"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.
Well they'd better save some space for me
In that growing cottage industry
Where selfishness is currency
People spend more than they make
So I wrapped my head in bandages
From a string of happy accidents
I guess maybe I asked for it
But who am I to say
The closing bell death tolls
Hear the market crash
A crying trader swears he'll get out of the game
The cowboy drinks himself to death
Fresh out of rehab
While they're loading all the rifles on the range
Look up at that Everest
Look down in that Mariana Trench
Look now as the crumbling 405 falls down
When the big one hits
Look out for the plainclothes
Look out for what the wiretap knows
Look out on the ever-widening money trail and where it goes
It takes a lot of gall
To try to please
These dehumanizing entities
I befriended all my enemies
They had my back against the wall
Oh a coward is
What a coward does
I suppose maybe I always was
But I'm sick of it
I've had enough
And now I'm ready for the war
The lion bows his head down
To the ringmaster
With the tightrope stretched so high
Above the crowd
All these faces are contortionists
It must have hurt
Because they all looked as unhappy
As a clown
Look long at that Stonehenge
Look quick is it something you missed
Look in to that smoldering building's bombed out fog
Until it finally lifts
Look up at that big wave
Look down at your other brother's grave
Look hard for a harder something to sacrifice
That's what it takes
That's what it takes
That's what it takes
That's what it takes
That's what it takes
Look up at that Everest
Look down in that Mariana Trench
Look now as the crumbling 405 falls down
Oh when the big one hits
Look out for the plainclothes
Speak soft what the wiretap knows
Look out on that ever-widening money trail
And where it goes
Where does it go?
In that growing cottage industry
Where selfishness is currency
People spend more than they make
So I wrapped my head in bandages
From a string of happy accidents
I guess maybe I asked for it
But who am I to say
The closing bell death tolls
Hear the market crash
A crying trader swears he'll get out of the game
The cowboy drinks himself to death
Fresh out of rehab
While they're loading all the rifles on the range
Look up at that Everest
Look down in that Mariana Trench
Look now as the crumbling 405 falls down
When the big one hits
Look out for the plainclothes
Look out for what the wiretap knows
Look out on the ever-widening money trail and where it goes
It takes a lot of gall
To try to please
These dehumanizing entities
I befriended all my enemies
They had my back against the wall
Oh a coward is
What a coward does
I suppose maybe I always was
But I'm sick of it
I've had enough
And now I'm ready for the war
The lion bows his head down
To the ringmaster
With the tightrope stretched so high
Above the crowd
All these faces are contortionists
It must have hurt
Because they all looked as unhappy
As a clown
Look long at that Stonehenge
Look quick is it something you missed
Look in to that smoldering building's bombed out fog
Until it finally lifts
Look up at that big wave
Look down at your other brother's grave
Look hard for a harder something to sacrifice
That's what it takes
That's what it takes
That's what it takes
That's what it takes
That's what it takes
Look up at that Everest
Look down in that Mariana Trench
Look now as the crumbling 405 falls down
Oh when the big one hits
Look out for the plainclothes
Speak soft what the wiretap knows
Look out on that ever-widening money trail
And where it goes
Where does it go?
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