"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.
When you go will you send back a letter from America?
Take a look up the rail track from Miami to Canada
Well broke off from my work the other day
Spent the evening thinking about all the blood that flowed away
Across the ocean to the second chance
I wonder how it go on when it reached the promised land
When you go will send back a letter from America?
Take a look up the rail track from Miami to Canada
I've looked at the ocean tried hard to imagine
The way you felt the day you sailed from Wester Ross to Nova Scotia
We should have held you, we should have told you
But you know our sense of timing we always wait too long
When you go will you send back a letter from America?
Take a look up the rail track from Miami to Canada
Lochaber no more, Sutherland no more
Lewis no more, Skye no more
Lochaber no more, Sutherland no more
Lewis no more, Skye no more
Lochaber no more, Sutherland no more
Lewis no more, Skye no more
I wonder my blood will you ever return
To help us kick the life back to a dying mutual friend?
Do we not love her I think we all tell you about
Do we have to roam the world to prove how much it hurts?
When you go will you send back a letter from America?
Take a look up the rail track from Miami to Canada
Bathgate no more, Linwood no more
Methil no more, Irvine no more
Bathgate no more, Linwood no more
Methil no more, Irvine no more
Bathgate no more, Linwood no more
Methil no more, Irvine no more
Bathgate no more, Linwood no more
Methil no more, Lochaber no more
Take a look up the rail track from Miami to Canada
Well broke off from my work the other day
Spent the evening thinking about all the blood that flowed away
Across the ocean to the second chance
I wonder how it go on when it reached the promised land
When you go will send back a letter from America?
Take a look up the rail track from Miami to Canada
I've looked at the ocean tried hard to imagine
The way you felt the day you sailed from Wester Ross to Nova Scotia
We should have held you, we should have told you
But you know our sense of timing we always wait too long
When you go will you send back a letter from America?
Take a look up the rail track from Miami to Canada
Lochaber no more, Sutherland no more
Lewis no more, Skye no more
Lochaber no more, Sutherland no more
Lewis no more, Skye no more
Lochaber no more, Sutherland no more
Lewis no more, Skye no more
I wonder my blood will you ever return
To help us kick the life back to a dying mutual friend?
Do we not love her I think we all tell you about
Do we have to roam the world to prove how much it hurts?
When you go will you send back a letter from America?
Take a look up the rail track from Miami to Canada
Bathgate no more, Linwood no more
Methil no more, Irvine no more
Bathgate no more, Linwood no more
Methil no more, Irvine no more
Bathgate no more, Linwood no more
Methil no more, Irvine no more
Bathgate no more, Linwood no more
Methil no more, Lochaber no more
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We should have held you, we should have told you But you know our sense of timing we always wait too long Being a Scot this is too true