Sunday, April 27, 2014

Come Ons -- "Sunday Drive" (2001)


I know it's a long, long time
Since you've been in my car
Try to make it to Sunday

You can believe this song is about a boy and a girl taking a Sunday drive together.  Or you can wake up and smell the cat food, suckas!

"Sunday Drive" is just one long double entendre.  You know what a double entendre is, don't you, Steve?



A double entendre is a phrase that has two meanings.  Usually the more subtle of the two meanings is suggestive, so the double entendre enables one to communicate a suggestive message -- or as the Oxford English Dictionary puts it, an "indelicate meaning" -- and still maintain one's innocence.

There are three possible outcomes when you utter a double entendre.  

Number one, the listener won't get it -- that's not the best outcome, but you can live with that.  

Second, the listener picks up on the suggestive meaning and finds it titillating or humorous.  (That's what you're hoping for, of course.)

Double entendre
Third, the listener picks up on the suggestive meaning and is offended.  No problem -- you just deny that you meant anything off-color, point to the innocent interpretation of what you said, and insist that is the meaning that was intended.  You can also pretend that you are offended that the listener thought you meant anything improper, and accuse him or her of having a dirty mind.

One famous double entendre is the title of Shakespeare's play, Much Ado About Nothing.  It seems that "nothing" is Elizabethan slang for a woman's . . . ummm, this is a little embarrassing . . . for a woman's . . . well, a woman's "no-thing" (or her "o-thing," if you prefer) . . . or to use the Come Ons' word, her "car."


The Come Ons are the third group who appeared on the Sympathetic Sounds of Detroit album that 2 or 3 lines has featured.  If you don't know this already, that album -- which features a dozen or so garage/punk bands from Detroit -- was produced in 2001 by Jack White.

Live a number of the groups featured on that album, the Come Ons have a retro-y sound.  This song relies heavily on a vintage-sounding organ, and relegates the guitar to a secondary role as a rhythm instrument (which is where it belongs).

The Come Ons
Here's the version of "Sunday Drive" that was included on the Come Ons' 2001 album, Hip Check!:


Click here to buy the song from Amazon:


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