"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.
Remember the first dance we shared?
Recall the night you melted my ugliness away?
The night you left with a kiss so kind
Only a send of beauty left behind
Ah, dear friend I remember the night
The moon and the dreams we shared
Your trembling paw in my hand
Dreaming of that northern land
Touching me with a kiss of a beast
I know my dreams are made of you
Of you and only for you
Your ocean pulls me under
Your voice tears me asunder
Love me before the last petal falls
As a world without a glance
Of the ocean's fair expanse
Such the world would be
If no love did flow in thee
But as my heart is occupied
Your love for me now has to die
Forgive me I need more than you can offer me
Didn't you read the tale
Where happily ever after was to kiss a frog?
Don't you know this tale
In which all I ever wanted
I'll never have
For who could ever learn to love a beast?
However cold the wind and rain
I'll be there to ease your pain
However cruel the mirrors of sin
Remember beauty is found within
Forever shall the wolf in me desire the sheep in you
Recall the night you melted my ugliness away?
The night you left with a kiss so kind
Only a send of beauty left behind
Ah, dear friend I remember the night
The moon and the dreams we shared
Your trembling paw in my hand
Dreaming of that northern land
Touching me with a kiss of a beast
I know my dreams are made of you
Of you and only for you
Your ocean pulls me under
Your voice tears me asunder
Love me before the last petal falls
As a world without a glance
Of the ocean's fair expanse
Such the world would be
If no love did flow in thee
But as my heart is occupied
Your love for me now has to die
Forgive me I need more than you can offer me
Didn't you read the tale
Where happily ever after was to kiss a frog?
Don't you know this tale
In which all I ever wanted
I'll never have
For who could ever learn to love a beast?
However cold the wind and rain
I'll be there to ease your pain
However cruel the mirrors of sin
Remember beauty is found within
Forever shall the wolf in me desire the sheep in you
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in my opinion you're absolutely right! but i've noticed, that belle refers to him as friend from the start, so after all she didn't loved him... well, about the beast's voice, tuomas loves to do those kind of things (like he did in the poet and the pendulum), and you might be right, however, i prefer to see him as a beast from the beginning. although, i cant deny, that beauty's voice at the end is very dramatic... it seems to me that she cries. =,( and i'm sure that that moment at the end wont be just because it's very beautiful (at least for me), there must be something more...
and of course every true nightwish fan should know, that he thinks of himself as a beast, and i think he uses this story to tell about his own life, how once beauty went from him... and as i remember, in the beauty of the beast he speaks about beauty and the love which should be lost, but it's still there, and about that, that he could never find anyone... also, we met this beauty in Gethsemane (or in Gothic Sanctuary) "Another beauty, loved by a beast Another tale of infinite dreams Your eyes, they were my paradise Your smile made my sun rise" and "Without you The poetry within me is dead". poor tuomas, i wonder, who is the one that made him suffer so much... but if not she, we could never listen to such beautiful songs as those... so i guess i'm grateful of her too. (wow, that was mean even for me...)
I think that the woman how made him suffer is Tarja Turunen.