"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.
I tremble
They're gonna eat me alive
If I stumble
They're gonna eat me alive
Can you hear my heart beating like a hammer
Beating like a hammer
Help I'm alive, my heart keeps beating like a hammer
Hard to be soft
Tough to be tender
Come take my pulse, the pace is on a runaway train
Help I'm alive my heart keeps beating like a hammer
Beating like a hammer
Beating like a hammer
Beating like a hammer
If you're still alive
My regrets are few
If my life is mine
What shouldn't I do?
I get wherever I'm going
I get whatever I need
While my blood's still flowing
And my heart's still beating like a hammer
Beating like a hammer
Help I'm alive, my heart keeps beating like a hammer
Hard to be soft
Tough to be tender
Come take my pulse, the pace is on a runaway train
Help I'm alive, my heart keeps beating like a hammer
Beating like a hammer
Beating like a hammer
Beating like a hammer
If you're still alive
My regrets are few
If my life is mine
What shouldn't I do?
I get wherever I'm going
I get whatever I need
While my blood's still flowing
And my heart's still
Beating like a hammer
Beating like a hammer
Beating like a hammer
Beating like a hammer
I tremble
They're gonna eat me alive
If I stumble
They're gonna eat me alive
Can you hear my heart beating like a hammer
Beating like a hammer
Beating like a hammer
Beating like a hammer
Help I'm alive, my heart keeps beating like a hammer
They're gonna eat me alive
If I stumble
They're gonna eat me alive
Can you hear my heart beating like a hammer
Beating like a hammer
Help I'm alive, my heart keeps beating like a hammer
Hard to be soft
Tough to be tender
Come take my pulse, the pace is on a runaway train
Help I'm alive my heart keeps beating like a hammer
Beating like a hammer
Beating like a hammer
Beating like a hammer
If you're still alive
My regrets are few
If my life is mine
What shouldn't I do?
I get wherever I'm going
I get whatever I need
While my blood's still flowing
And my heart's still beating like a hammer
Beating like a hammer
Help I'm alive, my heart keeps beating like a hammer
Hard to be soft
Tough to be tender
Come take my pulse, the pace is on a runaway train
Help I'm alive, my heart keeps beating like a hammer
Beating like a hammer
Beating like a hammer
Beating like a hammer
If you're still alive
My regrets are few
If my life is mine
What shouldn't I do?
I get wherever I'm going
I get whatever I need
While my blood's still flowing
And my heart's still
Beating like a hammer
Beating like a hammer
Beating like a hammer
Beating like a hammer
I tremble
They're gonna eat me alive
If I stumble
They're gonna eat me alive
Can you hear my heart beating like a hammer
Beating like a hammer
Beating like a hammer
Beating like a hammer
Help I'm alive, my heart keeps beating like a hammer
Lyrics submitted by strykerchick, edited by AutyoFaygo
Help I'm Alive Lyrics as written by James Shaw Emily Haines
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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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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i think this song could about preforming sober for the first time in a long time. i think the first verse is her saying how scared she is to preform sober. i think the title is referring to her really feeling and being "alive" without drugs.
and perhaps the lines.
"If my life is mine What shouldn't I do? I get wherever I'm going I get whatever I need While my blood's still flowing And my heart still beats.. "
are about drug use and how she's asking why does it matter if she does drugs because she's still living and breathing.
shrugs
I think this song is more about the experience of feeling alive when your exposed from your personal safety net, whatever that might be to you. <br /> <br /> There is a freedom of taking risks, if only for the moment, and your body responds to that of your heart, metaphorically and literally.
I def agree with this interpretation bc when I heard it that's what I thought, too. I mean she's asking if the person is still alive. Like she's checking their pulse and status.