"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.
Sixteen shades of sorrow
On a starless night
With no escape to dawn
She hugged the sand
She cursed the storm
For 16 days and no tomorrows
Mourning friends who fled
And loves that died stillborn.
A lifetime miming, hiding from the touch
That claims
Unchained her from the lie
That was her past.
A hollow tear lay drying on the mask
Behind the veil
Behind the mask
Behind the vizor
And somewhere spiteful spirits
Laughed at her: the last survivor
Because she'd always been alone
She'd always be alone.
On a starless night
With no escape to dawn
She hugged the sand
She cursed the storm
For 16 days and no tomorrows
Mourning friends who fled
And loves that died stillborn.
A lifetime miming, hiding from the touch
That claims
Unchained her from the lie
That was her past.
A hollow tear lay drying on the mask
Behind the veil
Behind the mask
Behind the vizor
And somewhere spiteful spirits
Laughed at her: the last survivor
Because she'd always been alone
She'd always be alone.
Lyrics submitted by 2006200720082009
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