"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.
It's time to write; 6:40 on a Saturday night
All my friends are drinking but I'm a different type
Sober the last 12 months so for the last 12 months
The only bars that I've frequented are the written ones
The only draught that I'm swallowing is the night air
Wallowing into my mind's lair, yeah, I'm right there
I be the thought in my brain sparking electrical impulses
To travel to fingers to strike the keys again
So familiar the feeling of disengaging potential
Embracing destiny, never experimental
And gauging the level; happy with knowledge of where I'm at
The knowledge that I got more heart within a single track
Than cats have got up in their catalogue and that ain't vanity
It's a fact that most rappers apparently
Would rather be hard and intellectually void
Than be smart and lack the credit of following through with all their noise
They acting like they king of the castle but they regular folk
Constipated monotone flows; Keanu Reeves of the rap show
And I'm Constantine burning these rodents
Tryna cook like Ratatouillé but serving nothing but steaming loads
It's absolutely ridiculous ridiculing these retards
For being retarded but that's just how it goes
It's absolutely truthfully maybe 20 percent
Of all the reason behind why I choose to vent
Another 30 is love and the other 50 necessity
For this world needs emissaries
Purveyors of knowledge; forget ya college professor
'Cos he gets paid to simply plagiarise tomes of dead vetters
And present 'em like they something fresh
Ain't fresh about the education system getting you all in its net
Reeling in the free-thinkers and churning 'em out as automatons
So where the drop-outs at? Let's get our knowledge on!
All my friends are drinking but I'm a different type
Sober the last 12 months so for the last 12 months
The only bars that I've frequented are the written ones
The only draught that I'm swallowing is the night air
Wallowing into my mind's lair, yeah, I'm right there
I be the thought in my brain sparking electrical impulses
To travel to fingers to strike the keys again
So familiar the feeling of disengaging potential
Embracing destiny, never experimental
And gauging the level; happy with knowledge of where I'm at
The knowledge that I got more heart within a single track
Than cats have got up in their catalogue and that ain't vanity
It's a fact that most rappers apparently
Would rather be hard and intellectually void
Than be smart and lack the credit of following through with all their noise
They acting like they king of the castle but they regular folk
Constipated monotone flows; Keanu Reeves of the rap show
And I'm Constantine burning these rodents
Tryna cook like Ratatouillé but serving nothing but steaming loads
It's absolutely ridiculous ridiculing these retards
For being retarded but that's just how it goes
It's absolutely truthfully maybe 20 percent
Of all the reason behind why I choose to vent
Another 30 is love and the other 50 necessity
For this world needs emissaries
Purveyors of knowledge; forget ya college professor
'Cos he gets paid to simply plagiarise tomes of dead vetters
And present 'em like they something fresh
Ain't fresh about the education system getting you all in its net
Reeling in the free-thinkers and churning 'em out as automatons
So where the drop-outs at? Let's get our knowledge on!
Lyrics submitted by DarkSidePoet
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Fast Car
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I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
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