"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.
It's a hurried up life
But it's the life I choose
No use in asking me to slow down
Cause I got nothing to lose
But time and time is all I've got
You know I born standing up with a guitar in my hand
I'm not trying to come on like Hollywood
But Hollywood is what I am
When we come into a new town
Everybody's there
When we play our music
Hands are in the air
When the music's over
You wonder where we are
I'm standing in the silence
With my old guitar
Rock is my life and this is my song
It's a crying shame
That some of us have not survived
No use in asking how it happened
But very few are left alive
I just wanna keep on makin' music
We gotta keep on keepin' on
You're only as good as your last record
I know that someday we'll be gone, gone
When we come into a new town
Everybody's there
When we play our music
Hands are in the air
When the music's over
You wonder where we are
I'm standing in the silence
With my old guitar
Rock is my life and this is my song
When we come into a new town
Everybody's there
When we play our music
Candles light the air
When the music's over, over
You wonder where we are
I'm standing in the silence
With my old guitar, my only friend
Rock is my life and this is my song
But it's the life I choose
No use in asking me to slow down
Cause I got nothing to lose
But time and time is all I've got
You know I born standing up with a guitar in my hand
I'm not trying to come on like Hollywood
But Hollywood is what I am
When we come into a new town
Everybody's there
When we play our music
Hands are in the air
When the music's over
You wonder where we are
I'm standing in the silence
With my old guitar
Rock is my life and this is my song
It's a crying shame
That some of us have not survived
No use in asking how it happened
But very few are left alive
I just wanna keep on makin' music
We gotta keep on keepin' on
You're only as good as your last record
I know that someday we'll be gone, gone
When we come into a new town
Everybody's there
When we play our music
Hands are in the air
When the music's over
You wonder where we are
I'm standing in the silence
With my old guitar
Rock is my life and this is my song
When we come into a new town
Everybody's there
When we play our music
Candles light the air
When the music's over, over
You wonder where we are
I'm standing in the silence
With my old guitar, my only friend
Rock is my life and this is my song
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings
Rock Is My Life and This Is My Song Lyrics as written by Randy Bachman
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
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Fast Car
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Great version of a great song,
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As a thirteen year old kid, I loved the sound of the music. At seventeen, when I re-listened to it, I loved the lyrics. Forty three years later!! ( what on earth happened inbetween) I just adore the cacophony of everything, including cow bells(?)