"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'm just a man but I know that I'm damned
All the dead seem to know where I am
Till it began on the night of my birth
We'll be done in a turn of the earth
Lie where I land let my bones turn to sand
I was born on the lake and I don't want to leave
Every eye on the coast ever more
Will remember the sight of the ghost on the shore
Under the waves and the earth of an age
Lie a thousand old northerners graves
Deep in the night when the moon's glowing bright
They come rising up into the night
Die if I must let my bones turn to dust
I'm the Lord of the lake and I don't want to leave
All who sail off the coast ever more
Will remember the tale of the ghost on the shore
I'm goin' away for a long time
I'm goin' away for a long time
Lie where I land let my bones turn to sand
I was born on the lake and I don't want to leave
Every eye on the coast ever more
Will remember the sight of the ghost on the shore
Die if I must let my bones turn to dust
I'm the lord of the lake and I don't want to leave
All who sail off the coast ever more
Will remember the tale of the ghost on the shore
I'm goin' away for a long time
All the dead seem to know where I am
Till it began on the night of my birth
We'll be done in a turn of the earth
Lie where I land let my bones turn to sand
I was born on the lake and I don't want to leave
Every eye on the coast ever more
Will remember the sight of the ghost on the shore
Under the waves and the earth of an age
Lie a thousand old northerners graves
Deep in the night when the moon's glowing bright
They come rising up into the night
Die if I must let my bones turn to dust
I'm the Lord of the lake and I don't want to leave
All who sail off the coast ever more
Will remember the tale of the ghost on the shore
I'm goin' away for a long time
I'm goin' away for a long time
Lie where I land let my bones turn to sand
I was born on the lake and I don't want to leave
Every eye on the coast ever more
Will remember the sight of the ghost on the shore
Die if I must let my bones turn to dust
I'm the lord of the lake and I don't want to leave
All who sail off the coast ever more
Will remember the tale of the ghost on the shore
I'm goin' away for a long time
Lyrics submitted by Academiax, edited by Macuahuitl, Moooney, Sayb00
Ghost on the Shore Lyrics as written by Ben Schneider
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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