"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 train it goes this way, tonight we can't go back
It's all that I can wait for,
While I was standing here, you took your high heels off
And let the sun sink in, and kick it back
Leave all your mores behind,
'Cause we will party from the inside
Don't check that watch you're here to stay
And we will dance and dance and dance the night away
(Do do do do)
And we were dropping bombs with our sneakers on,
And we were dancing in a minefield with a bottle of whiskey.
'Cause you can't tell us what to do.
And we were winning the war with a lighter and a peace pipe.
And through the barricades they'll push their hate.
We were makin' noise with electric toys, and there were boys kissing boys at the moment when the cops came
They said hey, we won't run away.
And they pushed us back, and we pushed them back yeah we held our ground in their morality police state.
Kick us out and we'll be back again, tonight if not today.
The girls looked beautiful in blue.
One took my hand and said I love you,
I know I'll never know your name,
Yeah but it's okay, we'll love for just today
We were dropping bombs with our sneakers on and we were dancing in a minefield with bottle of whiskey.
'Cause you can't you can't you can't tell us what to do!
And we were winning the war with a lighter and a peace pipe.
And we'll break it down, break it down,
Break it down down today!
I know we'll deal with it tomorrow.
We feel that its okay to question why
Question why, yeah question why this lifestyle defies
The meaning of life.
But not to us.
It's all that I can wait for,
While I was standing here, you took your high heels off
And let the sun sink in, and kick it back
Leave all your mores behind,
'Cause we will party from the inside
Don't check that watch you're here to stay
And we will dance and dance and dance the night away
(Do do do do)
And we were dropping bombs with our sneakers on,
And we were dancing in a minefield with a bottle of whiskey.
'Cause you can't tell us what to do.
And we were winning the war with a lighter and a peace pipe.
And through the barricades they'll push their hate.
We were makin' noise with electric toys, and there were boys kissing boys at the moment when the cops came
They said hey, we won't run away.
And they pushed us back, and we pushed them back yeah we held our ground in their morality police state.
Kick us out and we'll be back again, tonight if not today.
The girls looked beautiful in blue.
One took my hand and said I love you,
I know I'll never know your name,
Yeah but it's okay, we'll love for just today
We were dropping bombs with our sneakers on and we were dancing in a minefield with bottle of whiskey.
'Cause you can't you can't you can't tell us what to do!
And we were winning the war with a lighter and a peace pipe.
And we'll break it down, break it down,
Break it down down today!
I know we'll deal with it tomorrow.
We feel that its okay to question why
Question why, yeah question why this lifestyle defies
The meaning of life.
But not to us.
Lyrics submitted by itsamountain
Dancing in a Minefield Lyrics as written by Daniel Robert Ingala
Lyrics © Exploration Group LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I like how this song has a carefree, "i don't care" feeling.
i love the video that they made to go with this song. I always feel like dancing when i watch it. =)
It's a great song.<br /> From a Florida review: " collision of adolescent petulance and carefree exuberance...A defiant Stonewall-esque snapshot of the dancefloor as a suddenly politicized battleground, the images of “boys kissing boys at the moment when the cops came” and “[holding] ground in a morality police state” stand as perhaps the only moment on Pins and Panzers evoking any kind of topical political fury. Squint a little, though, and the song becomes as much an homage to the original new wave era’s impeding sense of apocalyptic doom in an atmosphere steeped in sexual and nuclear paranoia. " --That makes sense, on Wiki search: Stonewall riots. Stonewall is a bar in Greenwich Village in NYCity.<br /> "The girls looked beautiful in blue." Are drag queens. So it's not quite all about<br /> adolescent rebellion. But it is a clash with the "morality police" in the lyrics.<br />
It's a great song. From a Florida review: " collision of adolescent petulance and carefree exuberance...A defiant Stonewall-esque snapshot of the dancefloor as a suddenly politicized battleground, the images of “boys kissing boys at the moment when the cops came” and “[holding] ground in a morality police state” stand as perhaps the only moment on Pins and Panzers evoking any kind of topical political fury. Squint a little, though, and the song becomes as much an homage to the original new wave era’s impeding sense of apocalyptic doom in an atmosphere steeped in sexual and nuclear paranoia. " --That makes sense, on Wiki search: Stonewall riots. Stonewall is a bar in Greenwich Village in NYCity. "The girls looked beautiful in blue." Are drag queens. So it's not quite all about adolescent rebellion. But it is a clash with the "morality police" in the lyrics who showed up at the Stonewall Inn gay bar to beat up, harass the patrons who got fed up with the morality police state and rioted against the cops.
It's a great song. From a Florida review: " collision of adolescent petulance and carefree exuberance...A defiant Stonewall-esque snapshot of the dancefloor as a suddenly politicized battleground, the images of “boys kissing boys at the moment when the cops came” and “[holding] ground in a morality police state” stand as perhaps the only moment on Pins and Panzers evoking any kind of topical political fury. Squint a little, though, and the song becomes as much an homage to the original new wave era’s impeding sense of apocalyptic doom in an atmosphere steeped in sexual and nuclear paranoia. " --That makes sense, on Wiki search: Stonewall riots. Stonewall is a bar in Greenwich Village in NYCity. "The girls looked beautiful in blue." Are drag queens. So it's not quite all about adolescent rebellion. But it is a clash with the "morality police" in the lyrics who showed up at the Stonewall Inn gay bar to beat up, harass the patrons who got fed up with the morality police state and rioted against the cops.
I'm probably way off, but I see this song as a guy and a girl going out for a good time, partying it up, with a carefree kind of vibe.
I think this song is about the battles of everyday teenage life, and the wars we have to fight for love. Very symbolic.