"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.
We said there gonna use 9/11
As a pretext for invasion
Folks said to catch Bin Laden would be worth the price
We said they don't care bout' Afghanistan
They won't catch Bin Laden he's not their man
They've got a more expensive pie to slice
We said Iraq is a corporate war
That's the only thing they're in there for
Folks said there's weapons of mass destruction
We said the weapons don't exist
That's just an excuse for profits
You tell me, did they ever find them?
We were right in our prediction
Conspiracy? Is it fact or fiction?
Who's buying the stories that they sell
It's an occupation, a profit mission
You can't give people freedom that's a contradiction
People gotta get freedom for themselves
We said the soldiers will be left for dead
Politicians don't care bout' veterans
Bush cut the VA budget at the start
We said with open arms they'll run to you
But not the kind that comfort you
But the kind that blow bodies apart
Then we said the wars for corporate cash
And they'll throw their friends the contracts
They'll privatize everything that they can touch
Now the Iraqi market is up for grabs
And Bechtel's circling overhead
Corporate handouts, the golden crutch
We were right in our prediction
Conspiracy? Is it fact or fiction?
Who's buying the stories that they sell
It's an occupation, a profit mission
You can't give people freedom that's a contradiction
People gotta get freedom for themselves
Katrina came and hit the coast
The water rose and levees broke
Took about 3 weeks for Federal Aid
We're you surprised at that? After what these people did in Iraq
You think they cared that the ghetto wasn't saved?
Now some say they helped those levees break
To save downtown from the river's weight
The 9th ward's weren't but 3 feet either way
And then we said they'll make the Gulf Coast clear
For the gentrification profiteers
Most people thought this suggestion was insane
We were right in our prediction
Conspiracy? Is it fact or fiction?
Who's buying the stories that they sell
It's an occupation, a profit mission
You can't give people freedom that's a contradiction
People gotta get freedom for themselves
Now they're talking bout Iran
As the next step in expansion
Take it seriously, learn from the past
‘Cause as soon as they get our trust
They'll turn and use it against us
I will bet my life on that
As a pretext for invasion
Folks said to catch Bin Laden would be worth the price
We said they don't care bout' Afghanistan
They won't catch Bin Laden he's not their man
They've got a more expensive pie to slice
We said Iraq is a corporate war
That's the only thing they're in there for
Folks said there's weapons of mass destruction
We said the weapons don't exist
That's just an excuse for profits
You tell me, did they ever find them?
We were right in our prediction
Conspiracy? Is it fact or fiction?
Who's buying the stories that they sell
It's an occupation, a profit mission
You can't give people freedom that's a contradiction
People gotta get freedom for themselves
We said the soldiers will be left for dead
Politicians don't care bout' veterans
Bush cut the VA budget at the start
We said with open arms they'll run to you
But not the kind that comfort you
But the kind that blow bodies apart
Then we said the wars for corporate cash
And they'll throw their friends the contracts
They'll privatize everything that they can touch
Now the Iraqi market is up for grabs
And Bechtel's circling overhead
Corporate handouts, the golden crutch
We were right in our prediction
Conspiracy? Is it fact or fiction?
Who's buying the stories that they sell
It's an occupation, a profit mission
You can't give people freedom that's a contradiction
People gotta get freedom for themselves
Katrina came and hit the coast
The water rose and levees broke
Took about 3 weeks for Federal Aid
We're you surprised at that? After what these people did in Iraq
You think they cared that the ghetto wasn't saved?
Now some say they helped those levees break
To save downtown from the river's weight
The 9th ward's weren't but 3 feet either way
And then we said they'll make the Gulf Coast clear
For the gentrification profiteers
Most people thought this suggestion was insane
We were right in our prediction
Conspiracy? Is it fact or fiction?
Who's buying the stories that they sell
It's an occupation, a profit mission
You can't give people freedom that's a contradiction
People gotta get freedom for themselves
Now they're talking bout Iran
As the next step in expansion
Take it seriously, learn from the past
‘Cause as soon as they get our trust
They'll turn and use it against us
I will bet my life on that
Lyrics submitted by displacedfever
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Fast Car
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This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
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