"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.
'Where have you been my long, long love
These seven long years or more?
I'm seeking for my former vows
You gave to me before'
'Oh, hold your tongue of your former vows
For they will breed sad strife
Hold your tongue of your former vows
For I'm become a wife'
He's turned him right and round about
And the salt tear blint his ee
'I never would have trodden on Irish ground
But for the love of thee'
'If I should leave my dear husband
And my two babes also
What have you to take me to
If I with you would go?'
'I've seven ships upon the sea
And the eighth brought me to land
With four and twenty mariners bold
And music on command'
She's put her foot on board the ship
No mariners she beheld
But the sails were of the taffeta
And the masts of the beaten gold
They had not sailed a league, a league
A league but barely three
Til dismal grew his countenance
And drumly grew the sea
They had not sailed a league, a league
A league but barely three
Until she saw his cloven foot
And she wept most bitterly
'Leave off your weeping' then said he
'Of your weeping let me be
And I'll show you how the lilies grow
On the banks of Italy'
'What hill, what hill is thon I see
As white as any snow?'
'Thon is the hill of heaven' he said
Where all good people go
'What hill, what hill is thon I see
As black as any coal?'
'Thon is the hill of hell' he said
'Where you and I must go'
He struck the top mast with his hand
And the main mast with his knee
And he struck that gallant ship in two
And he sunk her beneath the sea.
These seven long years or more?
I'm seeking for my former vows
You gave to me before'
'Oh, hold your tongue of your former vows
For they will breed sad strife
Hold your tongue of your former vows
For I'm become a wife'
He's turned him right and round about
And the salt tear blint his ee
'I never would have trodden on Irish ground
But for the love of thee'
'If I should leave my dear husband
And my two babes also
What have you to take me to
If I with you would go?'
'I've seven ships upon the sea
And the eighth brought me to land
With four and twenty mariners bold
And music on command'
She's put her foot on board the ship
No mariners she beheld
But the sails were of the taffeta
And the masts of the beaten gold
They had not sailed a league, a league
A league but barely three
Til dismal grew his countenance
And drumly grew the sea
They had not sailed a league, a league
A league but barely three
Until she saw his cloven foot
And she wept most bitterly
'Leave off your weeping' then said he
'Of your weeping let me be
And I'll show you how the lilies grow
On the banks of Italy'
'What hill, what hill is thon I see
As white as any snow?'
'Thon is the hill of heaven' he said
Where all good people go
'What hill, what hill is thon I see
As black as any coal?'
'Thon is the hill of hell' he said
'Where you and I must go'
He struck the top mast with his hand
And the main mast with his knee
And he struck that gallant ship in two
And he sunk her beneath the sea.
Lyrics submitted by isaacstepek
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