Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi all,

Would anybody help me understanding some lines in that song above, please?:

Probably you know the song and video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAhFGUK80nk, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driving_in_My_Car
I'd like to know why the text says:

It was made in fifty-nine (the car in the video was not built before '63 obviously)
In a factory by the Tyne (the River Tyne flows through Newcastle, not Cowley/Oxford. Has there been another production site?)
It says Morris on the door,
The G.P.O. owned it before (I believe that means General Post Office. So it should be a car like Madness' keyboarder Mike Barson drives in this documentary from minute 4:20: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3YyMTVDI4Y Although built later than '59.)
I drive in it for my job,
The governor calls me a slob (why does he call him like that?)
But I don't really care,
Give me some gas and the open air (why "open air" – the video shows a convertible, but it should be a van when it's from the post office)
...
This copper stopped me the other day, (does that mean the electrical wiring was bad?)
You're mistaken what could I say

Sorry, if the answers are obvious for you. For me they are not. I'm neither a native English speaker nor have I ever lived in Britain for more than three wekks in a row. Thanks for help!

Frank

I cannot help on all of the questions but some of the terms used are slang words.

Copper - Police officer

Slob - Lazy person

Gas - Petrol

As for open air, I take that to mean outside rather than office based, so taking the van out would be classed as an open air job.

Murrayminor wrote: ↑Tue Sep 08, 2020 8:00 am Copper - Police officer
...
As for open air, I take that to mean outside rather than office based, so taking the van out would be classed as an open air job.

Fine, thanks! So I already got a little English lesson this morning.

What about the "Tyne"?

Probably artistic license

...and some German lessons for the non-Brexiteers

slob - Schlampe

copper - Bulle

Gas [AE] - Sprit

Open air - Draußen

I understand that Mike Barson wrote the song about his own, ex-GPO (General Post Office) van, so the '59 reference would have been correct and as 'fifty nine' doesn't rhyme with 'Thames' you would have to assume that, as has already been stated, poetic licence was applied and the Morris factory was 'moved' to the north-east of England. The later-than-fifty-nine convertible in the video was doubtless chosen by the artistic director as being 'near enough for purpose and who but rivet-counters and nerds (us!) would know the difference anyway'. A convertible was chosen, I would guess, because it made it easier to see all the Madness lot more easily.

Thanks so far to all of you. When I first saw the video I thought the teller talked about that car. Now I understand the teller works for the post office driving a Morris Minor van.

59/Tyne:

Matt wrote: ↑Tue Sep 08, 2020 9:14 am Probably artistic license

Myrtles Man wrote: ↑Tue Sep 08, 2020 9:34 am I understand that Mike Barson wrote the song about his own, ex-GPO (General Post Office) van, so the '59 reference would have been correct and as 'fifty nine' doesn't rhyme with 'Thames' you would have to assume that, as has already been stated, poetic licence was applied and the Morris factory was 'moved' to the north-east of England.

Mike Barson‘s van in the documentary is also younger than from 1959. So he could have written „63/River Dee“ or whatever. I realize: The person who writes the text is not identic with the (fictional) teller of the story.

Myrtles Man wrote: ↑Tue Sep 08, 2020 9:34 am The later-than-fifty-nine convertible in the video was doubtless chosen by the artistic director as being 'near enough for purpose and who but rivet-counters and nerds (us!) would know the difference anyway'. A convertible was chosen, I would guess, because it made it easier to see all the Madness lot more easily.

Yes, probably.

jagnut66 wrote: ↑Tue Sep 08, 2020 10:37 pm Hi,
As you say done for artistic licence and so that the words in the song would rhyme, rather than make historical sense.
I rather like it but then I'm a fan of Madness, as well as Morris Minors........

Oh, and Nickol, despite my being a proud and unrepentant Brexiteer, the German translation is still interesting.

Best wishes,
Mike.

I‘m fine with that.