"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.
They're waking you up to close the bar
The street's wet you can tell by the sound of the cars
The bartender's singing clementine
While he's turning around the open sign
Dreadful sorry clementine
Though you're still her man
It seems a long time gone
Maybe the whole thing's wrong
What if she thinks so but just didn't say so?
You drank yourself into slo-mo
Made an angel in the snow
Anything to pass the time
And keep that song out of yr mind
Oh my darling
Oh my darling
Oh my darling clementine
Dreadful sorry clementine
The street's wet you can tell by the sound of the cars
The bartender's singing clementine
While he's turning around the open sign
Dreadful sorry clementine
Though you're still her man
It seems a long time gone
Maybe the whole thing's wrong
What if she thinks so but just didn't say so?
You drank yourself into slo-mo
Made an angel in the snow
Anything to pass the time
And keep that song out of yr mind
Oh my darling
Oh my darling
Oh my darling clementine
Dreadful sorry clementine
Lyrics submitted by EnjOy IncUbus, edited by Memento22Mori, Jate, DS98, Thamahawk76
Clementine Lyrics as written by Steven Paul Smith
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I'm surprised no one has suggested doubt as a theme of this song or drawn attention to the repeated emphasis of time here. I don't want to force a concrete meaning onto this song because I think people should relate in their own way but I will point out a few connections that seem important to me.
The street is wet, rain/tears, drinking. The song's chorus is of course an allusion to the old folk song in which a miner's daughter drowns and he is unable to save her. Failing to forget her, he kills himself.
The common Elliott Smith motif of waking/sleeping/dreaming is prominent. The bartender wakes him up and is singing the song Clementine which he would rather keep off his mind. He is closing the bar. Drinking, sleep, escape gives way to the woken doubts and sadness that plague the narrator.
Doubt? "Though you're still her man/... maybe the whole thing's wrong/ what if she thinks so but just didn't say so?" Maybe the narrator's love did not break up with him or die but isn't really his love? What if he's with the wrong woman? What if she has the same doubts? Maybe he's "dreadful sorry" for feeling this way. If it's all wrong then was it just a waste of time?
Another theme is passing time: Waking from sleep to find that the bar is closing (time has passed, unaware). "It seems a long time gone," seems to refer to the relationship. Our narrator seems worried about time passing; drinking has put him in to "slo-mo;" provides relief. Then lastly the ironic and biting line "anything to pass the time".
Patterns in the development of the song can also be observed by comparing verses: Verse 1: Subject wakes, gathers his bearings, description of surroundings, "they" and "you". What is outside. Verse 2: Explores what is troubling the subject. Develops character. Moves from description to drama. What's inside. Verse 3: Describes how he spent this particular night. Or the addiction/escape activity. This verse also stands out for being in past tense while the rest of the song is in present tense.