"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.
What happened up on Hemmingway
Well. we will never change
You used to be a friend of mine
The last 5 years went past so fast
So fast I find it strange
The beneficial medicine of time
And I
I can hear your laughter
It stays with me after
All this time
And I
I still got your records
Clash and The Selecter
And don’t worry Desmond Dekker's doing fine.
But doors were shut
The lines were cut
The walls went up so quick
The windows of opportunity were small
Brides collide
Divides were wide
Sides we had to pick
And oh yeah, I forgot to call
I
I can hear your laughter
It stays with me after
All this time
And I
I still got your records
Clash and The Selecter
And don’t worry Desmond Dekker's doing fine.
Seeds to the roots to the trunk to the truth
It’s understanding when it first began
In the day up to the sky
And we climbed up so high
And we carried on the only way we can
Laugh on and live
Learn how to forgive
What we have could be as good as what we get
If you forgot
Now I am still gone
What you gave to me way back when we first met
What you gave to me way back when we first met
I
I can hear your laughter
It stays with me after
All this time
And I
I still got your records
Clash and The Selecter
And don’t worry Desmond Dekker's doing
fine
I
I still got your records
Clash and The Selecter
and don’t worry Desmond Dekker's doing fine.
Well. we will never change
You used to be a friend of mine
The last 5 years went past so fast
So fast I find it strange
The beneficial medicine of time
And I
I can hear your laughter
It stays with me after
All this time
And I
I still got your records
Clash and The Selecter
And don’t worry Desmond Dekker's doing fine.
But doors were shut
The lines were cut
The walls went up so quick
The windows of opportunity were small
Brides collide
Divides were wide
Sides we had to pick
And oh yeah, I forgot to call
I
I can hear your laughter
It stays with me after
All this time
And I
I still got your records
Clash and The Selecter
And don’t worry Desmond Dekker's doing fine.
Seeds to the roots to the trunk to the truth
It’s understanding when it first began
In the day up to the sky
And we climbed up so high
And we carried on the only way we can
Laugh on and live
Learn how to forgive
What we have could be as good as what we get
If you forgot
Now I am still gone
What you gave to me way back when we first met
What you gave to me way back when we first met
I
I can hear your laughter
It stays with me after
All this time
And I
I still got your records
Clash and The Selecter
And don’t worry Desmond Dekker's doing
fine
I
I still got your records
Clash and The Selecter
and don’t worry Desmond Dekker's doing fine.
Lyrics submitted by CFaz23
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He's talking about a friend that he's had a falling out with or fallen out of touch with. The references to the bands are about the friend's actual records. He's saying that he's held on to the records that the friend gave with him or that he had borrowed. Saying that the Desmond Dekker record in particular is doing fine.
Also the first line is Hemenway -- as in Hemenway Street in Boston, right by Berklee College of Music (maybe it's a friend he met while the friend was attending music school -- maybe he introduced him to The Clash, The Selecter, and Desmond Dekker?)
@LastDeadRat Completely agreed. Maybe a friend or a girlfriend. But the rest seems accurate