"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.
Compass card is spinning
Helm is swinging to and fro
Oh, where is the dog star
Oh, where's the moon
You're a lost sailor
You've been too long at sea
Some days the gales are howling
Some days the sea is still as glass
Oh, raise the main sail
Oh, lash the mast
You're a lost sailor
You've been too long at sea
Now the shorelines beckon
Yeah, there's a price for being free
Hear the sea birds cryin' and there's a ghost wind blowing
And it's calling you, to that misty swirling sea
Till the chains of your dreams are broken
No place in this world you can be
You're a lost sailor
You've been away too long at sea
Now the shorelines beckon
Yeah, there's a price for being free
Driftin', you're driftin'
Yeah, driftin' and dreamin'
'Cause there's a place you've never been
Maybe a place you've never seen now
You can hear them callin' on the wind
Oh, you drift your life away
[Incomprehensible]
Hey baby, drift your life away
Driftin' and dreamin'
Really goin' on a dream now
Really goin' on a dream, really goin' on a dream
Really goin' on a dream
Helm is swinging to and fro
Oh, where is the dog star
Oh, where's the moon
You're a lost sailor
You've been too long at sea
Some days the gales are howling
Some days the sea is still as glass
Oh, raise the main sail
Oh, lash the mast
You're a lost sailor
You've been too long at sea
Now the shorelines beckon
Yeah, there's a price for being free
Hear the sea birds cryin' and there's a ghost wind blowing
And it's calling you, to that misty swirling sea
Till the chains of your dreams are broken
No place in this world you can be
You're a lost sailor
You've been away too long at sea
Now the shorelines beckon
Yeah, there's a price for being free
Driftin', you're driftin'
Yeah, driftin' and dreamin'
'Cause there's a place you've never been
Maybe a place you've never seen now
You can hear them callin' on the wind
Oh, you drift your life away
[Incomprehensible]
Hey baby, drift your life away
Driftin' and dreamin'
Really goin' on a dream now
Really goin' on a dream, really goin' on a dream
Really goin' on a dream
Lyrics submitted by itsmyownmind
Lost Sailor Lyrics as written by Robert Hall Weir John Barlow
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I think ShivaX hits it on the head with it being mostly about acid casualties from back in the day. A lot of them just kept wandering (and wondering) without really getting any roots anywhere. That lack opportunities by sticking with one thing or of having someone close in your life is the "price for being free".
This is the second of Weir/Barlow's songs about those kinds of crazy guys that took a little too much too fast. Estimated Prophet is about the really out-there guys who used to want to talk to Bobby back stage about their ideas and it always this really intense trip that bordered on a religious experience for the spaced out guy.
I don't see the song being about Jerry and his bad habits as much. I think Feel Like A Stranger is closer to what Bobby was thinking about Jerry's descent into addiction and how it affected their relationship.