"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.
I'll be the roundabout
The words will make you out 'n' out
I spend the day your way
Call it morning driving through the sound of
In and out the valley
The music dance and sing
They make the children really ring
I spend the day your way
Call it morning driving through the sound of
In and out the valley
In and around the lake
Mountains come out of the sky and they stand there
One mile over we'll be there and we'll see you
Ten true summers we'll be there and laughing too
Twenty four before my love you'll see
I'll be there with you
I will remember you
Your silhouette will charge the view
Of distant atmosphere
Call it morning driving through the sound of
Even in the valley
In and around the lake
Mountains come out of the sky and they stand there
One mile over we'll be there and we'll see you
Ten true summers we'll be there and laughing too
Twenty four before my love you'll see
I'll be there with you
Along the drifting cloud
The eagle searching down on the land
Catching the swirling wind
The sailor sees the rim of the land
The eagle's dancing wings
Create as weather spins out of hand
Go closer hold the land
Feel partly no more than grains of sand
We stand to lose all time
A thousand answers by in our hand
Next to your deeper fears
We stand surrounded by million years
I'll be the roundabout
The words will make you out 'n' out
I'll be the roundabout
The words will make you out 'n' out
In and around the lake
Mountains come out of the sky and they stand there
Twenty four before my love and I'll be there
I'll be the roundabout
The words will make you out 'n' out
You spend the day your way
Call it morning driving through the sound of
In and out the valley
In and around the lake
Mountains come out of the sky and they stand there
One mile over we'll be there and we'll see you
Ten true summers we'll be there and laughing too
Twenty four before my love you'll see
I'll be there with you
The words will make you out 'n' out
I spend the day your way
Call it morning driving through the sound of
In and out the valley
The music dance and sing
They make the children really ring
I spend the day your way
Call it morning driving through the sound of
In and out the valley
In and around the lake
Mountains come out of the sky and they stand there
One mile over we'll be there and we'll see you
Ten true summers we'll be there and laughing too
Twenty four before my love you'll see
I'll be there with you
I will remember you
Your silhouette will charge the view
Of distant atmosphere
Call it morning driving through the sound of
Even in the valley
In and around the lake
Mountains come out of the sky and they stand there
One mile over we'll be there and we'll see you
Ten true summers we'll be there and laughing too
Twenty four before my love you'll see
I'll be there with you
Along the drifting cloud
The eagle searching down on the land
Catching the swirling wind
The sailor sees the rim of the land
The eagle's dancing wings
Create as weather spins out of hand
Go closer hold the land
Feel partly no more than grains of sand
We stand to lose all time
A thousand answers by in our hand
Next to your deeper fears
We stand surrounded by million years
I'll be the roundabout
The words will make you out 'n' out
I'll be the roundabout
The words will make you out 'n' out
In and around the lake
Mountains come out of the sky and they stand there
Twenty four before my love and I'll be there
I'll be the roundabout
The words will make you out 'n' out
You spend the day your way
Call it morning driving through the sound of
In and out the valley
In and around the lake
Mountains come out of the sky and they stand there
One mile over we'll be there and we'll see you
Ten true summers we'll be there and laughing too
Twenty four before my love you'll see
I'll be there with you
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Great version of a great song,
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Ya know, you're right. No reason to be such an ass. I apologize to whomever I offended.