Driving Songs - Part 2
Part Two:
Helen Wheels
Not a driving song really, but an homage to the car itself:
Helen Wheels is our Land Rover. It's a name we gave to our Land Rover, which is a trusted vehicle that gets us around Scotland. It takes us up to the Shetland Islands and down to London. The song starts off in Glasgow, and it goes past Carlisle, goes to Kendal, Liverpool, Birmingham and London. It's the route coming down from our Scottish farm to London, so it's really the story of the trip down. Little images along the way. Liverpool is on the West coast of England, so that is all that means."
Paul McCartney
Back Seat Of My Car
Inspired by the long road trips McCartney used to make with Linda as the Beatles were breaking up.
Back Seat of My Car is the ultimate teenage song, and even though it was a long time since I was a teenager and had to go to a girl's dad and explain myself, it's that kind of meet-the-parents song. It's a good old driving song. [Sings] "We can make it to Mexico City." I've never driven to Mexico City, but it's imagination. And obviously "back seat" is snogging, making love.
Paul McCartney
Two Of Us
Just get in your car and start driving without a goal. McCartney wrote the track about wandering around with his soon-to-be wife, Linda McCartney.
When I moved to England to be with Paul, we would put Martha in the back of the car and drive out of London. We'd keep driving without looking at any signs. Hence the line in the song, 'Two of us going nowhere.’
Linda McCartney
Ticket To Ride
‘Ticket to Ride’ is the story of a girl who boards a train headed out of a bad relationship. The title has a double meaning; it was a play on the name of the town of Ryde on the Isle of Wight, where McCartney’s cousin and her husband owned a pub. Lennon and McCartney crashed there while hitchhiking in the early '60s; McCartney recalled that he mentioned the trip to Ryde to Lennon while they wrote ‘Ticket to Ride.’
Drive My Car
No, this Beatles classic is actually not about travelling. It’s all about sex, although not intended at first.
The lyrics I brought in were something to do with golden rings, which is always fatal. (..) Somehow it became 'drive my car' instead of 'golden rings,' and then it was wonderful because this nice tongue-in-cheek idea came and suddenly there was a girl there, the heroine of the story, and the story developed. Drive my car was an old blues euphemism for sex, so in the end all is revealed. Black humor crept in and saved the day. It wrote itself then. I find that very often, once you get the good idea, things write themselves.
Back to Part One
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