"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.
Vou só com a minha pena da lei que me condena
Correr é o meu destino para fugir da lei
Perdido no coração dessa grande babilônia
Me chamam clandestino sem nome no papel
Numa cidade ao norte eu fui lá trabalhar
O meu amor deixei entre Celta e Gibraltar
Sou uma raia no mar, fantasma na cidade
Me chamam clandestino, yo soy fora da lei
Brasileiro, clandestino
Manu Chao, clandestino
Americano, soy latino
Marijuana, ilegalVou só com a minha pena da lei que me condena
Correr é o meu destino para fugir da lei
Perdido no coração dessa grande babilônia
Me chamam clandestino sem nome no papel
Brasileiro, clandestino
Cabeludo, clandestino
Tatuado, clandestino
Marijuana, ilegal
Correr é o meu destino para fugir da lei
Perdido no coração dessa grande babilônia
Me chamam clandestino sem nome no papel
Numa cidade ao norte eu fui lá trabalhar
O meu amor deixei entre Celta e Gibraltar
Sou uma raia no mar, fantasma na cidade
Me chamam clandestino, yo soy fora da lei
Brasileiro, clandestino
Manu Chao, clandestino
Americano, soy latino
Marijuana, ilegalVou só com a minha pena da lei que me condena
Correr é o meu destino para fugir da lei
Perdido no coração dessa grande babilônia
Me chamam clandestino sem nome no papel
Brasileiro, clandestino
Cabeludo, clandestino
Tatuado, clandestino
Marijuana, ilegal
Lyrics submitted by defubuskorn
Clandestino Lyrics as written by
Lyrics © CONCORD MUSIC PUBLISHING LLC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Translation... sort of ;-)
Is my pen with the law which condemns me Running my destiny to evade the law Lost in the heart of this great babilnia They call me clandestine role in unnamed In a town north I went there to work My love left between Celtic and Gibraltar I am a streak at sea, ghost in the city They call me clandestine yo soy outlaw Brazilian underground Manu Chao, clandestine American, Latin soy Marijuana, ilegalVou s with my penalty of law that condemns me Running my destiny to evade the law Lost in the heart of this great babilnia They call me clandestine role in unnamed Brazilian underground Hairy, clandestine Tattooed, clandestine Marijuana, illegal