"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.
Keep your eyes wide open, babe
If you decide to take the long walk
My city screams of danger
And you're on borrowed time
It comes from a jealous clock
And you're a permanent stranger
So the last of the wild frontier kings
Is held for further questioning
When nothing's left but death and taxes
The matter of the real fact is
You go through life as someone's doormat
Cause you don't get no sportin' chance
There ain't much distance 'tween a pat on the back
And a kick in the pants
You do the Dogtown Shuffle
Now do you talk the talk?
Yes I do!
I do the Dogtown Shuffle
But can you walk the walk?
Lemme see ya do it one time...
Some self-made guy gets it in the ass
At the local mini-mall
Looks more like a warning than an example
And late at night
They said he used to sleep the sleep of the just
I sleep the sleep of the just after
They said the wild boys go head to head
And like the good book says be quick or dead!
So ante up or let 'em go
Cause I'm filing charges on your soul
It's just a joke and you're the punchline
Yeah, the streets are a million laughs
And if I must, well in, God I trust
Everybody else gotta pay cash
You do the Dogtown Shuffle
But can you talk the talk?
Let me hear ya!
You do the Dogtown Shuffle
But can you walk the walk?
Now purely off the record, man
Yeah, I figured I was gonna go down
And get a little breakfast
At the local Taco Truck
Yeah, my guise could use some refinement
But I'm on a self improvement kick these days
So what the fuck?
Hey man, there was a line behind me
A line behind me
Yeah they always try to nail ya
Mom, God, Pie the whole routine
Well here's a little trick that'll never fail ya
In your time of need
You do the Dogtown Shuffle
Yeah, can you talk the talk, baby?
You do the Dogtown Shuffle
Lemme see you walk the walk!
Walk it!
Are ya, are ya, are ya ready boots?
Start walkin'
Scuse me, but I'm new in town
I was wonderin' if I could get directions to your place?
There goes the neighborhood
If you decide to take the long walk
My city screams of danger
And you're on borrowed time
It comes from a jealous clock
And you're a permanent stranger
So the last of the wild frontier kings
Is held for further questioning
When nothing's left but death and taxes
The matter of the real fact is
You go through life as someone's doormat
Cause you don't get no sportin' chance
There ain't much distance 'tween a pat on the back
And a kick in the pants
You do the Dogtown Shuffle
Now do you talk the talk?
Yes I do!
I do the Dogtown Shuffle
But can you walk the walk?
Lemme see ya do it one time...
Some self-made guy gets it in the ass
At the local mini-mall
Looks more like a warning than an example
And late at night
They said he used to sleep the sleep of the just
I sleep the sleep of the just after
They said the wild boys go head to head
And like the good book says be quick or dead!
So ante up or let 'em go
Cause I'm filing charges on your soul
It's just a joke and you're the punchline
Yeah, the streets are a million laughs
And if I must, well in, God I trust
Everybody else gotta pay cash
You do the Dogtown Shuffle
But can you talk the talk?
Let me hear ya!
You do the Dogtown Shuffle
But can you walk the walk?
Now purely off the record, man
Yeah, I figured I was gonna go down
And get a little breakfast
At the local Taco Truck
Yeah, my guise could use some refinement
But I'm on a self improvement kick these days
So what the fuck?
Hey man, there was a line behind me
A line behind me
Yeah they always try to nail ya
Mom, God, Pie the whole routine
Well here's a little trick that'll never fail ya
In your time of need
You do the Dogtown Shuffle
Yeah, can you talk the talk, baby?
You do the Dogtown Shuffle
Lemme see you walk the walk!
Walk it!
Are ya, are ya, are ya ready boots?
Start walkin'
Scuse me, but I'm new in town
I was wonderin' if I could get directions to your place?
There goes the neighborhood
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings
The Dogtown Shuffle Lyrics as written by David Lee Roth Steve John Hunter
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Peermusic Publishing, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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The moniker "Dogtown" is associated with late 1970s-mid 1980s skateboarding culture of Southern California, (i.e. in Los Angeles.)
David Lee Roth's Van Halen (i.e. Van Halen's music from 1978-1984, pre-Sammy Hagar,) emerged from the same Southern California youth culture as "Dogtown," (albeit a few miles away in Pasadena, CA,)
Early Van Halen's sense of aggressive fun, wanderlust, and technical virtuosity were all characteristics embraced and embodied by Dogtown. More than any other rock band of the time, Van Halen came to be associated with that formative period of skateboarding.
"The Dogtown Shuffle" was written by then-former Van Halen vocalist David Lee Roth in 1990. In the song's lyrics, Roth looks back on what compelled kids around his age to become part of "Dogtown." His conclusion is the opposite of what he described in "Just Like Paradise."
In the "Dogtown Shuffle" Roth describes LA as a dangerous city that treats the lyrics' protagonists (kids from Dogtown) as nuisances or worse -- and protagonists who want to escape boredom, seek challenges to prove themselves, and back up their talk by "walking the walk," so to speak.
Roth describes how the Dogtown youth culture was shaped by homelessness, drugs, and parents who treated their children as ne'er-do-wells -- parents for whom there's not too much difference between "a pat on the back" and kicking them out on the street.
Roth, of course, saw "the Dogtown Shuffle" relatively up-close. Although he was playing in a band, many of these people were his age, his friends, or just slightly younger... And his music was the soundtrack to their lifestyle.