"Driving with the Brakes On" - Colin Hay
A Manchester-based poet friend of mine just shared some of his soul-baring prose about the passing of his older sister, ten years his senior. A contentious and troubled relationship; an understatement. It was raw, emotional, cathartic, and necessary to write as it was to share. A rare work that shook me to my core, having lost my younger sibling a few years back. A flood of memories, good and bad. While reading his work, this song was playing in the background. I wept.
It is one of my favorite songs of the year. "Driving with the Brakes On" was originally written and performed by the most-excellent Del Amitri. (Check out the original.) Here was Mr. Colin Hay (Men At Work) now sharing his rendition, claiming it as his own. In fine vocal form, too, his plaintive voice as raw and emotive as the poems that I was reading. I hope you can take the time to appreciate this song and perhaps his most excellent album of cover songs entitled I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself (Compass Records). You will be rewarded. And hopefully, moved.