"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.
This is the CENTRAL SCRUTINIZER
Joe has just worked himself into
an imaginary frenzy during the fade-out of his imaginary song
He begins to feel depressed now. He knows the end is near. He has realized
at last that imaginary guitar notes and imaginary vocals exist only in the mind
of the imaginer.
And ultimately, who gives a fuck anyway? (laugh)...Excuse me...so who gives a fuck anyway? So he goes back to his ugly little room and quietly dreams his last imaginary guitar solo...
Joe has just worked himself into
an imaginary frenzy during the fade-out of his imaginary song
He begins to feel depressed now. He knows the end is near. He has realized
at last that imaginary guitar notes and imaginary vocals exist only in the mind
of the imaginer.
And ultimately, who gives a fuck anyway? (laugh)...Excuse me...so who gives a fuck anyway? So he goes back to his ugly little room and quietly dreams his last imaginary guitar solo...
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Fast Car
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Great version of a great song,
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There really is a lot of emotion in this solo. It's my favorite Zappa piece. I even heard that one of Frank's final wishes was that nobody play this song on stage but his son Dweezil. Just goes to show how strongly he felt about it.