"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.
Hush my baby
Little darling
Silvery dreams are
Golden in the morning
Dreams in velvet
Sew them on the evening sky
Thread of hope with
Diamond pearls on
Sew them on the velvet sky
So you can try them on
In your dreams where
Everything you wish will come true
Climb the stars and
They're going to take your gloves off
Make a journey
They're going to take your gloves off
Some will lift you higher up
They're going to burn your eyes out
Some will burn out right before your eyes
Until there's nothing left to see
Some will take you
Then they'll take you
To another galaxy
Little darling
Silvery dreams are
Golden in the morning
Dreams in velvet
Sew them on the evening sky
Thread of hope with
Diamond pearls on
Sew them on the velvet sky
So you can try them on
In your dreams where
Everything you wish will come true
Climb the stars and
They're going to take your gloves off
Make a journey
They're going to take your gloves off
Some will lift you higher up
They're going to burn your eyes out
Some will burn out right before your eyes
Until there's nothing left to see
Some will take you
Then they'll take you
To another galaxy
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