"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.
Oh, baby, oh, baby, oh
We both know the truth
If it were the real me and you
This wouldn't be the right thing to do
Now the room is all hazy
We're too lost in the fumes
I feel like it's just me and you
Yeah, we got nothing to lose
It's too late to run away from it all
It's too late to get away from it all
I'm done with running so I give it to you
This moment has caused a reaction
Resulting in a reattachment
Will you take me to nirvana?
I don't think this will last
'Cause you're here in my arms
Oh, baby, oh, baby, oh
We both feel the same
I'm not gonna give you my name
And I don't think you want that to change
We're in this together
We don't know who we are
Even if it's moving too fast
Maybe we should take it too far
It's too late to run away from it all
It's too late to get away from it all
I'm done with running so I give it to you
This moment has caused a reaction
Resulting in a reattachment
Will you take me to nirvana?
I don't think this will last
'Cause you're here in my arms
Will you take me to nirvana?
I don't think this will last
'Cause you're here in my arms
We both know the truth
If it were the real me and you
This wouldn't be the right thing to do
Now the room is all hazy
We're too lost in the fumes
I feel like it's just me and you
Yeah, we got nothing to lose
It's too late to run away from it all
It's too late to get away from it all
I'm done with running so I give it to you
This moment has caused a reaction
Resulting in a reattachment
Will you take me to nirvana?
I don't think this will last
'Cause you're here in my arms
Oh, baby, oh, baby, oh
We both feel the same
I'm not gonna give you my name
And I don't think you want that to change
We're in this together
We don't know who we are
Even if it's moving too fast
Maybe we should take it too far
It's too late to run away from it all
It's too late to get away from it all
I'm done with running so I give it to you
This moment has caused a reaction
Resulting in a reattachment
Will you take me to nirvana?
I don't think this will last
'Cause you're here in my arms
Will you take me to nirvana?
I don't think this will last
'Cause you're here in my arms
Lyrics submitted by oumah, edited by madeleine08
Nirvana Lyrics as written by Harry Craze Anup Paul
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Downtown Music Publishing
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I think this song is about people having an affair and stealing moments to have sex.
"Oh, we both know the truth If it were the real me and you This wouldn't be the right thing to do"
They are both leaving their identities as partnered adults for a moment and putting them aside. They both know it is wrong to have sex with each other but they are doing it anyway.
"It's too late to run away from it all It's too late to get away from it all I'm done with running so I give it to you"
They can't run away from their commitments but they can give their bodies to each other.
"This moment has caused a reaction Resulting in a reattachment Girl, you take me to Nirvana I don't think this will last 'Cause you're here in my arms"
Nirvana is a state of bliss. The ecstasy of illicit lovemaking cannot last forever because the partnered woman can only be in his arms for a short time.
"Oh, baby Oh, baby Oh, we both feel the same I'm not gonna give you my name And I don't think you want that to change"
He's not going to marry this woman and give her his surname. He knows she doesn't want a commitment, just some fun on the side with him.
"We're in this together We don't know who we are Even if it's moving too fast Maybe we should take it too far"
They are both being bad together and they don't even recognize themselves because of what they are doing. He's telling her to go ahead and cheat with him no matter what the consequences.
When I hear this song, the melancholy, aching strain, contrasted with the lyrics reflecting on the emptiness of a desperate physical connection... I think of it as social commentary on today's "hookup culture" where people seek love, get hurt somehow and also jaded by society's expectation ("give her my name"), despair of finding true love, and instead experience the "nirvana" of the present moment.
From Wikipedia, "nirvana" means "blown out" (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana): "In the Buddhist context nirvana refers to the imperturbable stillness of mind after the fires of desire, aversion, and delusion have been finally extinguished. In Hindu philosophy, it is the union with Brahman, the divine ground of existence, and the experience of blissful egolessness"
There is the heartbreaking detachment when having sex without committed desire, that has its own bittersweet beauty.
I actually find this song to be more about drunken and high loneliness and they really know they wouldn't be hooking up if they were sober, but the alcohol has kicked in and they're feeling it in the moment.