"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.
ELIMINATOR
As I put my gun to the head of God
Thoughts of all the things I should have done
Is the mirror of life always what you claim
Are you looking at a cause or a blame
Because in this place you gotta know
Right and wrong are you ideas of the old
Fallen angels rule the city of empty souls
Did you see it when the time was just right
In a lifetime of years too late
The word that longed in your sacred heart
Spray painted on Heaven's gate
You turned to see if I was standing there
I'd face myself if I could only dare
Content is hard but when you giver it up
A little bit more to have to do with luck
To have to say
To take it back and put it away
To come another day
You were stuck in a world of the endless stripe
Shining like the fuse of the sun
It's amazing how some of us get through life
Refusing to be part of the phoneysome
Raining on parades of the pretentious and cold
With the mind of a child and a heart made of gold
I try to be good but when they rattle the cage
our heads are dead so it's all the same
To have to say
We were really happy for once in our lives
To say we have survived
To take our lives by the throat
And to look inside
To ignore is just to lie
As I put my gun to the head of God
Thoughts of all the things I should have done
Is the mirror of life always what you claim
Are you looking at a cause or a blame
Because in this place you gotta know
Right and wrong are you ideas of the old
Fallen angels rule the city of empty souls
Did you see it when the time was just right
In a lifetime of years too late
The word that longed in your sacred heart
Spray painted on Heaven's gate
You turned to see if I was standing there
I'd face myself if I could only dare
Content is hard but when you giver it up
A little bit more to have to do with luck
To have to say
To take it back and put it away
To come another day
You were stuck in a world of the endless stripe
Shining like the fuse of the sun
It's amazing how some of us get through life
Refusing to be part of the phoneysome
Raining on parades of the pretentious and cold
With the mind of a child and a heart made of gold
I try to be good but when they rattle the cage
our heads are dead so it's all the same
To have to say
We were really happy for once in our lives
To say we have survived
To take our lives by the throat
And to look inside
To ignore is just to lie
Lyrics submitted by pUnK-jUnKiE
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