"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.
Blood soaked earth that you call home
close your eyes but don't sleep
we comin' like peoples army
for the people who can't eat
who work with no sleep
for the child with no shoes on their feet
a generation who flash heat
who role up on the banks for their cash see
you're the criminal? you got the nerve to ask me
tear mics till my voice get raspy
faced flame for five centuries
and if LA were Baghdad we'd be Iraqi
with our straps in the backseat
next to a general tied up with shit in his khakis
best leave my mic alone I'm full grown
and I'm off to the green zone
after dark my city's a fuse
after dark my city's a fuse
one day I say today we live as a lion
blood soaked earth that you call home
I heard this cat got life in the pen
crossing sand in the back of a truck bed
twelve deep heard sirens and lights red
was smacked on his dome with the club of
a white fed
no food no water no rights read
he came north to keep his seeds and his wife fed
in the middle of the darkest night bled
stepped to the law and said
you a minuteman wait a minute man
talk like that might limit your life span
after dark my city's a fuse
one day i say today we live as a lion
and when our cubs grow we'll show you what war is good for
close your eyes but don't sleep
we comin' like peoples army
for the people who can't eat
who work with no sleep
for the child with no shoes on their feet
a generation who flash heat
who role up on the banks for their cash see
you're the criminal? you got the nerve to ask me
tear mics till my voice get raspy
faced flame for five centuries
and if LA were Baghdad we'd be Iraqi
with our straps in the backseat
next to a general tied up with shit in his khakis
best leave my mic alone I'm full grown
and I'm off to the green zone
after dark my city's a fuse
after dark my city's a fuse
one day I say today we live as a lion
blood soaked earth that you call home
I heard this cat got life in the pen
crossing sand in the back of a truck bed
twelve deep heard sirens and lights red
was smacked on his dome with the club of
a white fed
no food no water no rights read
he came north to keep his seeds and his wife fed
in the middle of the darkest night bled
stepped to the law and said
you a minuteman wait a minute man
talk like that might limit your life span
after dark my city's a fuse
one day i say today we live as a lion
and when our cubs grow we'll show you what war is good for
Lyrics submitted by gueroson
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Great version of a great song,
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tight ass song
tight ass song
iIthink that instead of the green zone it should be The Grey Zone, as in to what they used to refer to Auschwitz concentration camps in Germany based on the movie of the same title. I could be wrong but it makes more sense to me that way.
Vismund Cygnus,
The "green zone" is an area in central Baghdad, Iraq. It was the former home of many government agencies including the Republican Palace which was where Saddam Hussein's sat in power.
It has no been "secured" by the American Troops after a huge amount of hostility and now is surrounded by blast-walls and barbed wire. Complete with pleny of broken down buildings which house homeless Iraqis.
(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Zone)
-Will
Wow, I made a lot of typos in that message... hah my bad:
"Saddam Hussein's" == "Saddam Hussein" "pleny " == "plenty"
I'm glad that Zach De La Rocha's still making music, and I really hope he gets back together with RATM.
I think it's about war and protest. We the people, by protesting, are the only hope left for the Iraqi children and people. After dark my city's a fuse means a town is burned and smokey from the tear gas the riot police uses against the protesters who are protesting against war who one day decided to live like a lion and show the government what they think about war and fighting for peace!!!
xpawel8x - "fighting for peace!!!" Really? That makes about as much sense as fucking for virginity.
i disagree thkbrew89, sometimes you have to fight for peace
imagine: your leader of a country and someone is trying to it over. you may want peace, but they are gonna try and take it by force. some fighting is required. you may not want to, but wouldnt you rather die trying to protect it than to just be taken over?
^adding to above^
sometimes you have to fight that war for your peace...