"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.
[Hook]
I will settle for
any type of remedy
Prayin' to a thrift store Jesus
He looks a little like me
Same hair, same face
Painter took some liberties
Prayin' to a thrift store Jesus
I really hope he's here
I really hope he's here with me
[Verse 1]
I got this painting
of Jesus from a Goodwill
He look like Richard Marx
But kinda hood, still
And all my friends asked me, "What kind of good will
this picture do for you?"
I said, "It cost me one bill."
It's kinda racist
How they anglicize the faces
And ignore the basic demographics
Based on his location
But I took comfort in it
'Cause there was something in it
It wasn't form or function,
It was busted from a distance
Finished product look like
How I'd painted it if I did it
Novice brushstrokes, can't help but paint within our limits
It looks bad in the dark
It looks awful in light
Like, flip the switch, there's Jesus
singing "Hold On To The Night"
80's Pop star, woo-the-ladies rock star
But who's to say this newbie painter
ain't still moving God's heart
with pure intentions
I ain't caused his heart to move an inch
As Jesus's looking at me
Talking like, "Whose room is this?"
[Repeat hook]
[Verse 2]
(Yeah, yeah)
It wasn't really Jesus
It looked like Keith Green
Replacing Springsteen when he sings with E Street
He looked like Kenny Rogers,
a younger Kenny Loggins,
Sonny Crockett, Barry Gibb
or one of Kenny's fathers
He said "Whose room is this?"
Yeah, you know whose it is
Eyes was on some Mona Lisa-type of Louvre maneuver tricks
Follow my moves,
So pockets full, he saw those broken ties
Saw me tell those homeless types
"I'm broke," and never broke my stride
Followed the shrewdest lies
In movement's time
And who was I?
Colluded sigh
My suicide is foolish pride
Polluted mind
Blunderous each day,
Under this cheap frame,
Forgive my trespasses,
Lead me not in greed's way
It was my frame of reference,
a crude subjective piece,
The pictures of the great physician
I don't get to see
And that's what I need-
A tiny mustard seed
That ever it's fate that grows
And hope that shows what substance brings
He's in the subtle things,
He's in the ugly things
Sometimes it's what we see
Obstructing us from what we need
[Outro]
(Aaah aah aah aah) x14
I will settle for
any type of remedy
Prayin' to a thrift store Jesus
He looks a little like me
Same hair, same face
Painter took some liberties
Prayin' to a thrift store Jesus
I really hope he's here
I really hope he's here with me
[Verse 1]
I got this painting
of Jesus from a Goodwill
He look like Richard Marx
But kinda hood, still
And all my friends asked me, "What kind of good will
this picture do for you?"
I said, "It cost me one bill."
It's kinda racist
How they anglicize the faces
And ignore the basic demographics
Based on his location
But I took comfort in it
'Cause there was something in it
It wasn't form or function,
It was busted from a distance
Finished product look like
How I'd painted it if I did it
Novice brushstrokes, can't help but paint within our limits
It looks bad in the dark
It looks awful in light
Like, flip the switch, there's Jesus
singing "Hold On To The Night"
80's Pop star, woo-the-ladies rock star
But who's to say this newbie painter
ain't still moving God's heart
with pure intentions
I ain't caused his heart to move an inch
As Jesus's looking at me
Talking like, "Whose room is this?"
[Repeat hook]
[Verse 2]
(Yeah, yeah)
It wasn't really Jesus
It looked like Keith Green
Replacing Springsteen when he sings with E Street
He looked like Kenny Rogers,
a younger Kenny Loggins,
Sonny Crockett, Barry Gibb
or one of Kenny's fathers
He said "Whose room is this?"
Yeah, you know whose it is
Eyes was on some Mona Lisa-type of Louvre maneuver tricks
Follow my moves,
So pockets full, he saw those broken ties
Saw me tell those homeless types
"I'm broke," and never broke my stride
Followed the shrewdest lies
In movement's time
And who was I?
Colluded sigh
My suicide is foolish pride
Polluted mind
Blunderous each day,
Under this cheap frame,
Forgive my trespasses,
Lead me not in greed's way
It was my frame of reference,
a crude subjective piece,
The pictures of the great physician
I don't get to see
And that's what I need-
A tiny mustard seed
That ever it's fate that grows
And hope that shows what substance brings
He's in the subtle things,
He's in the ugly things
Sometimes it's what we see
Obstructing us from what we need
[Outro]
(Aaah aah aah aah) x14
Lyrics submitted by SamuelTorres, edited by NahtanojZ, fineanddandan
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Thanks a ton for the corrections. It took me long enough to get the references I did.
No problem. It took a few listens.