"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 a pale imitator of a boy in the sky,
With a cap in his head and a knot in his tie.
I'm the light in the mall when the power is gone,
A shadow in a corner, just playin' along!
I'm gonna lay in my bed, I'm rolling aside,
But if a get a car- A moment to ride.
Because I know if I ever tear living with you
You've got a holding chainAnd you don't know what to do!
You'd stop!
You wanna do it but you don't know what you doin' baby! A-a-a-a-aha!
You wanna feel it, but you don't know what you're feeling tonight!
And if you're thinking, and I don't know what you're thinking baby! A-a-a-a-aha!
You go on thinking and you gonna make it alright!
I'm impregnable, incredible, the setting of quoI'm a late Jimi writer, not a heart and soul.
Got Saturday night, enough's been said.
If I ever had to do it, well, you know I wouldn't care.
I'd just get down, I'm loving the feat, and if I wanna talk back, the message is free!
I never found a ray and...And if you can't partake, you get 'em alive.
You get a heart--ache..
You wanna do it but you don't know what you doin' baby! A-a-a-a-aha!
You wanna feel it, but you don't know what you're feeling tonight!
And if you're thinking, and I don't know what you're thinking baby! A-a-a-a-aha!
You go on thinking and you gonna make it alright!
Every time we try, we get nowhere!
But wouldn't it be nice if we were just normal people, yeah.
Trying so hard to act like we don't care...
But it's true, you do, nothing is left,
So I guess I'm right!
New word, onomatopoeia... boom! Quit acting like you don't wanna be here.
Fuck around and get jumped like leap year.
Glock and a glove make you really wanna leave me a...lone, get off, go'n, go'n.
OK, OK, OK back to the happy zone,
Rap ain't nuttin' but the art talking ish.
My girl look pretty up there, ridin' it.
My plaid pants, my solid future, Asinine ass, and a gorgeous coochie.
I'm an outcast, but you're into me. Summer got mad cause Winter blew me.
That juicy fruit, that shplooshy-shploosh. Generation X on bloop de bloop!
Get duked out, or get duked-duked.
Er'rybody hit the floor, we through the roof, Ha!
Like a chimney, I commend me. How come it be, some lame, man,
Nigga talkin' 'bout "Aww, he don't rap enough"
But y'all rap a lot and I'm like "Wrap it up, hoe"
Ye ain' Scarface, ye ain' Willie D, Ye ain' Bushwick, ye ain' killin' me.
Better play wit' yo ma'fuckin' mama, Bet you still stay wi' yo ma'fuckin' mama.
Keep sleeping on me, I'mma rock my pajamas!
In the daytime I swear, I promise.
Dare a nigger say som', tear a nigga face off. How come blacks don't play baseball?
Y'all white, know y'all can taste all this fly shit! I stay finna take off.
Do ya damn thang, do ya thang-a-thang.
Do ya damn thang, do ya thang-a-thang!
Do ya damn thang, do ya thang-a-thang.
Ye ain't fresh squeezed juice, nigga, you that Tang!
Do ya damn thang, do ya thang-a-thang.
Do ya damn thang, do ya thang-a-thang.
Do ya damn thang, do ya thang-a-thang.
But is ya really Slick Rick? No you Dana Dane!
Bet it up, head erupts, A lava language, and the vocals volcanic.
If it ain't fix, don't broke it, don't panic,
If it ain't this, it ain't shit, goddammit,
If it ain't this, it ain't dope, it don't flush,
If it ain't hip, it don't hop, well then hush.
Man, they sound like! Man, they stole yo! Man, they look like-! Nope it ain't us.
Ah, Do ya damn thang, do ya thang-a-thang.
Do ya damn thang, do ya thang-a-thang,
Do ya damn thang, do ya thang-a-thang.
Is ya really Slick Rick? No you Dana Dane!
Do ya damn thang, do ya thang-a-thang!
Do ya damn thang, do ya thang-a-thang!Do ya damn thang, do ya thang-a-thang!
Ye ain't fresh squeezed juice, nigga, you that Tang!
Every time we try, we get nowhere.
But wouldn't it be nice if we were just normal people, yeah.
Trying so hard to act like we don't care (I don't care)
But it's true, you do, nothing is left.
So I guess I'm right!
Flip the page, our days are revelations (Hiiide!)
Space is strange, doctor, I've got no patience!
Oh, it's all a part of the process (Okay, okay)
Nothin's new, it's true, cool, I admit, shit, I guess you're right!
With a cap in his head and a knot in his tie.
I'm the light in the mall when the power is gone,
A shadow in a corner, just playin' along!
I'm gonna lay in my bed, I'm rolling aside,
But if a get a car- A moment to ride.
Because I know if I ever tear living with you
You've got a holding chainAnd you don't know what to do!
You'd stop!
You wanna do it but you don't know what you doin' baby! A-a-a-a-aha!
You wanna feel it, but you don't know what you're feeling tonight!
