"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.
On the road to everywhere,
There’s valleys and hills.
And on the trip through time and space,
There’s pitfalls and thrills.
Well, I’ll take some over the others,
Any day of the week.
At the end of it all,
There’s a bottom line,
It’s a smooth ride I seek.
Well, I’m looking for a calm trip,
And a curled up lip and a cushion on the whip,
When it’s over now.
But in this smokey bar,
I can’t see if it in front of my face,
And this, this hazy atmosphere,
Ain’t really the planning place.
Well, I don’t know whether I’m to rise or to fall,
I’m back-step slammin’,
Or a head-first jammin’,
In a hallway or wall.
Well I know it’ll unfold,
But a plan is just a cheater’s way,
Of gettin’ your fortune told.
When you’re old, it’ll be, it’ll be.
And the band sells the beer,
And the bouncers, they just interfere,
It’s the girls that keep this place alive,
And the music, it helps us all survive,
Carry me over now.
Here the ears are cloudy,
And the music loses its sense.
With the beer in my head,
As their stain glass reds,
As they’re solid thick and dense.
And the poetry lost in the smoke,
And the lies, and the lies, and the liquid.
At the end of it all,
It’s a new-born’s joke,
And allegations he’s a sick kid.
The singer sings of mysterious things,
But nobody listens to the message he brings,
She just needs the cash to get by,
And they get what they need, I guess they do.
And the band sells the beer,
And the bouncers, they just interfere,
It’s the girls that keep this place alive,
And the music, it helps us all survive,
Carry me over now.
Well, everything’s going up and down,
In a round-about way,
And the night seems to be the cure for it all,
Well, at the end of the night starts the day.
I don’t know whether I’m to rise or to fall,
At the end of it all, there’s a bottom line,
And it’s a smooth ride, that’s all.
Well, I’m looking for a calm trip,
And a curled up lip and a cushion on the whip,
When it’s over now.
And the band sells the beer,
And the bouncers, they just interfere,
It’s the girls that keep this place alive,
And the music, it helps us all survive,
Carry me over now.
There’s valleys and hills.
And on the trip through time and space,
There’s pitfalls and thrills.
Well, I’ll take some over the others,
Any day of the week.
At the end of it all,
There’s a bottom line,
It’s a smooth ride I seek.
Well, I’m looking for a calm trip,
And a curled up lip and a cushion on the whip,
When it’s over now.
But in this smokey bar,
I can’t see if it in front of my face,
And this, this hazy atmosphere,
Ain’t really the planning place.
Well, I don’t know whether I’m to rise or to fall,
I’m back-step slammin’,
Or a head-first jammin’,
In a hallway or wall.
Well I know it’ll unfold,
But a plan is just a cheater’s way,
Of gettin’ your fortune told.
When you’re old, it’ll be, it’ll be.
And the band sells the beer,
And the bouncers, they just interfere,
It’s the girls that keep this place alive,
And the music, it helps us all survive,
Carry me over now.
Here the ears are cloudy,
And the music loses its sense.
With the beer in my head,
As their stain glass reds,
As they’re solid thick and dense.
And the poetry lost in the smoke,
And the lies, and the lies, and the liquid.
At the end of it all,
It’s a new-born’s joke,
And allegations he’s a sick kid.
The singer sings of mysterious things,
But nobody listens to the message he brings,
She just needs the cash to get by,
And they get what they need, I guess they do.
And the band sells the beer,
And the bouncers, they just interfere,
It’s the girls that keep this place alive,
And the music, it helps us all survive,
Carry me over now.
Well, everything’s going up and down,
In a round-about way,
And the night seems to be the cure for it all,
Well, at the end of the night starts the day.
I don’t know whether I’m to rise or to fall,
At the end of it all, there’s a bottom line,
And it’s a smooth ride, that’s all.
Well, I’m looking for a calm trip,
And a curled up lip and a cushion on the whip,
When it’s over now.
And the band sells the beer,
And the bouncers, they just interfere,
It’s the girls that keep this place alive,
And the music, it helps us all survive,
Carry me over now.
Lyrics submitted by jayster7
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