"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.
Baby Britain feels the best
Floating over a sea of vodka
Separated from the rest
Fights problems with bigger problems
Sees the ocean fall and rise
Counts the waves that somehow didn't hit her
Water pouring from her eyes
Alcoholic and very bitter
For someone half as smart
You'd be a work of art
You put yourself apart
And I can't help until you start
We knocked another couple back
The dead soldiers lined up on the table
Still prepared for an attack
They didn't know they'd been disabled
Felt a wave a rush of blood
You won't be happy 'til the bottle's broken
And you're out swimming in the flood
You kept back you kept unspoken
For someone half as smart
You'd be a work of art
You put yourself apart
And I can't help until you start
You got a look in your eye
When you're saying goodbye
Like you want to say hi
The light was on but it was dim
Revolver's been turned over
And now it's ready once again
The radio was playing "crimson and clover"
London bridge is safe and sound
No matter what you keep repeating
Nothing's gonna drag me down
To a death that's not worth cheating
For someone half as smart
You'd be a work of art
You put yourself apart
And I can't help until you start
For someone half as smart
You'd be a work of art
You put yourself apart
And I can't help until you start
Floating over a sea of vodka
Separated from the rest
Fights problems with bigger problems
Sees the ocean fall and rise
Counts the waves that somehow didn't hit her
Water pouring from her eyes
Alcoholic and very bitter
For someone half as smart
You'd be a work of art
You put yourself apart
And I can't help until you start
We knocked another couple back
The dead soldiers lined up on the table
Still prepared for an attack
They didn't know they'd been disabled
Felt a wave a rush of blood
You won't be happy 'til the bottle's broken
And you're out swimming in the flood
You kept back you kept unspoken
For someone half as smart
You'd be a work of art
You put yourself apart
And I can't help until you start
You got a look in your eye
When you're saying goodbye
Like you want to say hi
The light was on but it was dim
Revolver's been turned over
And now it's ready once again
The radio was playing "crimson and clover"
London bridge is safe and sound
No matter what you keep repeating
Nothing's gonna drag me down
To a death that's not worth cheating
For someone half as smart
You'd be a work of art
You put yourself apart
And I can't help until you start
For someone half as smart
You'd be a work of art
You put yourself apart
And I can't help until you start
Lyrics submitted by EnjOy IncUbus
Baby Britain Lyrics as written by Steven Paul Smith
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
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Great version of a great song,
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Well here's my personal analysis...
Baby Britain appears to be a woman who is a bitter, attention-seeking and had a dependency on alcohol to feel good ("feels best floating over a sea of vodka")
Smith talks about this woman in a very negative tone, so it could be said that he resents her, but when he says "we knocked another couple back" we then know that he still spends time with this woman. (Perhaps what he resents in her is also what he doesn't like in himself?)
Baby Britain seems unable to deal with her own problems, so makes them up to be problems beyond her that she cannot solve ("fights problems with bigger problems") and, in frequent references to the sea Elliott puts across how little of a grip she has on dealing with her own life ("counts the waves that somehow didn't hit her" "you're out swimming in the flood")
He also describes alcohol as something aggressive and violent by making them out to be like soldiers ("the dead soldiers lined up on the table/still prepared for an attack/they didn't know they'd been disabled") It's like alcohol is something they need to fight against by drinking it, a twisted logic for sure.
The most interesting line for me is definitely "For someone half as smart you'd be a work of art." This makes me think that perhaps Baby Britain feels compelled to put herself above others, perhaps people who aren't as 'messed up' as she is, like she's putting herself up on a pedestal for her problems.
Actually I don't think the reference to soldiers has any aggressive meaning. On my campus (and I assume on many others) we refer to beers which have been abandoned before being finished as "fallen soldiers" so the significance in that line is probably from the soldiers being unaware of their disability instead of his eloquent way of describing empty or partly consumed bottles.