"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.
Wanderers this morning came by
Where did they go
Graceful in the morning light
To banner fair
To follow you softly
In the cold mountain air
Through the forest
Down to your grave
Where the birds wait
And the tall grasses wave
They do not
Know you anymore
More, more, more
Dear shadow alive and well
How can the body die
You tell me everything
Anything true
In the town one morning I went
Staggering through premonitions of my death
I don't see anybody that dear to me
Dear shadow alive and well
How can the body die
You tell me everything
Anything true
Jesse
I don't know what I have done
I'm turning myself to a demon
I don't know what I have done
I'm turning myself to a demon
Where did they go
Graceful in the morning light
To banner fair
To follow you softly
In the cold mountain air
Through the forest
Down to your grave
Where the birds wait
And the tall grasses wave
They do not
Know you anymore
More, more, more
Dear shadow alive and well
How can the body die
You tell me everything
Anything true
In the town one morning I went
Staggering through premonitions of my death
I don't see anybody that dear to me
Dear shadow alive and well
How can the body die
You tell me everything
Anything true
Jesse
I don't know what I have done
I'm turning myself to a demon
I don't know what I have done
I'm turning myself to a demon
Lyrics submitted by wonderfulmetropolis
Tiger Mountain Peasant Song Lyrics as written by Robin Pecknold
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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^^ agreed... :) I think this song describes the experience of grief. He sees the wanderers and the birds and the grass, but none of them knows his lost loved one anymore. He stills knows her and feels her with him. He is scared of his own death, but there is really no one close enough to him to bind him to life anymore. Even at the end when he says he is turning himself into a demon. I think it refers to letting himself go mad with grief.