"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.
Like a Saturday night I'll be gone
Like a Saturday night I'll be gone
Before you knew that I was there
So you wrote it down
I'm supposed to care
Even though it's never there
Sorry if I'm not prepared
Is it hard to see the things you substitute
For me and all my thoughts of you
It's eating me alive to leave you
Maybe it's childish and maybe it's wrong
But so is your blank stare in lieu of this song
Maybe it's childish and maybe it's wrong
Don't want to be, don't want to be wrong
You're leaving me, you're leaving me in lieu of this song
Don't want to be, don't want to be wrong
You're leaving me, you're leaving me in lieu of this, lieu of this song.
I'm breathing in your skin tonight
Quiet is my loudest cry
Wouldn't want to wake the eyes that make me melt inside
And if it's healthier to leave you be
May a sickness come and set me free
Kill me while I still believe that you were meant for me
I'm finding my own words, my own little stage
My own epic drama, my own scripted page
I'll send you the rough draft, I'll seal it with tears
Maybe you'll read it and I'll reappear
From the start it was shaky and the characters rash,
A nice setting for heartache where emotions come last
All I have deep inside, to overcome this desire
Are friendly intentions and fair-weather smiles
And I don't want to be, don't want to be wrong
You're leaving me, you're leaving me in lieu of this song
Don't want to be, don't want to be wrong
You're leaving me, you're leaving me in lieu of this, in lieu of this song
Like Saturday night I'll be gone
Like Saturday night I'll be gone
Like Saturday night I'll be gone
Like Saturday night I'll be gone before you knew that I was there
Like a Saturday night I'll be gone
Before you knew that I was there
So you wrote it down
I'm supposed to care
Even though it's never there
Sorry if I'm not prepared
Is it hard to see the things you substitute
For me and all my thoughts of you
It's eating me alive to leave you
Maybe it's childish and maybe it's wrong
But so is your blank stare in lieu of this song
Maybe it's childish and maybe it's wrong
Don't want to be, don't want to be wrong
You're leaving me, you're leaving me in lieu of this song
Don't want to be, don't want to be wrong
You're leaving me, you're leaving me in lieu of this, lieu of this song.
I'm breathing in your skin tonight
Quiet is my loudest cry
Wouldn't want to wake the eyes that make me melt inside
And if it's healthier to leave you be
May a sickness come and set me free
Kill me while I still believe that you were meant for me
I'm finding my own words, my own little stage
My own epic drama, my own scripted page
I'll send you the rough draft, I'll seal it with tears
Maybe you'll read it and I'll reappear
From the start it was shaky and the characters rash,
A nice setting for heartache where emotions come last
All I have deep inside, to overcome this desire
Are friendly intentions and fair-weather smiles
And I don't want to be, don't want to be wrong
You're leaving me, you're leaving me in lieu of this song
Don't want to be, don't want to be wrong
You're leaving me, you're leaving me in lieu of this, in lieu of this song
Like Saturday night I'll be gone
Like Saturday night I'll be gone
Like Saturday night I'll be gone
Like Saturday night I'll be gone before you knew that I was there
Lyrics submitted by superkoolkid
Rough Draft Lyrics as written by Longineu Parsons Iii Benjamin Harper
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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Fast Car
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Maybe he means it as she left and all he has LEFT is the song? Or something... Besides, songwriters are regular people like you and I, and had you not looked in a dictionary you wouldn't have known the difference.