10 Greatest Beatles Classic Rock Songs
9. Drive My Car
The Beatles might have been the rock stars you could take home to meet your parents but they weren’t above the odd tune dripping with sexual innuendo. It’s fitting that this track was the first Beatles recording session to go past midnight because clearly the song’s protagonist wants to, ahem, “drive cars” all night long.
The most soulful song on the folk leaning Rubber Soul album, Drive My Car was a truly collaborative effort. Paul McCartney came up with the melody and the track’s two chord funk riff. He also provided the memorable, jazzy piano part but by his own admission, “the lyrics were disastrous and I knew it.” He turned to John Lennon who provided the driving metaphor and much of the lyric.
Meanwhile, Harrison had been listening to, and finding inspiration in, Otis Redding’s Respect. He riffed on low guitar, along with the bass, to give the track an unusually heavy low end, mimicking the sound of Redding’s Memphis recordings. The resultant swinging R’n’B captures the Beatles at their most lascivious.