"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.
Please don't cry
For the ghost and the storm outside
Will not invade this sacred shrine
Nor infiltrate your mind
My life down I shall lie
If the bogey-man should try
To play tricks on your sacred mind
To tease, torment, and tantalize
Wavering shadows loom
A piano plays in an empty room
There'll be blood on the cleaver tonight
And when darkness lifts and the room is bright
I'll still be by your side
For you are all that matters
And I'll love you to till the day I die
There never need be longing in your eyes
As long as the hand that rocks the cradle is mine
Ceiling shadows shimmy by
And when the wardrobe towers like a beast of prey
There's sadness in your beautiful eyes
Oh, your untouched, unsoiled, wondrous eyes
My life down I shall lie
Should restless spirits try
To play tricks on your sacred mind
I once had a child, and it saved my life
And I never even asked his name
I just looked into his wondrous eyes
And said : "never never never again"
And all too soon I did return
Just like a moth to a flame
So rattle my bones all over the stones
I'm only a beggar-man whom nobody owns
Oh, see how words as old as sin
Fit me like a glove
I'm here and here I'll stay
Together we lie, together we pray
There never need be longing in your eyes
As long as the hand that rocks the cradle is mine
As long as the hand that rocks the cradle is mine
Mine
Climb up on my knee, sonny boy
Although you're only three, sonny boy
You're - you're mine
And your mother she just never knew
Oh, your mother...
As long...as long...as long
I did my best for her
I did my best for her
As long...as long...as long as...as long
I did my best for her
I did my best for her
Oh...
For the ghost and the storm outside
Will not invade this sacred shrine
Nor infiltrate your mind
My life down I shall lie
If the bogey-man should try
To play tricks on your sacred mind
To tease, torment, and tantalize
Wavering shadows loom
A piano plays in an empty room
There'll be blood on the cleaver tonight
And when darkness lifts and the room is bright
I'll still be by your side
For you are all that matters
And I'll love you to till the day I die
There never need be longing in your eyes
As long as the hand that rocks the cradle is mine
Ceiling shadows shimmy by
And when the wardrobe towers like a beast of prey
There's sadness in your beautiful eyes
Oh, your untouched, unsoiled, wondrous eyes
My life down I shall lie
Should restless spirits try
To play tricks on your sacred mind
I once had a child, and it saved my life
And I never even asked his name
I just looked into his wondrous eyes
And said : "never never never again"
And all too soon I did return
Just like a moth to a flame
So rattle my bones all over the stones
I'm only a beggar-man whom nobody owns
Oh, see how words as old as sin
Fit me like a glove
I'm here and here I'll stay
Together we lie, together we pray
There never need be longing in your eyes
As long as the hand that rocks the cradle is mine
As long as the hand that rocks the cradle is mine
Mine
Climb up on my knee, sonny boy
Although you're only three, sonny boy
You're - you're mine
And your mother she just never knew
Oh, your mother...
As long...as long...as long
I did my best for her
I did my best for her
As long...as long...as long as...as long
I did my best for her
I did my best for her
Oh...
Lyrics submitted by weezerific:cutlery, edited by Mellow_Harsher
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle Lyrics as written by Johnny Marr Steven Morrissey
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I think one thing relevant here that no one remarked on was the song "Suffer Little Children" which could have a relation, in terms of Morrisey's emotional outlook, and poetic form, or themes, as you'd have it. "Suffer Little Children" is about the "Moors Murders" (you can look it up on Wikepedia) -- a series of child murders said to have affected Morrisey quite a bit. (One of the lines is, "Oh, Manchester, so much to answer for", and that was his general childhood area. So my take is that this "Cradle" song ties into that... his emotional desire to protect children. And perhaps kind of "cross-pollinated with themes like those in "Pretty Girls Make Graves", which seems to me to be about, one one hand, his heterosexual experiences, and perhaps desire for that...and then, that that wasn't going to be his thing. I don't mean to presume about his sexuality, have never researched it, but have a strong feeling. So, again, the concept I have is that he has a natural, gentle paternalism, but won't be a father, but is horrified by children being hurt. And they just kind of blend into a "non-literal" poem about all these issues. Maybe this is a presumptive reading, I guess only Morrisey can tell anyone. (I assume he hasn't...again, I don't really do research on this stuff, generally.)