And if you're thinking, and I don't know what you're thinking baby! A-a-a-a-aha!
You go on thinking and you gonna make it alright!
I'm impregnable, incredible, the setting of quoI'm a late Jimi writer, not a heart and soul.
Got Saturday night, enough's been said.
If I ever had to do it, well, you know I wouldn't care.
I'd just get down, I'm loving the feat, and if I wanna talk back, the message is free!
I never found a ray and...And if you can't partake, you get 'em alive.
You get a heart--ache..
You wanna do it but you don't know what you doin' baby! A-a-a-a-aha!
You wanna feel it, but you don't know what you're feeling tonight!
And if you're thinking, and I don't know what you're thinking baby! A-a-a-a-aha!
You go on thinking and you gonna make it alright!
Every time we try, we get nowhere!
But wouldn't it be nice if we were just normal people, yeah.
Trying so hard to act like we don't care...
But it's true, you do, nothing is left,
So I guess I'm right!
New word, onomatopoeia... boom! Quit acting like you don't wanna be here.
Fuck around and get jumped like leap year.
Glock and a glove make you really wanna leave me a...lone, get off, go'n, go'n.
OK, OK, OK back to the happy zone,
Rap ain't nuttin' but the art talking ish.
My girl look pretty up there, ridin' it.
My plaid pants, my solid future, Asinine ass, and a gorgeous coochie.
I'm an outcast, but you're into me. Summer got mad cause Winter blew me.
That juicy fruit, that shplooshy-shploosh. Generation X on bloop de bloop!
Get duked out, or get duked-duked.
Er'rybody hit the floor, we through the roof, Ha!
Like a chimney, I commend me. How come it be, some lame, man,
Nigga talkin' 'bout "Aww, he don't rap enough"
But y'all rap a lot and I'm like "Wrap it up, hoe"
Ye ain' Scarface, ye ain' Willie D, Ye ain' Bushwick, ye ain' killin' me.
Better play wit' yo ma'fuckin' mama, Bet you still stay wi' yo ma'fuckin' mama.
Keep sleeping on me, I'mma rock my pajamas!
In the daytime I swear, I promise.
Dare a nigger say som', tear a nigga face off. How come blacks don't play baseball?
Y'all white, know y'all can taste all this fly shit! I stay finna take off.
Do ya damn thang, do ya thang-a-thang.
Do ya damn thang, do ya thang-a-thang!
Do ya damn thang, do ya thang-a-thang.
Ye ain't fresh squeezed juice, nigga, you that Tang!
Do ya damn thang, do ya thang-a-thang.
Do ya damn thang, do ya thang-a-thang.
Do ya damn thang, do ya thang-a-thang.
But is ya really Slick Rick? No you Dana Dane!
Bet it up, head erupts, A lava language, and the vocals volcanic.
If it ain't fix, don't broke it, don't panic,
If it ain't this, it ain't shit, goddammit,
If it ain't this, it ain't dope, it don't flush,
If it ain't hip, it don't hop, well then hush.
Man, they sound like! Man, they stole yo! Man, they look like-! Nope it ain't us.
Ah, Do ya damn thang, do ya thang-a-thang.
Do ya damn thang, do ya thang-a-thang,
Do ya damn thang, do ya thang-a-thang.
Is ya really Slick Rick? No you Dana Dane!
Do ya damn thang, do ya thang-a-thang!
Do ya damn thang, do ya thang-a-thang!Do ya damn thang, do ya thang-a-thang!
Ye ain't fresh squeezed juice, nigga, you that Tang!
Every time we try, we get nowhere.
But wouldn't it be nice if we were just normal people, yeah.
Trying so hard to act like we don't care (I don't care)
But it's true, you do, nothing is left.
So I guess I'm right!
Flip the page, our days are revelations (Hiiide!)
Space is strange, doctor, I've got no patience!
Oh, it's all a part of the process (Okay, okay)
Nothin's new, it's true, cool, I admit, shit, I guess you're right!
Lyrics submitted by yamsrock
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I think this song is an allegory for suicide (wait what!) the song starts off as follows
I'm a pale imitator of a boy in the sky with a cap in his head and a knot in his tie
from this we can see the singer pretends he was dead, from boy in the sky, and i believe cap in his head means bullet for the fact of he didn't use "cap on his head" but, rather "cap in his head. It is a bit more of a stretch but the knot on his tie could symbolise a noose. The main chorus in the non rap section seems to be taunting this character by saying
"You wanna do it but you don't no what your doing baby" meaning he wants to do himself in but is told about the consquences, it then goes "You wanna feel it, but you don't know what your feeling tonight" he wants to feel happy but is sprung about strange feelings leading him to be depressed. The Rap portion is him getting angry rather than his passive aggresive self. He is tired of his sexual frustration, and convinced he is superior to someone of group of people. In the uncensored version however, the song ends with the realization that he is shit and blathers incoherently through sadness. I would explain the song in more detail but I feel that should be a job for you.
@tman111137 I agree man