"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 seen so many places and so many faces
Left behind so many traces of my soul
I carry all these voices with the ringing in my ears
Some girl's tears and the rhythm of the road
Sometimes my life takes more than I can give
That's when I gotta go
Where no one's around
But the silence and the sound
Of "Three Little Birds" for company
I got a sip of something strong
A secondhand "Old Man and the Sea"
Out here with me
Me and Marley
Me and Marley
God knows I love my life and I thank Him every night
But sometimes I feel the knife of responsibility
And the struggle and the strife, what's wrong and what's right
Has got me searching for the light and my place of peace
Where no one's around
But the silence and the sound
Of "Three Little Birds" for company
I got a sip of something strong
A secondhand "Old Man and the Sea"
Out here with me
Me and Marley
We all live in chaos, noise and negativity
But I still believe in one love bigger than you and me
You and me
You and me and Marley
You and me and Marley
I hear redemption's song
A whisper on the sea
Out here with me
Out here with me
Me and Marley
Me and Marley
Me and Marley
Me and Marley
I hear redemption's song
Me and Marley
Me and Marley
Me and Marley
Left behind so many traces of my soul
I carry all these voices with the ringing in my ears
Some girl's tears and the rhythm of the road
Sometimes my life takes more than I can give
That's when I gotta go
Where no one's around
But the silence and the sound
Of "Three Little Birds" for company
I got a sip of something strong
A secondhand "Old Man and the Sea"
Out here with me
Me and Marley
Me and Marley
God knows I love my life and I thank Him every night
But sometimes I feel the knife of responsibility
And the struggle and the strife, what's wrong and what's right
Has got me searching for the light and my place of peace
Where no one's around
But the silence and the sound
Of "Three Little Birds" for company
I got a sip of something strong
A secondhand "Old Man and the Sea"
Out here with me
Me and Marley
We all live in chaos, noise and negativity
But I still believe in one love bigger than you and me
You and me
You and me and Marley
You and me and Marley
I hear redemption's song
A whisper on the sea
Out here with me
Out here with me
Me and Marley
Me and Marley
Me and Marley
Me and Marley
I hear redemption's song
Me and Marley
Me and Marley
Me and Marley
Lyrics submitted by SongMeanings
Marley Lyrics as written by Tom Douglas Kenneth Chesney
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
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