"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.
When we were lovers (lovers)
Feelings
Remembering the accident
The puppy love slipped from your heart
Along with the nonsense
Suddenly you burned our flag
Declared independence
Eternity was cut too short
But I admit
My lover was already gone
I just warmed up the seat
For somebody new
That you wrere bound to meet
That somebody who
Would take the place of me
In your feelings
Gradually you overstayed
Our memories would not be played
To friends in a slide show
There had never been that much to see
At the end of our rainbow
Humidity and last sunbeams
In a vacant lot
My lover was already gone
I just warmed up the seat
For somebody new
That you wrere bound to meet (lovers)
That somebody who
Would take the place of me (lovers)
In your feelings
Whoa, oh, oh, oh
Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
My lover was already gone
I just warmed up the seat
For somebody new
That you wrere bound to meet (lovers)
That somebody who
Would take the place of me (lovers)
In your feelings
When we were lovers
When we were lovers
In your feelings
Feelings
Remembering the accident
The puppy love slipped from your heart
Along with the nonsense
Suddenly you burned our flag
Declared independence
Eternity was cut too short
But I admit
My lover was already gone
I just warmed up the seat
For somebody new
That you wrere bound to meet
That somebody who
Would take the place of me
In your feelings
Gradually you overstayed
Our memories would not be played
To friends in a slide show
There had never been that much to see
At the end of our rainbow
Humidity and last sunbeams
In a vacant lot
My lover was already gone
I just warmed up the seat
For somebody new
That you wrere bound to meet (lovers)
That somebody who
Would take the place of me (lovers)
In your feelings
Whoa, oh, oh, oh
Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
My lover was already gone
I just warmed up the seat
For somebody new
That you wrere bound to meet (lovers)
That somebody who
Would take the place of me (lovers)
In your feelings
When we were lovers
When we were lovers
In your feelings
Lyrics submitted by Fayiirah
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Fast Car
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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I like how they use the metaphor of the end of a rainbow to signify the death of their relationship, comparing the usual pot of gold to what a rainbow truly is (mist and sunlight) and ... a whole lot of nothing (an empty lot). Very poetic, I think.
What's the accident? That the love slipped away, or something that led to it?