Does this draft conform to rock’n’roll? Or does it have the spirit of rock’n’roll? I’m going to say no to both: yes, it’s got a car and a girl, it deals directly with a relationship that’s taking place right now in the narrative. But it’s not simple; it tries to sneak too many things in and once you start getting layers you’ve moved on from old time rock’n’roll.

With both sexes behind the wheel as evinced by the Beatles’ Baby You Can Drive My Car and Big Black Cadillac with its memorable “she said Balls to you big daddy I ai’n’t never coming back”

There is quirk aplenty in rock’n’roll but you’ll find every novelty number stays assiduously with its premise, be it Monster Mash or Pommy Jackaroo. It’s more of a New Wave (i.e. the stuff that was around at the same time as punk rock) tactic to draw the listener down two different paths, never mind retain a radical indeterminacy. We’re used to these appearing in several of the rock genres but, if the thought had crossed those songwriters’ minds, they would have dismissed this as a distraction, a needless complication.

I’m passing a whole significant history here but it’s because I think the esoteric flights of fancy that rock took in the early seventies were short on the kind of things that occur to The Cars or occur in cars. By the time there were groups called Eddie and the Hot Rods and Racing Cars, the idea of returning to short sharp bursts of song had returned with a vengeance and fast things – like motor vehicles – were good easy topics to write on to fit the frenetic pace.