"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.
Dreaming
I was only dreaming
Of another place and time
Where my family's from.
Singing
I can hear them singing.
When the rain had washed away
All these scattered dreams
Dying
Everyone's reminding
Hearts are washed in misery
Drenched in gasoline
Laughter
There is no more laughter
Songs of yesterday
Now live in the underground
Life before the lobotomy
Christian sang the eulogy
Sign my love a lost memory
From the end of the century
Well, it's enough to make you sick
To cast a stone and throw a brick
When the sky is falling down
It burned your dreams into the ground
Christian's lesson is what he's been sold
We are normal and self-controlled
Remember to learn to forget
Whiskey shots and cheap cigarettes
Well I'm not stoned
I'm just fucked up
I got so high I can't stand up
I'm not cursed 'cause I've been blessed
I'm not in love 'cause I'm a mess
Like refugees
We're lost like refugees
Like refugees
We're lost like refugees
The brutality of reality
Is the freedom that keeps me from
Dreaming
I was only dreaming
Of another place and time
Where my family's from.
Singing
I can hear them singing.
When the rain had washed away
All these scattered dreams
Dying
Everyone's reminding
Hearts are washed in misery
Drenched in gasoline
Laughter
There is no more laughter
Songs of yesterday
Now live in the underground
I was only dreaming
Of another place and time
Where my family's from.
Singing
I can hear them singing.
When the rain had washed away
All these scattered dreams
Dying
Everyone's reminding
Hearts are washed in misery
Drenched in gasoline
Laughter
There is no more laughter
Songs of yesterday
Now live in the underground
Life before the lobotomy
Christian sang the eulogy
Sign my love a lost memory
From the end of the century
Well, it's enough to make you sick
To cast a stone and throw a brick
When the sky is falling down
It burned your dreams into the ground
Christian's lesson is what he's been sold
We are normal and self-controlled
Remember to learn to forget
Whiskey shots and cheap cigarettes
Well I'm not stoned
I'm just fucked up
I got so high I can't stand up
I'm not cursed 'cause I've been blessed
I'm not in love 'cause I'm a mess
Like refugees
We're lost like refugees
Like refugees
We're lost like refugees
The brutality of reality
Is the freedom that keeps me from
Dreaming
I was only dreaming
Of another place and time
Where my family's from.
Singing
I can hear them singing.
When the rain had washed away
All these scattered dreams
Dying
Everyone's reminding
Hearts are washed in misery
Drenched in gasoline
Laughter
There is no more laughter
Songs of yesterday
Now live in the underground
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What about the fact that towards the end, it is realized that "We're Lost like Refugees, the brutality of the reality is the freedom that keeps me from.." and the music cuts back into the dreaming section. But this time he states "I WAS only dreaming" as if he is contradicting himself. He says he finds the "reality" of things but then thinks: "I was only dreaming" as if to say the thoughts he was having were wrong to have, no one is lost- even though they are. Especially since it says "Christian's lesson is what he's been sold" as if he was talked out of these thoughts by society.
I just thought that was interesting. And the fact that he says "The freedom that keeps me from.. Dreaming" is also a complete contradiction of freedom itself- much like our country perhaps? "Lost like refugees" I think might also suggest that once, our country had purpose to create freedom and refuge for all, and was symbolized by this, but now we've lost that purpose and are unsure where to turn for true refuge.
Does any of that make sense? Feedback please.