Songfacts®:

• There really was an old blue car that inspired this song. As Peter Case tells it, the car belonged to his friend Mike, and Case had a band called the Incredibly Strung-Out Band with Victoria Williams, Gurf Morlix, and a sitar player (who studied with Ravi Shankar) called Tornado. Mike would drive them around and they would operate a kind of jukebox/taxi service, picking up people and taking them places while they played music for them. The car had a back window that rolled down, so sometimes they'd stop the car, roll down the window and go out on the "patio," meaning the trunk. The car inspired the song.
• Case wrote this song with Victoria Williams and Marvin Etzioni. Case and Williams, also a highly acclaimed singer-songwriter, got married in 1985 but divorced a few years later; Etzioni is known for his work in Lone Justice.
• "Old Blue Car" is a live favorite for Peter Case and one of his most popular songs. It's a track from his first solo album, Peter Case. Previously, he fronted the bands The Nerves and The Plimsouls. Case earned a devoted following but his only chart appearance was with the Plimsouls for their song "A Million Miles Away," which went to #82 in 1983.
• The album was produced by T-Bone Burnett, who became one of the most prolific and celebrated producers of the '90s and '00s. Even then, Burnett had a very impressive roster of musicians he could call in for sessions. Jim Keltner played drums on this track, Jerry Scheff on bass, and Fred Tackett played guitar. Scheff was part of Elvis Presley's band. According to Case, the vibe was very relaxed when they recorded the song; everyone played together and the final product is a live take.