Drive-In Saturday
'Drive-In Saturday' appears on the B-side of one of the two 7-inch vinyl versions of Morrissey's 37th single, 'All You Need Is Me'. Released June 2, 2008 in the UK for only one week, each format of the single has a different B-side:
-the UK CD single features 'Children In Pieces'
-version 1 of the UK 7-inch single features 'Drive-in Saturday'
-version 2 of the UK 7-inch single features 'My Dearest Love'
The single reached number 24 on the UK Singles Chart.
'Drive-In Saturday' also appears on Morrissey's Swords compilation album, released in October 2009.
Listen to Morrissey perform 'Drive-In Saturday' here:
'Drive-In Saturday' is a song that was originally written by David Bowie well over three decades prior to Morrissey's cover version. Bowie released the song as a single on April 6, 19731, with it appearing as a track on his Aladdin Sane studio album (released a week after the single's debut).
Morrissey's cover of the song was recorded live at his Greatest Hits Tour concert at the Orpheum Theater in Omaha, Nebraska on May 11, 2007 (though he originally performed the song as a one-off nearly seven years previous during his Oye Esteban Tour2).
Musically, Bowie's song was heavily influenced by 1950s doo-wop, of which he was a fan of. Aside from guitar and vocals, the song also features Bowie performing on saxophone and synthesizer. Listen to Bowie's ‘Drive-In Saturday’ here (remastered):
Bowie's lyrics describe inhabitants of a post-apocalyptic world in the future who have forgotten how to copulate, and need to watch vintage films (circa early 1970s) to see how it is done. A story told from the perspective of an inhabitant of the future looking back in time, 'Drive-In Saturday' is cited as an example of Bowie's "futuristic nostalgia"3.
Bowie's song mentions Mick Jagger ("When people stared in Jagger's eyes and scored"), 1960s fashion model Twiggy ("She'd sigh like Twig the wonder kid"), and Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung ("Jung the foreman prayed at work"). According to Australian artist and writer Tanja Stark, Bowie's reference to Jung is significant as it supposedly marks the influence of Jungian psychology on his music. Stark also suggests (unconvincingly, in the author’s opinion) that the lyric "crashing out with sylvian" is actually a cryptic reference to the Sylvian fissure in the brain, which is associated with visionary and hallucinatory experiences4. More likely Bowie meant to reference Sylvain Sylvain of the New York Dolls.
Morrissey's cover features slightly altered lyrics - Bowie's reference to Mick Jagger is replaced with ‘David Johansen’ (of New York Dolls fame) while 'Kris' is used in lieu of Twig- though Morrissey retained the reference to Carl Jung.
Bowie's single reached number 3 on the UK Singles Chart.
Morrissey performed ‘Drive-In Saturday' as an encore to his concert at the Beacon Theatre in New York City on February 29, 2000.
David Buckley (1999). Strange Fascination - David Bowie: The Definitive Story: pp.175-185
Tanja Stark (2015). Crashing Out with Sylvian: David Bowie, Carl Jung and the Unconscious”