Supercar
Faces in the wrong crowd
Driving with the lights out
Looking to get lost tonight
Bathing in the moon shine
Shifting like a star sign
Everything that’s yours is mine
Feeling like a bad boy
Get me like a new toy
Have I seen you on TV
If you pick the cards right
You could play my A-side
Spinning till we’re out of sight
So here and now
While time is tight
No feelings feel right
Underneath the amber glow
No turning back
That would never do
The point of no return
Is here for me and you
You get what you came for
Everyone could use more
Don’t you think they owe you that?
Sliding down the S-curve
Trying to control the urge
We all need encouragement
So take the risk
And see it through
The night is young
The prizes all to play for
You bring your skills
My winning smile
And by the weekend
We can skate the royal mile
Now you’re a superstar
Driving in your supercar
Everybody stops to stare
You don’t remember
It was only last December
Racing through the cold night air
Now you have gone
It’s all too straight
The plan went wrong
So now it’s all too late
We can’t commit
And here we wait
The sun comes up upon
This everlasting night
I had already got this guitar pattern for the verse which sounded kind of stagey, like an end-of-the pier, puppet show lick. I expected it to be a second theme and was waiting for the main part of the music to appear. Instead a chorus came along, descending chords with an ostinato bass part which sounded quite heroic in a Venus De Milo way. The lyrics had to be striving, aspirational, yearning I thought. But striving for what? I have to actually start writing lyrics before I know what the song is “about”. There never just about one thing. Every line can be about a different thing. Or more likely, every line might refer to some different thought process which underscores the way I write each line. I might have two good couplets out of 8, and just whack a few fillers in, then once it all scans go back and change and change it. There was an idea about films like Gone In 60 Seconds or Drive, with cool drapery decorating heroic failed romance. Musically I was trying for Lulu fronting the Spiders From Mars. Then I added in a lick from Rebel Rebel. We were all set. Then I revisited the narrative and realised we were getting close to A Star Is Born in reverse. It was all so American the last change I put in was the line “skate the Royal Mile” as a metaphor for “we’ll be really making it”. But of course what goes up must come down.