"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.
Awoke today, felt your side of the bed;
The covers were still warm where you been layin'.
You were gone, oh gone, my heart was filled with dread;
You might not be sleeping here again.
But it's all right cause I love you, and that's not going to change.
Run me around and make me hurt again and again.
But I'll still sing you love songs, written in the letters of your name.
The rain is gonna come, oh it surely looks like rain
Did you ever waken to the sound of street cats making love?
You guess from the cries you were listening to a fight.
Well you know, oh know, haste is the last thing they're thinking of.
You know they're only tryin' to make it through the night.
I only want to hold you, I don't want to tie you down
Or fit you in the lines I might've drawn.
It's just that I, oh I, have gotten used to havin' you around.
The landscape would be empty, if you were gone,
But it's all right cause I love you, and that's not going to change.
Run me around and make me hurt again and again.
But I'll still sing you love songs, written in the letter of your name.
The rain is gonna come, oh it surely looks like rain.
The covers were still warm where you been layin'.
You were gone, oh gone, my heart was filled with dread;
You might not be sleeping here again.
But it's all right cause I love you, and that's not going to change.
Run me around and make me hurt again and again.
But I'll still sing you love songs, written in the letters of your name.
The rain is gonna come, oh it surely looks like rain
Did you ever waken to the sound of street cats making love?
You guess from the cries you were listening to a fight.
Well you know, oh know, haste is the last thing they're thinking of.
You know they're only tryin' to make it through the night.
I only want to hold you, I don't want to tie you down
Or fit you in the lines I might've drawn.
It's just that I, oh I, have gotten used to havin' you around.
The landscape would be empty, if you were gone,
But it's all right cause I love you, and that's not going to change.
Run me around and make me hurt again and again.
But I'll still sing you love songs, written in the letter of your name.
The rain is gonna come, oh it surely looks like rain.
Lyrics submitted by itsmyownmind
Looks Like Rain Lyrics as written by Robert Hall Weir John Barlow
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
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I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
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Great version of a great song,
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I saw an interview fairly recently, either from TRI or from the documentary "The Other One," in which Bob Weir is talking about Janis Joplin and Pigpen, and how loud Janis would scream, "Daddy daddy daddy!" when they were having sex. One of the others present said to Bob he always thought this was the inspiration for the lines about "street cats makin' love." Bob did not confirm nor deny.