"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.
Will I get in to chase, to match my dreams?
Summer thaws a quartered pill
Will I get in to chase, to match my dreams?
my eyes hatch a still born penny
Dead clover, dead clover, one mongoose, one cobra
Goes back before skinny boys stuffed their shirts
Dead clover, dead clover, one mongoose, one cobra
Will I get in to chase, to match my dreams?
The rat that's caught in the ribs of me will be released within the year:
in crossing states on the spade possum with custom plates and the paint rusting
like cussing saints with strange customs here.
Dead clover, dead clover, one mongoose one cobra
Goes back before skinny boys stuffed their shirts
Dead clover, dead clover, one mongoose, one cobra
Will I get in to chase, to match my dreams?
Nervous on night drives, fog or no fog
- It'll happen when he changes lanes
Nervous on night drives, fog or no fog
- It'll happen when he changes lanes
Summer thaws a quartered pill
Will I get in to chase, to match my dreams?
my eyes hatch a still born penny
Dead clover, dead clover, one mongoose, one cobra
Goes back before skinny boys stuffed their shirts
Dead clover, dead clover, one mongoose, one cobra
Will I get in to chase, to match my dreams?
The rat that's caught in the ribs of me will be released within the year:
in crossing states on the spade possum with custom plates and the paint rusting
like cussing saints with strange customs here.
Dead clover, dead clover, one mongoose one cobra
Goes back before skinny boys stuffed their shirts
Dead clover, dead clover, one mongoose, one cobra
Will I get in to chase, to match my dreams?
Nervous on night drives, fog or no fog
- It'll happen when he changes lanes
Nervous on night drives, fog or no fog
- It'll happen when he changes lanes
Lyrics submitted by plbats
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"Summer thaws a quartered pill" - related to seasonal affective disorder? Would make sense, everyone's miserable in the Winter.
"My eyes hatch a still born penny" - this is all purposely ambiguous but eyes are generally a romantic thing, like people see their dreams with/in their eyes... so it could be that his dreams aren't giving him anything useful in a practical sense, like money.
In general though, it's all about the atmosphere the words create. It fits in perfectly with the whole feel of the album.