"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 don't stay out all night
I don't close down the bars
And I don't make a fool of myself
Well, I don't drink too much
And I don't get too loud
And I don't ever raise too much hell
But there's a first time for everything
Since you said goodbye
There's not much of anything
That I haven't tried
To somehow get over you
There's no tellin' what I might do
'Cause if I've learned anything
There's a first time for everything
I don't call up old flames
'Cause I don't have a blackbook
I don't spend all my time in the past
I don't wake up with strangers
'Cause I don't sleep around
No I don't believe in love that won't last
But there's a first time for everything
Since you said goodbye
There's not much of anything
That I haven't tried
To somehow get over you
There's no tellin' what I might do
'Cause if I've learned anything
There's a first time for everything
Yeah yeah
When I somehow get over you
There's no tellin' what I might do
'Cause if I've learned anything
There's a first time for everything
Yeah yeah
'Cause if I've learned anything
There's a first time for everything
Yeah
Yeah yeah yeah
I don't close down the bars
And I don't make a fool of myself
Well, I don't drink too much
And I don't get too loud
And I don't ever raise too much hell
But there's a first time for everything
Since you said goodbye
There's not much of anything
That I haven't tried
To somehow get over you
There's no tellin' what I might do
'Cause if I've learned anything
There's a first time for everything
I don't call up old flames
'Cause I don't have a blackbook
I don't spend all my time in the past
I don't wake up with strangers
'Cause I don't sleep around
No I don't believe in love that won't last
But there's a first time for everything
Since you said goodbye
There's not much of anything
That I haven't tried
To somehow get over you
There's no tellin' what I might do
'Cause if I've learned anything
There's a first time for everything
Yeah yeah
When I somehow get over you
There's no tellin' what I might do
'Cause if I've learned anything
There's a first time for everything
Yeah yeah
'Cause if I've learned anything
There's a first time for everything
Yeah
Yeah yeah yeah
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings
First Time for Everything Lyrics as written by Porter Howell Dwayne O'brien
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
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Yo La Tengo
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This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
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