"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.
Ion square, perspex swings
I breathe out, you breathe in
Permanent midnight
Our love, our love
How we've come to depend
On each other to the end
The space between us has disappeared
You finish my, you finish my words for me
I remember how it began
So many great days in a row
Barefoot on Bishopsgate
Trying to find Blake's grave
If we could stay like this in a silver foil
Trapped in amber for a life
Permanent midnight
Our love, our love
[Chorus]
I carry your heart here with me
I carry it in my heart
I carry your heart with me
I carry it in my heart
Who said unbroken happiness
Is a bore, is a bore?
Who said it, my love? I don't mind it
Anymore, anymore
And I reach out a hand over your side of the bed
Pull that blanket over your shoulders exposed to the night
And the hunger of those early years will never return
But I don't mind, I don't mind
Cause I love my mind when I'm fucking you
Slowed down to a crawl
Years of crime and the bread line
Have not at all dimmed your shine
So let's stay in, let the sofa be our car
Let's stay in, let the TV be our stars
I found my dancing shoes but they don't fit
All the bright lights do is bore me
They bore me
[Chorus]
I breathe out, you breathe in
Permanent midnight
Our love, our love
How we've come to depend
On each other to the end
The space between us has disappeared
You finish my, you finish my words for me
I remember how it began
So many great days in a row
Barefoot on Bishopsgate
Trying to find Blake's grave
If we could stay like this in a silver foil
Trapped in amber for a life
Permanent midnight
Our love, our love
[Chorus]
I carry your heart here with me
I carry it in my heart
I carry your heart with me
I carry it in my heart
Who said unbroken happiness
Is a bore, is a bore?
Who said it, my love? I don't mind it
Anymore, anymore
And I reach out a hand over your side of the bed
Pull that blanket over your shoulders exposed to the night
And the hunger of those early years will never return
But I don't mind, I don't mind
Cause I love my mind when I'm fucking you
Slowed down to a crawl
Years of crime and the bread line
Have not at all dimmed your shine
So let's stay in, let the sofa be our car
Let's stay in, let the TV be our stars
I found my dancing shoes but they don't fit
All the bright lights do is bore me
They bore me
[Chorus]
Lyrics submitted by legitinate
Ion Square Lyrics as written by Kele Okereke Gordon Moakes
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
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kele said:
"this is my favorite song on the album because it evokes a really great time in a relationship when everything was going right."