"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've been a victim to the blade against myself
Bloodletting all of my soul
Suck in, paralyzed in this vortex
Reduced to silence
In the dark I've lingered too long
This sharpened axe, beam of light
I reach for and I master
Wield against these shadows
It's purpose now revealed in silence
Keep searching, question if this light ends
Now I will strike and dig with precision
Introspective eye, erase the concept
I lost my fears and the notion of time
I healed my sorrow
All boundaries are illusion
When you reach the center light
And reinforce the striking power
By chance you're followed
It's purpose now revealed in silence
Keep searching, question if this light ends
All ghosts dwelling in, inside, in the heart
I see them all, release their shadow
Bloodletting all of my soul
Suck in, paralyzed in this vortex
Reduced to silence
In the dark I've lingered too long
This sharpened axe, beam of light
I reach for and I master
Wield against these shadows
It's purpose now revealed in silence
Keep searching, question if this light ends
Now I will strike and dig with precision
Introspective eye, erase the concept
I lost my fears and the notion of time
I healed my sorrow
All boundaries are illusion
When you reach the center light
And reinforce the striking power
By chance you're followed
It's purpose now revealed in silence
Keep searching, question if this light ends
All ghosts dwelling in, inside, in the heart
I see them all, release their shadow
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Fast Car
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This song is about how you can compress the mind and shape like a axe to just cut through everything and do what you have to, or want to. You have to see it visualized, it's not like shaping your brain like a real axe, it's just a metaphor.
"All boundaries are illusion When you reach the center light And reinforce the striking power"
There's no limits when you reach the center light (brain) and reinforce the striking power (reinforce all the minds different forces). That's what I mean with compress the mind, unite all our senses.
I know this because Joe himself said so before performing the song at a concert.