"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.
Anything we should know about your change?
We wrote our names on the last day of summer
On the insides of each other's hands
With empty cans and walls of graffiti
The kind just kids understand
It's not glass or the wires at our feet
That gets us dancing this way
It's the backbeat of these hearts that don't feel the world
That is slipping away
This overpass wasn't made for going down south
For them coming in or us getting out
It's a temple of concrete that sits
With losers and orphans under it
Full of misfits and lovers that just need the cover that it gives
Be counted on and counted in
The well is dry bags are full of grass
There's bottle caps in the rocks
It's louder than you thought and the best kinds of trouble
Happen when the gate is locked
This overpass wasn't made for going out west
For taking a chance or placing your bets
It's a temple of concrete that sits
With losers and orphans under it
Full of misfits and lovers that just need the cover that it gives
Be counted on and counted in
It's not the hustle or the high that doesn't last
The dead leaves or the cheap romance
It's not the pills or the punches they pack
It's the magic that brings us back
This overpass wasn't made for going up north
Taking a seat and going back and forth
It's a temple of concrete that sits
With losers and orphans under it
Full of misfits and lovers that just need the cover that it gives
Be counted on and counted in
We wrote our names on the last day of summer
On the insides of each other's hands
With empty cans and walls of graffiti
The kind just kids understand
It's not glass or the wires at our feet
That gets us dancing this way
It's the backbeat of these hearts that don't feel the world
That is slipping away
This overpass wasn't made for going down south
For them coming in or us getting out
It's a temple of concrete that sits
With losers and orphans under it
Full of misfits and lovers that just need the cover that it gives
Be counted on and counted in
The well is dry bags are full of grass
There's bottle caps in the rocks
It's louder than you thought and the best kinds of trouble
Happen when the gate is locked
This overpass wasn't made for going out west
For taking a chance or placing your bets
It's a temple of concrete that sits
With losers and orphans under it
Full of misfits and lovers that just need the cover that it gives
Be counted on and counted in
It's not the hustle or the high that doesn't last
The dead leaves or the cheap romance
It's not the pills or the punches they pack
It's the magic that brings us back
This overpass wasn't made for going up north
Taking a seat and going back and forth
It's a temple of concrete that sits
With losers and orphans under it
Full of misfits and lovers that just need the cover that it gives
Be counted on and counted in
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings, edited by windandwater313, OneEyedMike
Misfits and Lovers Lyrics as written by Gregory Martin Richling Greg Richling
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
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