Drive My Car
Track duration: 02:26
“Drive My Car” as written by John Winston Lennon, Paul James Mccartney
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics
Asked a girl what she wanted to be
She said, “Baby, can’t you see?
I wanna be famous, a star on the screen
But you can do something in between”
Baby, you can drive my car
Yes, I’m gonna be a star
Baby, you can drive my car
And maybe I’ll love you
I told that girl that my prospects were good
And she said, “Baby, it’s understood
Working for peanuts is all very fine
But I can show you a better time”
Baby, you can drive my car
Yes, I’m gonna be a star
Baby, you can drive my car
And maybe I’ll love you
Beep beep’m, beep beep, yeah
Baby, you can drive my car
Yes, I’m gonna be a star
Baby, you can drive my car
And maybe I’ll love you
I told that girl, I can start right away
When she said, “Listen babe, I got something to say
I got no car and it’s breaking my heart
But I’ve found a driver and that’s a start”
Baby, you can drive my car
Yes, I’m gonna be a star
Baby, you can drive my car
And maybe I’ll love you
Beep beep’m, beep beep, yeah
Beep beep’m, beep beep, yeah
Beep beep’m, beep beep, yeah
Beep beep’m, beep beep, yeah
Paul McCartney played bass and piano on this one. George Harrison played lead guitar and did backing vocals. John Lennon only sang and played tambourine. Paul and John shared the lead vocal.
Although John described the song as co-written by him and Paul during his Hit Parader interview in 1972, during his Playboy interview in 1980 he pretty much gave Paul full credit. When asked about “Drive My Car,” he then stated: “Paul’s song. It has a Motown bass line. He got this ‘drive my car’ thing and the ‘beep beep beep’ in the studio. I think we just threw it in.”
Paul elaborated many times during the years about the song, shedding much light on its conception. It was written at John’s Kenwood home probably sometime in September or early October of 1965 during one of their many writing sessions. Paul apparently had the melody already in mind as he showed up at John’s place “with a fairly good tune, but it had crappy lyrics, like ‘I can give you diamond rings, I can give you golden rings, I can give you anything,’ and John said, ‘Oh!’ he didn’t like them and we had a deep sad moment.”beatlesebooks