Drive My Car | Chords + Lyrics
Intro
||: D minor pentatonic lick :||
Verse 1
| D7 | G7 | D7 | G7 |
Asked a girl what she wanted to be, she said, “Baby, can’t you see?
| D7 | G7 | A7#5 | A7#5 |
I wanna be famous, a star of the screen”. But you can do something in between.
Chorus 1
| Bm | G5 G6 G7 G6 G5 | Bm | G5 G6 G7 G6 G5 |
Baby, you can drive my car, yes, I’m gonna be a star.
| Bm | E A | D G | A |
Baby, you can drive my car, and maybe I’ll love you.
Verse 2
| D7 | G7 | D7 | G7 |
I told that girl that my prospects were good, and she said, “Baby, it’s understood,
| D7 | G7 | A7#5 | A7#5 |
working for peanuts is all very fine, but I can show you a better time”.
Chorus 2
| Bm | G5 G6 G7 G6 G5 | Bm | G5 G6 G7 G6 G5 |
Baby, you can drive my car, yes, I’m gonna be a star.
| Bm | E A | D G |
Baby, you can drive my car, and maybe I’ll love you.
| A N.C |
Beep-beep, beep-beep, yeah!
Solo
| D7 | G7 | D7 | G7 |
| D7 | G7 | A | A |
Chorus 3
| Bm | G5 G6 G7 G6 G5 | Bm | G5 G6 G7 G6 G5 |
Baby, you can drive my car, yes, I’m gonna be a star.
| Bm | E A | D G | A |
Baby, you can drive my car, and maybe I’ll love you.
Verse 3
| D7 | G7 | D7 | G7 |
I told that girl I can start right away, When she said, “Listen, babe, I got somethin’ to say,
| D7 | G7 | A7#5 | A7#5 |
I got no car and it’s breaking my heart, but I’ve found a driver and that’s a start”.
Chorus 4
| Bm | G5 G6 G7 G6 G5 | Bm | G5 G6 G7 G6 G5 |
Baby, you can drive my car, yes, I’m gonna be a star.
| Bm | E A | D G |
Baby, you can drive my car, and maybe I’ll love you”.
| A N.C | D G |
Beep-beep, beep-beep, yeah!
Outro
||: A | D G :||
||: Beep-beep, beep-beep, yeah! :||
Drive My Car’s chords and progressions
Let’s dissect Drive My Car’s chords. After the opening minor pentatonic lick, the verse is essentially an 8-bar blues in D. The V chord has a Dom7#5 extension, like this:
| D7 | G7 | D7 | G7 |
| D7 | G7 | A7#5 | A7#5 |
The chorus unusually starts on chord VI, most of the time, verses are in minor, and choruses are major but in Drive My Car, the chords are the other way around.
From this Bm chord, we go to chord IV, which has another characteristic extension going on in 5 – 6 – b7 – 6 – 5, clearly flirting with Chuck Berry-style rock n roll. This is then repeated before we go for a turnaround.
The turnaround uses the cycle of 4th, starting on chord IIx. E – A – D – G, before we go back to chord V, an A chord, now without the dom7#5 extension. Here are all of Drive My Car’s chorus chords:
| Bm | G5 G6 G7 G6 G5 | Bm | G5 G6 G7 G6 G5 |
| Bm | E A | D G | A |
The only other chord progression we find in Drive My Car is during the outro as we move V – I – IV on repeat, a combination of #1 and #2 on my top ten chord progression list. Looks like this:
||: A | D G :||
Drive My Car was inspired by Respect
As the opening tune from their 6th album, Rubber Soul, Drive My Car was released in 1965. Although this is only true in the U.K., on the American release, the song was replaced with I’ve Just Seen A Face, another Beatles classic.
The reasoning for this was that in America, The Beatles were marketed as more of a folk act, not rock n roll/pop.
In fact, the name Rubber Soul came about as the Americans at the time had labeled the Brit’s version of their soul music as plastic soul.
Drive My Car is mainly a McCartney composition with an underlying sense of fun. Lennon’s slightly dissonant harmonies and that A7#5 chord add just enough tension to make it stand out enough to give the necessary familiarity a twist.
Apparently, Drive My Car was inspired by Otis Redding’s original version of Respect, a song Aretha Franklin would cover two years later and in doing so, create the most famous soul song ever.
Other notable tunes on Rubber Soul are Norwegian Wood, Michelle, In My Life, Nowhere Man, We Can Work It Out, I’ve Just Seen A Face, and Girl.
Study the chords and lyrics for Drive My Car above to find out how Paul put this one together.
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