Song of the Week: Drive - The Cars

I have 5,432 songs on my iTunes. This is one of them.

The Cars started in the late 1970's as a New Wave band. The leading members were lead guitarist Ric Ocasek and bassist Benjamin Orr. Ocasek wrote and sang most of the songs. I loved the Cars first album The Cars. It was one of those rare albums where just about every song was at least good and most were great. Rolling Stone magazine ranks it as the 282 of the 500 best albums of all time. The Cars song which came up on my iTunes however was Drive, from their 1984 album Heartbreak City. It was their 5th and next to last album. It had 5 top 40 hits, and Drive reached the top ten. They released one more album, the 1987 record called Door to Door. I don't know anything about this record but according to Wikipedia, it was widely panned.

I'd never seen the video for this song and kind of like it. I didn't realize that it was sung by Orr and not Ocasek until I saw the video. The video is in black and white which is very 1980s, I think. I imagine that if you were in the process of breaking up with someone when this song came out that it probably brings back bad memories. My suggestion is get over it, that was 20 years ago. I was, and am still, happily married, so, although I like the song, it doesn't have any emotional baggage attached to it.



Who's gonna tell you when,
It's too late,
Who's gonna tell you things,
Aren't so great.

You can't go on, thinkin',
Nothin's wrong, but bye,
Who's gonna drive you home,
tonight?

Who's gonna pick you up,
When you fall?
Who's gonna hang it up,
When you call?

Who's gonna pay attention,
To your dreams?
And who's gonna plug their ears,
When you scream?

You can't go on, thinkin'
Nothin's wrong, but bye,
Who's gonna drive you home, tonight?


(bye bye bye)
(bye bye bye)
(bye bye bye)
(bye bye bye)

Who's gonna hold you down,
When you shake?
Who's gonna come around,
When you break?

You can't go on, thinkin',
Nothin's wrong, but bye,
Who's gonna drive you home, tonight?

Oh, you know you can't go on, thinkin',
Nothin's wrong,
Who's gonna drive you home, tonight?

(bye bye bye)
(bye bye bye)
(bbye bye bye)