will return to the scene of the crime
When the river runs dry
Salvation will rain on you one more time
When the river runs
I'm going home to where the river runs dry
Salvation will rain on you one more time
It's only a matter of time
Only a matter of time
When the river runs dry
Watching the world go by
Make love in the middle of a warzone
Hey, ya never gonna die
Don't rock the boat, keep your head down
Just another fool in the crowd
Everybody knows, you can be a winner
Cmon, shout it out loud
On the fat of the land I been living
Now it's only a matter of time
Sooner or later, you open your eyes
And return to the scene of the crime
Dig deep at the top of the heap
Now you've bitten off the hand that feeds you
You got nothin' but your soul to sell
You got nothin'
When the river runs dry
You will return to the scene of the crime
When the river runs dry
Salvation will rain on you one last time
When the river runs dry
You got the power I got the money
Another million miles to run
I'd cry, cry for the future
But I wouldn't get anything done
Relax, abandon ship
Turn your back on Mother Nature
Blind luck, destiny, do me a favour
When the river runs dry
You will return to the scene of the crime
When the river runs dry
Salvation will rain on you one more time
When the river runs.. dry
Good news for beautiful people
Watching the world go by
Make love in the middle of a war zone
All of God's children
Never gonna die
You will return to the scene of the crime
When the river runs dry
Salvation will rain on you one more time
When the river runs dry
You will return to the scene of the crime
When the river runs dry
Salvation will rain on you one more time
When the river runs
I'm going home to where the river runs dry
Salvation will rain on you one more time
It's only a matter of time
Only a matter of time
When the river runs dry
Lyrics submitted by crowdiegal
When the River Runs Dry Lyrics as written by Douglas James Falconer Barry John Joseph Palmer
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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No comments?
For shaaaaame.
This song is an incredible Australian classic.
"Make love in the middle of a warzone"
I'm pretty sure this song has something to do with criminals stealing money
This song has very strong environmental undertones eg:-
"Now you've bitten off the hand that feeds you" ie. destroyed the natural food sources in the environment
"Relax - abandon ship Turn your back on Mother Nature" ie. giving up on preserving the environment.
And of course the song's title "When the River Runs Dry". The Murray-Darling River system is the lifeblood of three Australian states and it is literally running dry and becoming more saline as more and more water is sipohoned off for upstream farming at the expense of everything downstream.
This song is deeply spiritual referring to people losing their way due to the distractions of the world and then returning to confront their misdeeds "when the river runs dry";
"Dig deep at the top of the heap, Now you've bitten off the hand that feeds you You got nothin' but your soul to sell You got nothin'", ...........
"salvation will rain on you one more time", ....
"all of God's children never gonna die".........
Mark Seymour is obviously well read, this includes sacred texts. I think he could be writing about the end time prophesy of the drying up of the Euphrates and the chose peoples redemption ..
I agree Mark is very well read and intelligent, and also a great and under appreciated songwriter, hence double entendre's and metaphors. I won't pontificate on what this song is about (at a guess, yep, reckon destruction of the environment, and maybe also the self assuredness that those doing the destruction afford themselves).
And re some spiritual comments, yes there are undoubtedly spiritual/religious connotations or should i say implications, I think particularly for those wealthy conservative right christian types think god's children will never die...but I don't think this song paint's them in a good light.
And yes, I thought about it.
So now, onto The Holy Grail? Do I need to think about that too?