So this has been.my favorite song of OTEP's since it came out in 2004, and I always thought it was a song about a child's narrative of suffering in an abusive Christian home. But now that I am revisiting the lyrics, I am seeing something totally new.
This song could be gospel of John but from the perspective of Jesus.
Jesus was NOT having a good time up to and during the crucifixion. Everyone in the known world at the time looked to him with fear, admiration or disgust and he was constantly being asked questions. He spoke in "verses, prophesies and curses". He had made an enemy of the state, and believed the world was increasingly wicked and fallen from grace, or that he was in the "mouth of madness".
The spine of atlas is the structure that allows the titan to hold the world up. Jesus challenged the state and in doing so became a celebrated resistance figure. It also made him public enemy #1.
All of this happened simply because he was doing his thing, not because of any agenda he had or strategy.
And then he gets scourged (storm of thorns)
There are some plot holes here but I think it's an interesting interpretation.
My little sister's in the front seat with an ice cream cone
My ma's in the back seat sitting all alone
As my pa steers her slow out of the lot
For a test drive down Michigan Avenue
Now my ma, she fingers her wedding band
And watches the salesman stare at my old man's hands
He's telling us all about the break he'd give us if he could but he just can't
Well, if I could I swear I know just what I'd do
Now mister the day the lottery I win
I ain't ever gonna ride in no used car again
Now the neighbors come from near and far
As we pull up in our brand new used car
I wish he'd just hit the gas and let out a cry
And tell them all they can kiss our asses goodbye
My dad, he sweats the same job from morning to morn
Me, I walk home on the same dirty streets where I was born
Up the block, I can hear my little sister in the front seat blowing that horn
The sounds echoing all down Michigan Avenue
Now mister the day my number comes in
I ain't ever gonna ride in no used car again
My ma's in the back seat sitting all alone
As my pa steers her slow out of the lot
For a test drive down Michigan Avenue
Now my ma, she fingers her wedding band
And watches the salesman stare at my old man's hands
He's telling us all about the break he'd give us if he could but he just can't
Well, if I could I swear I know just what I'd do
Now mister the day the lottery I win
I ain't ever gonna ride in no used car again
Now the neighbors come from near and far
As we pull up in our brand new used car
I wish he'd just hit the gas and let out a cry
And tell them all they can kiss our asses goodbye
My dad, he sweats the same job from morning to morn
Me, I walk home on the same dirty streets where I was born
Up the block, I can hear my little sister in the front seat blowing that horn
The sounds echoing all down Michigan Avenue
Now mister the day my number comes in
I ain't ever gonna ride in no used car again
Lyrics submitted by sakebox, edited by BruceTheBoss
Used Cars Lyrics as written by Bruce Springsteen
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
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You guys are hilarious!
The second verse doesn't happen in the car.
They go for a test drive in a used car in the first verse. Bruce doesn't go because he hates what a used car means.
In the second, they are probably sitting in the office or something, trying to get a deal on the car (or maybe a new one??), but they can't. The salesman eyes the dad's hands, sees that he's a working man and decides not to take a risk on him. More insult in Bruce's eyes.
The neighbors coming out to check out the car is yet another humiliation. In the last two verses, we are back with Bruce, waiting for his parents to get back from the test drive.
But the daughter is too young to notice all this. All she cares about is that it's a 'new' car! Honk! Honk!
Brilliant.
Pretty self-explanatory song. Reminds me of going to downtown Cincinnati with my dad when I was about 7, to pick up his "brand-new" used '64 Impala.
But am I the only person to find the seating arrangement in this song a little wonky? If Ma is in the back seat all alone, Pa, little sis, the salesman, AND Bruce are all in the front seat!
I don't think Bruce is even in the car. Coz he can hear his sister hitting the horn on the test drive from further up the street. He's hanging back and talking to the salesman whilst the rest of the family take the test drive and tells the salesman that as soon as his numbers come up he's not going to buy a used car ever again.
The song reflects the shame one feels (usually at an age when you are self conscience about everything) about having to buy a used car. Once again Springsteen spins lyrical poetry in his words. The line about the the saleman looking at his old man's hands tells us volumes. That his dad is a laborer and the salesman knows he has him in a corner. The bitterness a teen feels at their parents for making him suffer this humiliation (A Used CAR, the horror). Great, great stuff from the BOSS.
Yes! I can't take this song seriously because of that. My dad theorizes that the car is triangular with the apex at the back, leaving room only for Ma.
I think theres a chance the car could be a truck with a bench seat in the front and only Ma decided to sit in the back
I think theres a chance the car could be a truck with a bench seat in the front and only Ma decided to sit in the back
I don't think Bruce has ever written a better verse than:
Now, the neighbors come from near and far As we pull up in our brandnew used car I wish he'd just hit the gas and let out a cry Tell `em all they can kiss our asses goodbye.
Sums up the way a 9 or 10 year old kid feels in that situation perfectly. As for the question of where the 'narrator' is sitting - try the lyrics of 'My Hometown' for a clue...
I'm with you on the seating arrangements. This album, as a whole, is one of the greatest collections of modern poetry in any sense of the word. I teach 7th grade, and this has been my day one activity for the last five years. The kids try to figure out the age and sex of the speaker from the clues provided in the song...They try and figure out the setting, problems the speaker might encounter on a daily basis, etc...A brilliant piece of work! There is not a better song writer alive!
This is a very powerfull song and very heart warming. I can't think of meny songs that are wirtten from a childs point of vue.
I also love how relaxing it is. The sort of songs that would put you to sleep after a long day,
one thing the Boss does in perfection is writing about these less-spoken aspects of everyday life [though he's not alone in doing that]. I have felt this type of embarrassments of the indignities in everyday life of middle-class; mostly embarrassed for my family, not because of them but the way the world make us look. he writes on how he wishes to escape from these little but sad feelings in life.