"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.
I was thinkin' about your face
Just a minute ago
I'll be leaving the simple space
Just to be at a show
I get distracted by the simplest lines
I need to test my resolve
I got the symptoms and I'm watching the signs
My medication can’t solve
Every problem left on my front door
I ain't no Curious George
Marie Curie or Louis Pastuer
I never played at the Gorge
I can remember the warm summer nights
Driving so fast we were ran every red light
I can remember the feeling is gone away
Flying so high with my feet on the floor
But left my nerve on the ground
I made it this far using every back door
I had to find in the sound
Took a lover like some Parisian Count
Then you fell off the floor
Spending summers with your seniors' discount
Pay your dues and then a roll
Off trippin' at a rock n roll show
That's your problem my friend
Try slippin' past security though
I guess you're shutout again
I can remember the warm summer nights
Drinking cold Gennys, yeah we'd get so tight
I can remember the feeling is gone again
Just a minute ago
I'll be leaving the simple space
Just to be at a show
I get distracted by the simplest lines
I need to test my resolve
I got the symptoms and I'm watching the signs
My medication can’t solve
Every problem left on my front door
I ain't no Curious George
Marie Curie or Louis Pastuer
I never played at the Gorge
I can remember the warm summer nights
Driving so fast we were ran every red light
I can remember the feeling is gone away
Flying so high with my feet on the floor
But left my nerve on the ground
I made it this far using every back door
I had to find in the sound
Took a lover like some Parisian Count
Then you fell off the floor
Spending summers with your seniors' discount
Pay your dues and then a roll
Off trippin' at a rock n roll show
That's your problem my friend
Try slippin' past security though
I guess you're shutout again
I can remember the warm summer nights
Drinking cold Gennys, yeah we'd get so tight
I can remember the feeling is gone again
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Fast Car
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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The lines, " I ain\'t no Curious George\nMarie Curie or Louis Pastuer\nI never played at the Gorge," make me think of this quote from my mom\'s book of buddist sayings with photos - This Paper is empty of an independent self. Empty, in this sence, means that the paper is full of everyting, the entire cosmos. The presence of this tiny sheet of paper proves the presence of the whole cosmos.- the photo is of a monk reading from an ancient text.
@aurora borealis <> I like that! <>
@aurora borealis <> I like that! <>
Also, on a surface analysis, it can simply be nostalgia of summers gone as a growing band and the like.<br /> The American Dream(?)<br /> It doesn't get more American than Blue Jeans and 'za.
Just an idea, there has been an actual pizza joint open in my hometown of Worcester, MA since 1980 called Blue Jeans Pizza.. I was thinking that could have been the place behind the name?
I can remember the warm summer nights Drinking cold Gennys, yeah we'd get so tight
For anyone with lack of context, "Gennys" is referring to the Genesee beer brand from Rochester NY, about an hour or so away from Buffalo where the band is from.