"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.
Valmara valmara valmara flechettes
Kiss me with the lisp
Of your shrapnel caress
Lost this arm lost this leg
Lost this diving board
Just a belly flopped proposal
Of lets be friends
Tour de force defacto ayuchuco tour de force
Prosthetic prosthetic prosthetic blemish
Necro is the velcro on the charred appendage
Carterize solder gun in the melting of seeds
Oh dear god what a tangled web we weave
Tour de force defacto ayuchuco tour de force
All we are, are failed attempts
Propelled by stilt leg presidents
Incarcerate the mason fence
Like flechettes flechettes flechettes
I'm not biting the lead my pencils broken again
We will fill in the blanks
Or I can cheat off you test
Flechettes flechettes
Kiss me with the lisp
Of your shrapnel caress
Lost this arm lost this leg
Lost this diving board
Just a belly flopped proposal
Of lets be friends
Tour de force defacto ayuchuco tour de force
Prosthetic prosthetic prosthetic blemish
Necro is the velcro on the charred appendage
Carterize solder gun in the melting of seeds
Oh dear god what a tangled web we weave
Tour de force defacto ayuchuco tour de force
All we are, are failed attempts
Propelled by stilt leg presidents
Incarcerate the mason fence
Like flechettes flechettes flechettes
I'm not biting the lead my pencils broken again
We will fill in the blanks
Or I can cheat off you test
Flechettes flechettes
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all i know is this reminds me of some star wars game that had a flechette gun, and defacto is the name of a dub reggae band that cedric and omar are in.
flechettes are missiles
a valmara is a kind of proximity mine, flechettes are french for darts, chanbara is a martial art like kendo, and ayachuco is a place in peru.
this song may refer to the repeated attempts (and successes) of the United States government to exert its political will in Central America. "Stilt-leg presidents", "i'm not biting the lead my pencil's broken again we will fill in the blanks or i can cheat off your test"- a possible reference to election rigging.
wow, I used to have my own interpretation of this song, but the clandestine South American diplomacy idea really takes the cake. That truly makes sense of things.
how do you pronouce the title? is it like 'can, baarah' or 'canbah-ra'?
heh, i didn't notice until now that it has "defacto" in the lyrics, a side project of at the drive-in (which is still together by the way)
de facto is a legal reference as well
de facto means in reality...like during the time of segregation in the US, laws were put in to stop segregation, but de facto segregation still occured (in reality, segregation was still taking place as laws can't always deter the mindsets of the people)
it may very well be about south america, but you cant really ignore the romantic (dare i say emo?) connotations in the song as well. "kiss me with lisp", "proposal of let's be friends", "what a tangled web we weave". the south america theory makes sense though. hm.