"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.
Hugh Thompson was a pilot
Just like many more
Fighting for Old Glory
On a far-off, foreign shore
He was on a lethal mission
Only one of many
Following his orders
To kill the enemy,
To kill the enemy
He flew low above the village
Searching for the foe
When he saw a wounded child
On the path below
He thought this to be a sure sign
That the enemy was near
So he radioed for backup and
More choppers did appear,
More choppers did appear
"Help the wounded," he cried out,
"And beware of an attack"
And then the child died
By a bullet through her back
And when he looked around
For the culprits of the scene
It was a company of men in
U.S. military green,
U.S. military green
The dead were in the hundreds
Strewn all around
In this place called My Lai
Which once had been a town
There was a hut of huddled children
Soldiers had them in their sights
Hugh decided at that moment
To fight for what was right,
To fight for what was right
"Train your weapons on the G.I.'s,"
And his 'copter crews obeyed
And stood among the children
Tattered and afraid
The whole town had been murdered
But for some kids and widowed wives
And Hugh Thompson made sure
That those remaining would survive,
That those remaining would survive
It was a fifteen-minute stand-off
In a knee-deep sea of red
Amidst the moaning of the dying
And the silence of the dead
Hugh Thompson was a soldier
And he served his country well
On the day he saved the lives
Of a dozen kids in hell,
Of a dozen kids in hell
Just like many more
Fighting for Old Glory
On a far-off, foreign shore
He was on a lethal mission
Only one of many
Following his orders
To kill the enemy,
To kill the enemy
He flew low above the village
Searching for the foe
When he saw a wounded child
On the path below
He thought this to be a sure sign
That the enemy was near
So he radioed for backup and
More choppers did appear,
More choppers did appear
"Help the wounded," he cried out,
"And beware of an attack"
And then the child died
By a bullet through her back
And when he looked around
For the culprits of the scene
It was a company of men in
U.S. military green,
U.S. military green
The dead were in the hundreds
Strewn all around
In this place called My Lai
Which once had been a town
There was a hut of huddled children
Soldiers had them in their sights
Hugh decided at that moment
To fight for what was right,
To fight for what was right
"Train your weapons on the G.I.'s,"
And his 'copter crews obeyed
And stood among the children
Tattered and afraid
The whole town had been murdered
But for some kids and widowed wives
And Hugh Thompson made sure
That those remaining would survive,
That those remaining would survive
It was a fifteen-minute stand-off
In a knee-deep sea of red
Amidst the moaning of the dying
And the silence of the dead
Hugh Thompson was a soldier
And he served his country well
On the day he saved the lives
Of a dozen kids in hell,
Of a dozen kids in hell
Lyrics submitted by concreteblues
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