After yesterday's heart-racing number by Cake, let's pull in to a classic car song by The Boss that puts aside a certain amount of religious guilt and, with a little innuendo, gets straight down to backseat action. The music itself is straightforward enough, a bluesy fender string-bending riff in the mode of Duane Eddy playing Henry Mancini's Peter Gunn theme with added blasts of Clarence Clemons on saxophone. Vocally Bruce is full Elvis mode, inspired by the latter's version of Baby Let's Play House in which Presley replaced the original lyric: "You may get religion" with: "You may have a pink Cadillac". However, the song was never on an album, despite being the B-side to Dancing In The Street from 1984's height-of-fame album Born In The USA. It was also later covered by Natalie Cole and Springsteen also did a version with Jerry Lee Lewis on the 2006 album Last Man Standing. But what's particularly prominent, as it were, is while the hardworking blue-collar hero is no stranger to car imagery in his songs, this one is also unusual in its explicit sexual references: "I love you for you pink Cadillac", "crushed velvet seats", "oozing down the street", "my love is bigger than a Honda, yeah, it's bigger than a Subaru". Go Bruce, go! It's as downright sexy as Prince and his Little Red Corvette. Even Aretha Franklin got in to act in her 80s single, Freeway of Love: "We goin' ridin' on the freeway of love In my pink Cadillac".
Well now you may think I'm foolish
For the foolish things I do
You may wonder how come I love you
When you get on my nerves like you do
Well baby you know you bug me
There ain't no secret 'bout that
Well come on over here and hug me
Baby I'll spill the facts
Well honey it ain't your money
'Cause baby I got plenty of that
I love you for your pink Cadillac
Crushed velvet seats
Riding in the back
Cruising down the street
Waving to the girls
Feeling out of sight
Spending all my money
On a Saturday night
Honey I just wonder what you do there in back
Of your pink Cadillac
Pink Cadillac
Well now way back in the Bible
Temptations always come along
There's always somebody tempting
Somebody into doing something they know is wrong
Well they tempt you, man, with silver
And they tempt you, sir, with gold
And they tempt you with the pleasures
That the flesh does surely hold
They say Eve tempted Adam with an apple
But man I ain't going for that
I know it was her pink Cadillac
Crushed velvet seats
Riding in the back
Oozing down the street
Waving to the girls
Feeling out of sight
Spending all my money
On a Saturday night
Honey I just wonder what it feels like in the back
Of your pink Cadillac
Pink Cadillac
Now some folks say it's too big
And uses too much gas
Some folks say it's too old
And that it goes too fast
But my love is bigger than a Honda
Yeah, it's bigger than a Subaru
Hey man there's only one thing
And one car that will do
Anyway we don't have to drive it
Honey we can park it out in the back
And have a party in your pink Cadillac
Crushed velvet seats
Riding in the back
Cruising down the street
Waving to the girls
Feeling out of sight
Spending all my money
On a Saturday night
Honey I just wonder what you do there in back
Of your pink Cadillac
Pink Cadillac …
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