"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.
Careful what you say
This time of year
Tends to weaken me
And have a little decency
And let me cry in peace
But there's a place where I
Erase the challenges I've been through
Where I know every corner
Every street-name
All by heart
And so it is a part of my
Courageous plan to leave
With a broken heart
Tucked away under my sleeve
I wanna go home for Christmas
Let me go home this year
I wanna go home for Christmas
Let me go home this year
I'll pack my bags
And leave before the sun rises tomorrow
'Cause we act more like strangers for each day
That I am here
But I have people close to me
Who never will desert me
Who remind me frequently
What I was like as a child
And so it is a part of my
Courageous plan to leave
With a broken heart
Tucked away under my sleeve
I wanna go home for Christmas
Let me go home this year
I wanna go home for Christmas
Let me go home this year
I don't know what my future holds
Or who I'll choose to love me
But I can tell you where I'm from
And who loved me to life
And so it is a part of my
Courageous plan to leave
With a broken heart
Tucked away under my sleeve
I wanna go home for Christmas
Let me go home this year
I wanna go home for Christmas
Let me go home this year
I wanna go home for Christmas
Let me go home this year
I wanna go home this Christmas
Let me go home this year
This time of year
Tends to weaken me
And have a little decency
And let me cry in peace
But there's a place where I
Erase the challenges I've been through
Where I know every corner
Every street-name
All by heart
And so it is a part of my
Courageous plan to leave
With a broken heart
Tucked away under my sleeve
I wanna go home for Christmas
Let me go home this year
I wanna go home for Christmas
Let me go home this year
I'll pack my bags
And leave before the sun rises tomorrow
'Cause we act more like strangers for each day
That I am here
But I have people close to me
Who never will desert me
Who remind me frequently
What I was like as a child
And so it is a part of my
Courageous plan to leave
With a broken heart
Tucked away under my sleeve
I wanna go home for Christmas
Let me go home this year
I wanna go home for Christmas
Let me go home this year
I don't know what my future holds
Or who I'll choose to love me
But I can tell you where I'm from
And who loved me to life
And so it is a part of my
Courageous plan to leave
With a broken heart
Tucked away under my sleeve
I wanna go home for Christmas
Let me go home this year
I wanna go home for Christmas
Let me go home this year
I wanna go home for Christmas
Let me go home this year
I wanna go home this Christmas
Let me go home this year
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Fast Car
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