Cars and Girls.

Cars People Culture

This tune from Prefab Sprout has been the staple of many a driving compilation album since its release in 1988 

With the line ‘look at me now, I’m driving’ this seems only natural, but its inclusion is deeply ironic. Look at the venom with which Paddy McAloon spits out the line ‘ some things hurt more, much more, than cars and girls’ and you start to uncover the song’s true meaning.

He meant the lyrics as a direct attack on Bruce Springsteen, implying that the rocker was limited in his subject matter to chicks and hot-rods. I vaguely remember him saying as much to Mike Reed on Saturday Superstore.

On this occasion it has to be said that the usually astute McAloon was way wide of the mark.

In classic ballads like ‘Thunder Road’ Springsteen evokes the metaphorical power of the automobile as a symbol of freedom- as he so often does- to get to, and talk of, a whole raft of issues that make him the voice and champion blue collar America.

The Boss 1 / McAloon 0

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