Themes to Ride Along

When it comes to music about cars, nothing beats my old time favorite Fast Car – a Tracy Chapman classic. This piece of music is so melodic that you can even play it inside your car while enjoying your ride on the suburban roads. Well, take it from me - I do that all the time. Even my friends love the song, too.

Fast Car is included in Tracy Chapman’s 1988 self titled debut album. The song talks about a couple making a get away using a fast car. The girl is planning to get out of the world they are in right now so that they can start a new life as couple. A cool song that I assure you will love too.

Anyway, I got for you the lyrics of the song. Go, dig in…

*** Fast Car
by Tracy Chapman

You got a fast car
I want a ticket to anywhere
Maybe we make a deal
Maybe together we can get somewhere
Anyplace is better
Starting from zero got nothing to lose
Maybe we’ll make something
But me myself I got nothing to prove

You got a fast car
And I got a plan to get us out of here
I been working at the convenience store
Managed to save just a little bit of money
We won’t have to drive too far
Just ‘cross the border and into the city
You and I can both get jobs
And finally see what it means to be living
You see me old man’s got a problem
He live with the bottle that’s the way it is
He says his body’s too old for working
I say his body’s too young to look like his
My mama went off and left him
She wanted more from life than he could give
I said somebody’s got to take care of him
So I quit school and that’s what I did

You got a fast car
But is it fast enough so we can fly away
We gotta make a decision
We leave tonight or live and die this way
I remember we wre driving driving in your car
The speed so fast I felt like I was drunk
City lights lay out before us
And your arm felt nice wrapped ’round my shoulder
And I had a feeling that I belonged
And I had feeling I could be someone, be someone,
Be someone

You got a fast car
And we go cruising to entertain ourselves
You still ain’t got a job
And I work in a market as a checkout girl
I know things will get better
You’ll find work and I’ll get promoted
We’ll move out of the shelter
Buy a big house and live in the suburbs

You got a fast car
And I got a job that pays all our bills
You stay out drinking late at the bar
See more of your friends than you do of your kids
I’d always hoped for better
Thought maybe together you and me would find it
I got no plans I ain’t going nowhere
So take your fast car and keep on driving

You got a fast car
But is it fast enough so you can fly away
You gotta make a decision
You leave tonight or live and die this way

***

Well, that’s it from me. And in any case you need to replace your Husky liners with a new one, try by visiting one of your trusted car parts online stores.

Grouped in 1983, the Dead Milkmen was a satyrical punk band consisting of Joe Jack Talcum (guitar and vocals), Dave Blood (bass), Dean Clean (drums) and Rodney Anonymous (vocals and synth). Generally, their music can be identified as punk heaped with comedy, and it was the Dead Milkmen’s trademark to perform with high spirits and rumor, which to some are more appealing than technical knowledge and musical complexity. As an example of the band’s humor, Anonymous and Talcum often sang with Philadelpia accents, coming across as exaggeratedly snotty. One of Dead Milkmen’s humor-smeared songs is the “Bitchin’ Camaro”.

The Chevrolet Camaro was made in North America by the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors. A popular pony car, it was launched on the 29th of September in 1966 at the start of the 1967 model year. It was created to rival the Ford Mustang. 

“Bitchin’ Camaro” is all about a Chevrolet Camaro that was given to the owner by his folks, and the song narrates the funny snags that he got into as he zooms in his car:

Bitchin’ Camaro
by Dead Milkmen

- Hey Jack, what’s happenin’?
- I don’t know.
- Well uh, rumour around town says you mighht be thinkin’ ’bout goin’ down to
the shore.
- Uh, yeah, I think I’m gonna go down to thhe shore.
- Whadda ya gonna do down there?
- Uh, I don’t know, p-play some video gamess, buy some Def Leppard t-shirts.
- Don’t forget your Motley Crue t-shirt; y”know all proceeds go to get their
lead singer out a’ jail.
- Uh huh.
- Can’t wait to go down. Hey uh, were ya goonna check out the sand bar while
you’re down there?
- Uh, what’s the Sand Bar?
- Ah, it’s a place that lets sixteen year-oold kids drink.
- Ah, cool.
- Ya hey, guess who’s gonna be there?
- Uh, who?
- My favourite cover band, Crystal Ship.
- Wow.
- Yeah, they do a Doors show, you’d be reallly impressed, in fact, it goes a
little like this:

Bitchin’ Camaro, Bitchin’ Camaro!
Hey man where ya headed?
Bitchin’ Camaro, Bitchin’ Camaro!
I’m drunk on unleaded!

