"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.
Give to me
My angel, my lover, my friend
Dissolving my mind again
Dissolving my world again
Take my dreams, my wishes, my hopes and my wants
And make them all real just once
Tonight
Fall away
Walking on water
To see if the surface still breaks
Further down
Uncertainty goes with its curse
Of questions of virtue and worth
Inside
Fall away
Walking on water
To see if the surface still breaks
And I hold on now to
Give in to this taste of
One chance to be broken
Falling here and I send for
My soul to be saved
Hold this light before my time
When I stand 'til I break
Watch this fallin' from the end!
Drink of the water, just swallow it down
To taste, absorb, below, below, below
And fear for the drowning
Drink of the water, just swallow it down
To taste, absorb, below, below, below
To fear for the drowning
And nothing can touch me now
And no one can bring me out
This ethereal comfort starts to wear itself thin
Dazed and back where I started
Feel this fear creeping in
As the nightmare grows clearer
I see nothing is right
And I see
See
Sideways
All I believed is lost and shattered and
Sideways now
This fragile cloak so torn and tattered is
Sideways
Forcing me to notice this world so
Sideways now
Failing, falling, breaking, turning so
Sideways
Just pull me in and shove me under
Sideways
Just hold me down and end what's left of me
I fall from the light
At peace here
The water is fine
My angel, my lover, my friend
Dissolving my mind again
Dissolving my world again
Take my dreams, my wishes, my hopes and my wants
And make them all real just once
Tonight
Fall away
Walking on water
To see if the surface still breaks
Further down
Uncertainty goes with its curse
Of questions of virtue and worth
Inside
Fall away
Walking on water
To see if the surface still breaks
And I hold on now to
Give in to this taste of
One chance to be broken
Falling here and I send for
My soul to be saved
Hold this light before my time
When I stand 'til I break
Watch this fallin' from the end!
Drink of the water, just swallow it down
To taste, absorb, below, below, below
And fear for the drowning
Drink of the water, just swallow it down
To taste, absorb, below, below, below
To fear for the drowning
And nothing can touch me now
And no one can bring me out
This ethereal comfort starts to wear itself thin
Dazed and back where I started
Feel this fear creeping in
As the nightmare grows clearer
I see nothing is right
And I see
See
Sideways
All I believed is lost and shattered and
Sideways now
This fragile cloak so torn and tattered is
Sideways
Forcing me to notice this world so
Sideways now
Failing, falling, breaking, turning so
Sideways
Just pull me in and shove me under
Sideways
Just hold me down and end what's left of me
I fall from the light
At peace here
The water is fine
Lyrics submitted by sokorny
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