"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.
in the moment I was losing my head
and I was
reachin' forward I was already there
readin' too much and losin' my head
this information caused a cut in the line
now I'm remembering good and thinking so much it's so nice.
the print is smaller than the ants in the grass
I'll have to put it away now
in the morning there are things to be read
words to be said and food to be fed but I
won't be there. I'll be clutchin' on a
megaphone pointed at my head, would you be
there, would you kindly, scream this word for word so loud and clear
I can't remember it all, it needs to be clear, I tell you, if
the feeling drops out of your voice, would you
kindly pick it up
this is how, I'll go out tonight
dressed in blue, by the book tonight
this is how, I'll go out tonight
but I don't need a book.
we're talkin' anchors, talkin' ships, we're
talkin' seas, we're talkin' everything you need
you should be workin' now, not only askin'
how and the whereabouts of where you'll
be. I don't suspect you will be thinking
when the brain is dead and the mind
has taken over, this is a skill, this
is not a game, where have you been,
are you with us? can you hear us? got
the megaphone pointed at you
Lyrics submitted by Caverna[RR]
T.B.D. Lyrics as written by Chad David Taylor Chad Alan Gracey
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
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Although it probably does stand for Tibetan Book of the Dead, the first thing that always pops into my head when I read "t.b.d." is "to be decided."
I'm not sure why, but I think that it makes for an interesting interpretation, when combined with the Huxley story and the lines "This is how I'll go out tonight / but I don't need a book." The idea being that the speaker rejects the idea of what is almost ritualistic suicide, instead preferring to let God/fate/whatever decide how his life will end.
yah i was kinda thinking he same thing. maybe its open to interpretation . To Be Determined.