"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.
Would you leave me alone, my sweet Simone?
If I lay on my back down below on the track
Remember the night, how I'd wade in the water
Be counting the stars and starting me over
They shine your eyes
Gonna make me rain, gonna make you rise
When I'm gone baby, don't you forget it
I did all I did just to get through to heaven
Got no mother, she can't find me
Got no father, he gonna blind me
Little girls might twitch at the way I itch
But when I burn it's a son of a bitch
Hold on, hold on
Hold on, all misery gone
Hold on, hold on
Hold on, all misery gone
Make me, shake me, bleed all over
Going down to the ground in deep black water
Let's ride, suicide
Say what you want but you make it, don't lie
Don't let me down, baby, on a bed of hard thistle
Gonna die when I drown just to have it away
Those lies in my eyes
Push you down in the river till you testify
My mother, she don't know me
And my father, he can't own me
Little girls might twitch at the way I itch
But the way I burn is a son of a bitch
Make me, shake me, deep black water
Gonna run through my pain, gonna make it rain
Baby I'm gone, so don't you forget it
I did all I did just to get through to heaven
Hold on, hold on
Hold on, all misery gone
Hold on, hold on
Hold on, all misery gone
If you could hear me love
I'd tell to you my story
To you and only you
So love that you might save me
I woke up from a dream
I woke up, I was crying
I saw an animal
With eyes like mine on fire
I saw my own true love
She was there selling flowers
Has she forget-me-nots
White lilies or red roses?
And then from far away
Who's that I see come riding?
Upon a pale white horse
Come riding fast as lightning
Oh, if you can hear me love
I'd tell you my story
So that you might save me
So that you might save me
So that you might save me
So that you might save me
If I lay on my back down below on the track
Remember the night, how I'd wade in the water
Be counting the stars and starting me over
They shine your eyes
Gonna make me rain, gonna make you rise
When I'm gone baby, don't you forget it
I did all I did just to get through to heaven
Got no mother, she can't find me
Got no father, he gonna blind me
Little girls might twitch at the way I itch
But when I burn it's a son of a bitch
Hold on, hold on
Hold on, all misery gone
Hold on, hold on
Hold on, all misery gone
Make me, shake me, bleed all over
Going down to the ground in deep black water
Let's ride, suicide
Say what you want but you make it, don't lie
Don't let me down, baby, on a bed of hard thistle
Gonna die when I drown just to have it away
Those lies in my eyes
Push you down in the river till you testify
My mother, she don't know me
And my father, he can't own me
Little girls might twitch at the way I itch
But the way I burn is a son of a bitch
Make me, shake me, deep black water
Gonna run through my pain, gonna make it rain
Baby I'm gone, so don't you forget it
I did all I did just to get through to heaven
Hold on, hold on
Hold on, all misery gone
Hold on, hold on
Hold on, all misery gone
If you could hear me love
I'd tell to you my story
To you and only you
So love that you might save me
I woke up from a dream
I woke up, I was crying
I saw an animal
With eyes like mine on fire
I saw my own true love
She was there selling flowers
Has she forget-me-nots
White lilies or red roses?
And then from far away
Who's that I see come riding?
Upon a pale white horse
Come riding fast as lightning
Oh, if you can hear me love
I'd tell you my story
So that you might save me
So that you might save me
So that you might save me
So that you might save me
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Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
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