"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 take offer of your open window, oh
And permit myself the nearness of you
Even just the scent of what you've left behind
Drives me in circles of lust
Oh your crumbs and your dust
I enter each room and perform for you
Might you love me alone for my skill and grace
How we tease and chase
This song for you
I hum in your favorite key
Please render me adoringly
But sweet ribbons you vex me
When your treachery holds me fast
My adoration only led me straight into your trap
I beheld them a gift for me
Never dreamed they'd extinguish me
Though perfumed, my wings are torn
A fallen warrior
Oh why do you despise
Only criticize me
Your wrath collides
With the love that resides
In kaleidoscope eyes
You care not for my speed and bravery
You only think me base and dirty
But I love you still darling
You multiply in my eyes
I wished only to care for you
Make beautiful your castaways
You see all life is bound with this grace
I regenerate hope with every morsel on which I feed
And in return all I ask is compassion and tenderness
That's all any lover really needs
And now you know
I cherished you so
I'll perish though, become your dust
And permit myself the nearness of you
Even just the scent of what you've left behind
Drives me in circles of lust
Oh your crumbs and your dust
I enter each room and perform for you
Might you love me alone for my skill and grace
How we tease and chase
This song for you
I hum in your favorite key
Please render me adoringly
But sweet ribbons you vex me
When your treachery holds me fast
My adoration only led me straight into your trap
I beheld them a gift for me
Never dreamed they'd extinguish me
Though perfumed, my wings are torn
A fallen warrior
Oh why do you despise
Only criticize me
Your wrath collides
With the love that resides
In kaleidoscope eyes
You care not for my speed and bravery
You only think me base and dirty
But I love you still darling
You multiply in my eyes
I wished only to care for you
Make beautiful your castaways
You see all life is bound with this grace
I regenerate hope with every morsel on which I feed
And in return all I ask is compassion and tenderness
That's all any lover really needs
And now you know
I cherished you so
I'll perish though, become your dust
Lyrics submitted by Mellow_Harsher
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Fast Car
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