"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.
Is your jewelry still lost in the sand
Out on the coast, or rushed into the brine?
You left your rings on the shoreline
So you wouldn't lose 'em swimming in the shallows
A plastic shovel, soft sweaty children far from home
On vacation, not unlike your very own
And Captain Howdy lit upon my shoulder
And he left me with sulfur and rooms full of headaches
I fell in with snakes in the poisoned ranks of strangers
Please send me more yellow birds for the dim interior
Will my pony recognize my voice in hell?
Will he still be blind, or do they go by smell?
Will you promise me not to rest me out at sea
But on a fiery river boat that's rickety?
I'll never find my pony along the roiling swells
A muddy river or a lake would do me well
With hints of amber sundowns and muted thunderstorms
A sunken barge's horns, with the cold and rusty bells
Out on the coast, or rushed into the brine?
You left your rings on the shoreline
So you wouldn't lose 'em swimming in the shallows
A plastic shovel, soft sweaty children far from home
On vacation, not unlike your very own
And Captain Howdy lit upon my shoulder
And he left me with sulfur and rooms full of headaches
I fell in with snakes in the poisoned ranks of strangers
Please send me more yellow birds for the dim interior
Will my pony recognize my voice in hell?
Will he still be blind, or do they go by smell?
Will you promise me not to rest me out at sea
But on a fiery river boat that's rickety?
I'll never find my pony along the roiling swells
A muddy river or a lake would do me well
With hints of amber sundowns and muted thunderstorms
A sunken barge's horns, with the cold and rusty bells
Lyrics submitted by Tiger_Angel
More Yellow Birds Lyrics as written by Mark Linkous
Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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