Featured on the 1965 album Rubber Soul, the Beatles’ song “Drive My Car” was co-written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. The style looks back to classic rock-n-roll with a modal melody and blue-note inflections, and references Otis Redding’s bass-heavy version of “R-E-S-P-E-C-T.”[1] Examination of the lyrics as set by Lennon and McCartney shows a dynamic of power being established between the song’s narrator and a “girl.” This power play of the dominant female and the willingly subservient narrator who wishes to join her future plans is written into both the lyrics and the musical elements of the song.
McCartney’s lead vocals are harmonized through double-tracking; the melody emphasizes the fourth scale degree, G, which is held as a common tone throughout the verse. This melody is supported by a fifth below it, the lowered 7th scale degree (C natural) which is dissonant with the bass. During the verse, the band (2 guitars, bass guitar, drums, and piano) plays D and G chords, and transitions to the chorus with Am7 plus F natural- which in the vocals alone sounds like a G7sus chord (G, F plus C). At the chorus, the melody becomes freed of its limited compass (until now, only E, F, G plus harmonies of backup vocals) and outlines a D major triad against the chord B minor, and a D minor triad against G7. The melody and chords relate to one another in a complimentary yet disjunct manner, with common tones providing a smooth transition but different harmonies implied vocally versus instrumentally. The bridge of the song is a solo section for bass and lead guitar, with a small vocal transition on the words “beep beep mm beep beep yeah” as the melody cadences back to D towards the bridge and fadeout. Throughout the song the leading tone C# is not heard melodically but entirely substituted in the melody by C natural. The leading tone is only present in the instrumental chords supporting the melody, creating a subtle cross-relation of A minor and major in voices and instruments. Overall, the vocal lines of the verse are completely diatonic and all naturally occurring in the key of C – the C# and F# of D major are avoided until the chorus, though the band itself is playing in the key of D throughout the verse.
The lyrics of “Drive My Car” are supported by these musical elements of design and style. The most arresting feature of the song – the dissonant harmonies supporting the vocal line – imitates the sounds of a car horn, and imply conflict and sexual tension between the narrator and the girl. Though the chords played by the band change, the vocal harmonies remain dissonant with them and do not change much themselves. The band playing in D against vocal harmonies in C mirrors the dissonance between the characters’ viewpoints. The common pitch G connects these two tonal collections and allows for the two viewpoints to meet in a mutually intelligible but dissonant manner. As there is tension between the melody (sung by McCartney) and the accompaniment (the backup vocals plus the band), the conversation between the narrator and the girl is tense, with both characters vying for control of the conversation and the girl overpowering the narrator. Phrases such as “I told” and “she said” present an argument realistically, and orient us as listeners to the narrator’s viewpoint, and the chorus (lacking these words) reports her words as heard by him and repeated to us. The verse is sung in his voice, reporting his words and her replies, and the limits of his control are reflected in the extremely limited vocal range the melody covers while in his voice. Interjections from the girl are sung at the same pitch level, as she matches and repurposes his arguments to prove her point (namely, that she controls their relationship). In contrast, when the girl herself speaks at the chorus, the melody is freer and expresses more contradictions than tension. At the chorus, the girl is proposing her plan for stardom accompanied by the narrator as her driver, and ‘her’ vocal line agrees harmonically with the accompaniment. Interestingly, the chords as implied by the vocal line alone contrast from the chords actually harmonizing this line. The chorus begins with the notes F#, A, and D, outlining a D major triad, followed by F natural at the word “car” (the same pattern repeats in the second line, changing to F natural on “star”, and the third line with “car” again). This would imply the chords D major and minor if the voice was the only instrument heard here (and in a sense, even with the band, the vocal line still dominates the pitches heard by the listener). Instead, the chords supporting this line are B minor and G7, both consonant with the pitch collection of the vocal line but emphasizing a different mode through the bass line. The girl’s words, while consonant with the band, carry an undercurrent of contradiction here as well. If the narrator accepts her offer and becomes her driver, he does take part in her experience of stardom, but he is also accepting a subordinate position which lowers his status from free agent to employee. The final words of the chorus – “and maybe I’ll love you” – are the most realistic promise the girl offers the narrator. Her melody here is not only consonant with the accompaniment but also outlines the chord progression, implying correctly the actual movement to D (via the modal use of C natural as “leading tone”). This cohesion between melody and accompaniment gives this last phrase a “ring of truth” which the conflicting first three phrases do not present.
Throughout “Drive My Car,” the words chosen by the girl reflect a positioning of dominance over the narrator. She asserts this dominance through repeated emphasis on “I” and associated ideas: “I can show you a better time;” “my car;” “maybe I’ll love you.” [Italics mine throughout.] She also effectively places the narrator at a lower status than herself, both through the offer of a chauffeur position and by consistently reminding him of this lower status: “you can do something in between;” “working for peanuts is all very fine.” Offering the driver’s seat to the narrator could be seen out of context as an offer of power or a share in power and success, but in the context of the song, it is clear that the girl expects the narrator to accept and acknowledge his lower socio-economic value, as well as her implied sexual control. “Drive my car” has sexual connotations, which here emphasize the girl’s benefit from the narrator’s work, rather than control given to the “driver.” Ultimately we learn that the car itself does not yet belong to the girl, but she does not allow this lack to translate to a drawback of her argument. Instead, in explaining the situation she reiterates the hierarchy of her relationship with the narrator (“I got no car;” “I’ve got a driver”) and hints that she possesses him in the same way she will possess and utilize the car. He is a component and observer for her dream of stardom, and only secondarily a possible lover. The girl’s offer of the chauffeur job can be seen as a veiled sexual proposition, which she retracts somewhat when she says that she does not yet have the car – any possible fulfillment of this proposition is postponed but not yet refused, and so the narrator is “led on” further. The last line of the song – the onomatopoeic “beep beep mm beep beep yeah” follows the cadence of the melody to D major once again, which implies that the narrator does indeed accept the girl’s control and dominance. These words repeat as the song fades out, anticipating the car driving away with the girl and the narrator, now driver, beeping the horn and waving goodbye gleefully.
[1] http://www.beatlesbible.com/songs/drive-my-car/
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