"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.
My life is a valuable thing
I want to keep it that way, I won't cry
My life's such a valuable thing
Some things don't fade away, I don't mind
We give the best we can give
We won't forget, we can't forgive
Keep us radioactive free
Strike a bell in Hiroshima park
You know that we can't see in the dark
We try and we try and we try
Who waits for the planes to come
When everybody's got you on the run
South Pacific carry on
It seems to me that what we're saying
Nobody really wants to talk about it
This is no time to be wondering why
I do the best I can do
The human jungle and the global zoo
I'll find my way it's a very special way
Why wait for the planes to come
When everybody's got us on the run
South Pacific carry on
Here come the Hercules
Here come the submarines
Sinking south pacific dreams
I want to keep it that way, I won't cry
My life's such a valuable thing
Some things don't fade away, I don't mind
We give the best we can give
We won't forget, we can't forgive
Keep us radioactive free
Strike a bell in Hiroshima park
You know that we can't see in the dark
We try and we try and we try
Who waits for the planes to come
When everybody's got you on the run
South Pacific carry on
It seems to me that what we're saying
Nobody really wants to talk about it
This is no time to be wondering why
I do the best I can do
The human jungle and the global zoo
I'll find my way it's a very special way
Why wait for the planes to come
When everybody's got us on the run
South Pacific carry on
Here come the Hercules
Here come the submarines
Sinking south pacific dreams
Lyrics submitted by Golgotha, edited by Birdnoises80
Hercules Lyrics as written by Peter Gifford Martin Rotsey
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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This is one of my favorite songs. https://fnfgo.io
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This song actually refers to the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior outside of Aukland harbour by french secret service/submarine (depends who you listen to). The rainbow warrior was protesting nuclear testing in french polynesia and a hercules was a RAAF plane sent to look for survivors but warned of by the french navy.
@mattc1 rainbow warrior was tied up at the wharf in auckland harbbour, basically right in the middle of the city. French special forces operatives set a bomb and sunk it, killing one person. In defence of the frogs, the boat was supposed to be empty and nuclear testing has to be done somewhere.......ok, thats a pretty sh#t defence.
Basically about the fear of the consequences of The Cold War and the nuclear testing in the South Pacific. The Hercules is a transport plane commonly used by the USAF and the RAAF.