The Ford Mustang, still in the market years after its release even after several revisions, it is undisoutably one of the most successful models launche in automotive history. An American vehicle, The Ford Mustang is originally based on the Ford Falcon compact. Ford Mustangs were first revealed in Dearborn, Michigan on 9 March 1964. Sales rates boomed up to a over a million units during the first 18 months of being on the market.

As a validation of the model’s fame, several cars has been made about them, and one of them is “65 Mustang” by Five for Fighting: the stage name of John Ondrasik, a US singer-songwriter. Five for Fighting’s claim to fame was the hit single “Superman (It’s Not Easy)”, which resulted to the platinum record he got for the album America Town in 2000.

The song “65 Mustang” basically sings about the family Mustang, and the things that the car and the driver shared:

65 Mustang
by Five for Fighting

She’s my time machine
She’s my rolling memory
She’s my family
And I love her so

She’s my family 

The song “Pink Cadillac” is a funny, rockability song from 1984. It is originally sung by Bruce Springsteen,  but is better known as 1988 Top 10 hit single performed by Natalie Cole, R&B style. The song is a continuation of the patented Springsteen obsession with car imagery in songs. The album containing the song was was originally recorded by Springsteen in May 1983.

Natalie Cole’s rendition of the “Pink Cadillac” was a #5 Billboard Hot 100 pop hit in 1988, as well as a #16 Adult Contemporary hit. It also topped to #1 on the Dance chart. Then in 2001, AOL banned using the lyrics in quotation in a Springsteen discussion group because according to them, the lyrics were too suggestive. One of the allegedly offending lines was “My love is bigger than a Honda, yeah it’s bigger than a Subaru.” This lyric references ”Not Fade Away” by Buddy Holly, which has a line that says: “And my love is bigger than a Cadillac/I’ll try to show it if you drive me back.”

“Pink Cadillac” was played mostly on Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s 1984-1985 Born in the U.S.A. Tour. It was played as a comic relief number, which was eventually elongated to include a low-budget skit involving Springsteen as a Jimmy Swaggert-style teleevangelist.

However, since that tour, the “Pink Cadillac” was played less than a dozen times and disappeared from the Springsteen repertoire.

PINK CADILLAC
by Bruce Springsteen

You may think I’m foolish
For the foolish things I do
You may wonder how come I love you
When you get on my nerves like you do
Well baby you know you bug me
There ain’t no secret ’bout that
Well come on over here and hug me
Baby I’ll spill the facts
Well honey it ain’t your money
‘Cause baby I got plenty of that
I love you for your pink Cadillac
Crushed velvet seats
Riding in the back
Oozing down the street
Waving to the girls
Feeling out of sight
Spending all my money
On a Saturday night
Honey I just wonder what you do there in back
Of your pink Cadillac
Pink Cadillac

Well now way back in the Bible
Temptations always come along
There’s always somebody tempting
Somebody into doing something they know is wrong
Well they tempt you, man, with silver
And they tempt you, sir, with gold
And they tempt you with the pleasures
That the flesh does surely hold
They say Eve tempted Adam with an apple
But man I ain’t going for that
I know it was her pink Cadillac
Crushed velvet seats
Riding in the back
Oozing down the street
Waving to the girls
Feeling out of sight
Spending all my money
On a Saturday night
Honey I just wonder what it feels like in the back
Of your pink Cadillac
Now some folks say it’s too big
And uses too much gas
Some folks say it’s too old
And that it goes too fast
But my love is bigger than a Honda
It’s bigger than a Subaru
Hey man there’s only one thing
And one car that will do
Anyway we don’t have to drive it
Honey we can park it out in back
And have a party in your pink Cadillac