Driving With The Brakes On by Del Amitri

Album: Twisted (1995)

Charted: 18

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Songfacts®:

This song talks about loving someone but being kind of in a rut:
"When you're driving with the brakes on, when you're swimming with your boots on" - you're not going anywhere. You're trying, but things just aren't moving. The conflicted feelings are summed up in the line, "It's hard to say you love someone and its hard to say you don't." >>
Suggestion credit:
chris - santa cruz, CA

Comments: 3

Jim from UkI don’t think she is driving, I always took the “she’s got the wheel” as meaning that ultimately it (the abortion’ was her choice and right.
Ed from HoustonIt is difficult for me to image a girl driving her boyfriend through the long night far from home after having an abortion (Wouldn't the guy be driving?). She's driving a long trip, smoking, relaxed, and yawning after an abortion? I think there are better interpretations.

She decided to leave town, with or without him. It was time for him to put up or shut up because she was not bluffing. She was leaving. He did not want to commit to her. But at the last minute he got in the car and left with her, with no time to tell anyone or take anything except "what he had on". He is "the kid that has gone".

When he initially got in the car he thought he could talk her back. But he does not have the courage ("if he was more of a man") to stop her. He thinks about trying to talk her out of leaving by saying "come on, let's go home" but does not say it. She's in control, "she's got the wheel" and is leaving. This leaving "was the thing we've done" and which forced him to commit or not. He gently hints at going back home by saying "its a long way back now hon", but "she just yawns" (does not care). "She's got the wheel and I've got the deal [with it] from now on".

He was not sure if he loved her or not since "It's hard to say to love someone and hard to say you don't". Finally he does commit by holding his tongue and NOT trying to talk her into "going back home" and by realizing that he does love her and "nothing is gonna make me break from her side". He continues on with her to a place "so far away that that no one they know would come."

Commitment was something lacking in many of the characters in Justin Currie's songs. It was a regular theme. 2016-06-25
Johnny from Glasgow, United Kingdomthe songs about driving home after taking his girlfriend home after she has an abortion and through it all they still love each other "and unless the moon falls tonight unless the continents collide nothing will make me break from her side"

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