"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.
You say it's time to go
But you don't want to leave
Fooling with the keys
I'd like to see the show
But I just don't think it's that easy
But if it's everywhere you look
If it's easy to see
We'll all be floating on a breeze
Bishop takes a rook
It looks like the way back
Is moving the stone
And I was playing out the role of pretender
Trying to get them straight into line
She said she needed me to defend her
Home, home
You say you're sitting at the bus stop
Waiting at the gate
Got the ticket in your hand
I'm getting kind of hot
I don't seem to have got what you paid for
And it isn't worth the fuss
But it's looking in the way
You know he doesn't understand
It's not the way you planned out the handout
To pay the band
I was standing in the line with the crazies
Smoking half and drinking the rest
Feeling fine and kind of lazy
Hoping I was passing the test
Home, home
But you don't want to leave
Fooling with the keys
I'd like to see the show
But I just don't think it's that easy
But if it's everywhere you look
If it's easy to see
We'll all be floating on a breeze
Bishop takes a rook
It looks like the way back
Is moving the stone
And I was playing out the role of pretender
Trying to get them straight into line
She said she needed me to defend her
Home, home
You say you're sitting at the bus stop
Waiting at the gate
Got the ticket in your hand
I'm getting kind of hot
I don't seem to have got what you paid for
And it isn't worth the fuss
But it's looking in the way
You know he doesn't understand
It's not the way you planned out the handout
To pay the band
I was standing in the line with the crazies
Smoking half and drinking the rest
Feeling fine and kind of lazy
Hoping I was passing the test
Home, home
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings
Home Lyrics as written by Graham Philip Archer Joseph Fidler Walsh
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, O/B/O DistroKid, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
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