I'm In Love With My Car

Album: A Night At The Opera (1975)
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Songfacts®:

  • Queen's drummer Roger Taylor wrote this song, sang on it and played drums on the track. Though it was dedicated to Queen roadie John Harris ("a boy racer to the end."), there was still something autobiographical in this car-as-a-metaphor-for-sex song. "I'm not obsessed," the Queen drummer told Mojo, "but I do love a good car."
  • The engine noises on the recording of "I'm In Love With My Car" are authentic and come from the car Roger Taylor owned at the time. He described in a 1997 interview with Pop On The Line: "I remember my car at the time, because I think we've got the exhaust on the record, and that was a little Alfa Romeo. But I think it was more about people in general, for instance boy racers. In particular we had a sound guy/roadie at the time called Jonathan Harris, who was in love with his car, and that inspired that. I think he had a TR4, Triumph TR4."
  • Roger Taylor loved the song, and demanded it to be the B-side to Freddie Mercury's "Bohemian Rhapsody" single - so much so that he apparently locked himself in a cupboard until Mercury agreed. Perhaps there was a good reason Taylor really wanted it to be the "Rhapsody" B-side - the song credit went completely to him, and when the single became a huge smash hit, he received almost equal royalties as Mercury did for "Rhapsody."

    This naturally rather annoyed the rest of the band! Songwriting credits and friction over royalties are a common reason why most bands break up. For this reason, Queen later in their career decided to give a collective co-writing credit for all songs, regardless of who contributed. This meant everyone got equal royalties for any singles/hits, which meant there was less friction with members more willing to let their songs/ideas be worked on - knowing they wouldn't lose any credit or royalty money in the process.

Comments: 9

  • Steve from Deale, Md 20751, UsaWay back when, when I had Corvette this way my favorite song
  • Nikole from Howard County, MarylandRoger Taylor is my love of my lifeeeeeeeee
  • A Random Guy from EarthFred: I'm in love with my cats
    Brian: I'm in love with my wife
    John: I'm in love with my bass
    Roger I'M IN LOVE WITH MY CAR
  • Robert from Houston, TxI heard that too, Lindsey, and it makes sense when you consider that "Bohemian Rhapsody" was the A-side and that Queen's record deal paid royalties as equal halves to the writers of the A and B sides. As "Bo Rhap" became the UK's third best selling single of all time, Roger became a very wealthy man from these royalties. Not bad for a song Brian May thought was a joke when it was demo'd by Roger.
  • Thomas from Somerville, AlThis song rocks! It is yet another showcase of the great musical talent of the band and of Mercurys vocal. Come to think of it, I don't recall hearing a song by Queen that I didn't like
  • Lindsay from Coweta, OkApparently, and this may or may not be true, but Roger Taylor begged for this to be put on the B-side of the album. When Freddie said no, he locked himslef in a cupboard until he agreed to it!
  • Charles from Glenside, PaOr perhaps 'automolove' is just a cute way of referring to auto-eroticism.But I'll refrain from reading any illicit meaning into any Queen song.
  • Pablo from Santiago, ChileI've heard two different truth versions of this song. The first one tells that the song is really a sarcastic view of a crappy van that the band used in one of their very first tours through England. The other one is that Roger, being a car fan, wrote the song about one of his favourites: an Alfa Romeo.
  • Paul from Rothesay, New Brunswick , CanadaI watched an interview with Roger, where he sits down with an acoustic guitar and plays the song for a bit, the same way he did many years before when he auditioned the song for Brian May. Roger goes on to say that Brian's reaction was "You're kidding, right?" A Queen classic!
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