"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.
You’re the substance I overinjected
You’re the cigarette’s poison inside
Tired from pulling my lips off your bottle
While the addict in me was alive
Bring me down
(down was how you found me)
And I can say that I’m finally free
Of the sickness in me
When I damaged myself for you
No longer the same
As the thing I became
Well I damaged myself for you
Your perfectly pale reflection
In the mirror of who I’d become
But the cross-fade is finally over
And my teeth are removed from your gun
And I can say that I’m finally free
Of the sickness in me
When I damaged myself for you
No longer the same
As the thing I became
Well I damaged myself for you
It took me so long
To let go of the wrong I knew
The scene of the crime
Was your hell but its time is through
The chains are erased and I turn from the place
Where I punished myself like a hostage enslaved by you
Damaged for you
You’re the cigarette’s poison inside
Tired from pulling my lips off your bottle
While the addict in me was alive
Bring me down
(down was how you found me)
And I can say that I’m finally free
Of the sickness in me
When I damaged myself for you
No longer the same
As the thing I became
Well I damaged myself for you
Your perfectly pale reflection
In the mirror of who I’d become
But the cross-fade is finally over
And my teeth are removed from your gun
And I can say that I’m finally free
Of the sickness in me
When I damaged myself for you
No longer the same
As the thing I became
Well I damaged myself for you
It took me so long
To let go of the wrong I knew
The scene of the crime
Was your hell but its time is through
The chains are erased and I turn from the place
Where I punished myself like a hostage enslaved by you
Damaged for you
Lyrics submitted by phy54
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