"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.
One bended knee is no way to be free
LIfting up an empty cup i ask silently
that all my destinations will accept the one that's me
so i can breathe -.
Circles they grow & they swallow people whole
half their lives they say goodnight to wives theyll never know
got a mind full of questions and a teacher in my soul
and so it goes -.
Don't come closer or I'll have to go -.
owning me like gravity are places that pull
If ever there was someone to keep me at home
it would be you-.
Everyone i come across in cages they gought
They think of me & my wandering but im never what they thought
got my indignation but im pure in all my thought
I'm alive.
Wind in my hair i feel part of everywhere
underneath my being is a road that disappeared
late at night i hear the tress, they're singing with the dead
overhead
Leave it to me as i find a way to be
consider me a satellite forever orbiting
I knew all the rules but the rules did not know me
Guaranteed.
LIfting up an empty cup i ask silently
that all my destinations will accept the one that's me
so i can breathe -.
Circles they grow & they swallow people whole
half their lives they say goodnight to wives theyll never know
got a mind full of questions and a teacher in my soul
and so it goes -.
Don't come closer or I'll have to go -.
owning me like gravity are places that pull
If ever there was someone to keep me at home
it would be you-.
Everyone i come across in cages they gought
They think of me & my wandering but im never what they thought
got my indignation but im pure in all my thought
I'm alive.
Wind in my hair i feel part of everywhere
underneath my being is a road that disappeared
late at night i hear the tress, they're singing with the dead
overhead
Leave it to me as i find a way to be
consider me a satellite forever orbiting
I knew all the rules but the rules did not know me
Guaranteed.
Lyrics submitted by criket527
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Fast Car
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The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
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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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Great version of a great song,
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