Explaining “Driving in my car” by Madness

I was recently listening to a radio show and there was an interesting article on it around how an adult was explaining how they had to explain the lyrics to their favourite song to their young child as the lyrics covered things that no longer existed.

This got me thinking how would you explain songs about cars in the future to a generation who grew up in a Driverless car world.

So I chose “Driving in my car” by Madness to see what would happen

LYRIC	EXPLANATION TO A CHILD IN A DRIVERLESS CAR WORLD
I’ve been driving in my car, it’s not quite a Jaguar	Yes oddly enough people did used to drive their own cars.    EITHER  Jaguar did used to make sporty cars for people to drive before they started making driverless sporty cars  OR Jaguar used to be a maker of sports car but didn’t want to make Driverless cars and so closed production
I bought it in Primrose Hill from a bloke from Brazil	Lets google and see if there are still any Brazilian’s selling cars in Primrose Hill
It was made in fifty-nine in a factory by the Tyne	I know it is difficult to believe that there are still people that want drive around in cars built in 1959 that have no safety features/ABS/airbags/USB links/loud speakers/wi-fi hot spots/mobile phone links/fridges/microwaves and large screen televisions that you can play your X-Box on whilst travelling in the car
It says Morris on the door, the G.P.O. owned it before	Before email/texts took over people actually communicated by using bits of paper with words on them which would be placed in an addressed envelope and put in a red letter box and the  GPO would make sure the letter got to the address on the envelope the next day if you were lucky
I drive in it for my job, the governor calls me a slob	Yes people used to drive cars as part of their jobs.             Governor is a bit like your parents but they are usually stricter and unlike your parents can fire you. You know what a slob is as your parents call you one every time they go into your room !!
But I don’t really care, give me some gas and the open air	Gas was an American word for petrol and diesel that cars used to run on before electric cars took over. Depending on where you were driving your car with roof down you either got nice country air or air full of petrol and diesel emissions.
It’s a bit old but it’s mine, I mend it in my spare time	As I said before people used to actually enjoy driving around in old unreliable cars and that they actually  loved to spending their  weekends and any spare time fixing the problems with their cars
Just last week I changed the oil, the rocker valves and the coil	These were items that formed part of any petrol or diesel engine and people loved to tinker about with and change in their spare time and at weekends
Just last week I changed the oil	Unlike the electric cars of today petrol/diesel cars needed oil to keep them running on the road so people regularly before long journeys got their hands black and filthy checking the engine to see that the car had enough oil to get them to their destination
Last week it went round the clock, I also had a little knock	Before Driverless cars people who drove their cars quite often exceeded the speed limits which was naughty and could result in accidents occurring such as has happened in the lyrics. Thankfully being a car built in 1959 a little knock should not have resulted in any major life threatening injuries
I dented somebody’s fender, he learnt not to park on a bender, ha ha ha	Also before Driverless cars people had to park their own cars a lot of people were not very good at this and this made other drivers very angry. So angry that they might take to damaging the badly parked car or more likely to leave a very rude note on the windscreen
I’ve been driving in my car, it don’t look much but I’ve been far	There used to be certain car builders that built very unreliable cars that always broke down and were constantly being repaired in garages. Occasionally though the odd good car came out of their factories which was reliable and was able to clock up large mileages despite the rest of the cars being rubbish. The song is singing the praises of this odd good car.
I drive up to Muswell Hill, I’ve even been to Selsey Bill	Lets follow this route on google maps or there might be a video of the trip on YouTube
I drove along the A45, I had her up to 58	Lets follow this route on google maps and see if driving at 58 broke any speed limits
This copper stopped me the other day, you’re mistaken what could I say	Before Driverless cars there used to Traffic Police (coppers in cars ) who would monitor cars to see if they breaking the law i.e. speeding,cars not working properly. You will like this but it used to be illegal to use your mobile phone or text whilst driving
The tyres were a little worn, they were O.K., I could have sworn	As you know Driverless cars  will not work if there is anything wrong with them like worn tyres. Before then people could take their cars out on the road with loads of things wrong with the cars and  hoping that the police would never stop them.
I like driving in my car, I’m satisfied I’ve got this far	As above the song is praising the fact that they are driving the odd good car from the car manufacturer and are not broken down on the side of the road like fellow owners of this car manufacturer would be usually
I like driving in my car, it don’t look much but I’ve been far	There used to be certain car builders that built very unreliable cars that always broke down and were constantly being repaired in garages. Occasionally though the odd good car came out of their factories which was reliable and was able to clock up large mileages despite the rest of the cars being rubbish. The song is singing the praises of this odd good car.
I like driving in my car, even with a flat tyre	As you know Driverless cars  will not work if there is anything wrong with them like worn tyres. Before then people could take their cars out on the road with loads of things wrong with the cars and  hoping that the police would never stop them.
I like driving in my car, it’s not quite a Jaguar	Yes oddly enough people did used to drive their own cars. EITHER Jaguar did used to make sporty cars for people to drive before they started making driverless sporty cars   OR Jaguar used to be a maker of sports car but didn’t want to make driverless cars and so closed production
I like driving in my car, I’m satisfied I’ve got this far	As above the song is praising the fact that they are driving the odd good car from the car manufacturer and are not broken down on the side of the road like fellow owners of this car manufacturer would be usually