"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.
feels like the weight of seven sorrows
is hanging on my heart
and my tears are so heavy
they could rip me apart
i caress the pain
try to figure it out
but i still fall apart
‘til i pray out loud
suffering silent
is a global issue
it don’t matter your age
it’s a body bag to fit you
and it’s tragic
written like a classic
where everybody dies and only God’s left asking
wishing on a streetlight, gonna be a long night
fuck the president cuz he can’t seem to get his mind right
and ghetto block to ghetto block the hustle’s on
people got to eat even if the work is wrong
so, slowly we keep dying, our souls can’t rest
mothers bury babies with a heaving chest
so i’m stressed the fuck out from the collective strain
so much blood on our hands to wash in the rain
Chorus
i belong to you and you belong to me
we can’t make it through what we’re going through
without each other
streets are filled with hollow eyes
from slaving for a system that never provides
and the American dream is all propaganda
to parents everywhere who can’t feed they families
work, work, work ‘til you die
still have nothing might as well get high
that’s the motto, see the cat with the bottle?
posted on the corner? he not gon’ see tomorrow
cuz it’s cold outside, numbing to the bone
and when he lost his job, he lost his home
and the screaming schizophrenic, think she knows the truth
cuz she says the world is over and ain’t shit to do
lovers keep crying, sisters keep sighing
a revolution’s not a dream, we just stopped trying
and we gon’ have to change or die
Chorus
we’re all tied together in a maze of pain
walking towards the end, closing credit, final frame
it’s in slow motion and crystally clear
fuck rappers, the world is in danger this year
i can hear the pleading even when i’m sleeping
it rises from the street and interrupts my breathing
hopeless i know it sounds
but take a look around, everything is falling down
and i refuse to watch like a pretty girl who can’t speak
beautiful resistance when my poem hits the beat
no retreat, no surrender
keep pieces of the sun for when it’s cold in december
let this bang on every street
to wake the hearts of those still ‘sleep
let this bang on every street
to wake the hearts of those still ‘sleep
is hanging on my heart
and my tears are so heavy
they could rip me apart
i caress the pain
try to figure it out
but i still fall apart
‘til i pray out loud
suffering silent
is a global issue
it don’t matter your age
it’s a body bag to fit you
and it’s tragic
written like a classic
where everybody dies and only God’s left asking
wishing on a streetlight, gonna be a long night
fuck the president cuz he can’t seem to get his mind right
and ghetto block to ghetto block the hustle’s on
people got to eat even if the work is wrong
so, slowly we keep dying, our souls can’t rest
mothers bury babies with a heaving chest
so i’m stressed the fuck out from the collective strain
so much blood on our hands to wash in the rain
Chorus
i belong to you and you belong to me
we can’t make it through what we’re going through
without each other
streets are filled with hollow eyes
from slaving for a system that never provides
and the American dream is all propaganda
to parents everywhere who can’t feed they families
work, work, work ‘til you die
still have nothing might as well get high
that’s the motto, see the cat with the bottle?
posted on the corner? he not gon’ see tomorrow
cuz it’s cold outside, numbing to the bone
and when he lost his job, he lost his home
and the screaming schizophrenic, think she knows the truth
cuz she says the world is over and ain’t shit to do
lovers keep crying, sisters keep sighing
a revolution’s not a dream, we just stopped trying
and we gon’ have to change or die
Chorus
we’re all tied together in a maze of pain
walking towards the end, closing credit, final frame
it’s in slow motion and crystally clear
fuck rappers, the world is in danger this year
i can hear the pleading even when i’m sleeping
it rises from the street and interrupts my breathing
hopeless i know it sounds
but take a look around, everything is falling down
and i refuse to watch like a pretty girl who can’t speak
beautiful resistance when my poem hits the beat
no retreat, no surrender
keep pieces of the sun for when it’s cold in december
let this bang on every street
to wake the hearts of those still ‘sleep
let this bang on every street
to wake the hearts of those still ‘sleep
Lyrics submitted by epiwoosh
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