Mummy Can't Drive

This is a song about a mother who can not drive. My mother can not drive either. I drive better than her and I don't even have my license. My granny is crying too, no no no. I see the light, the street, the sky, I SEE ANYTHING!!!!1!!1one!!!eleven!!!1! Teh sun talks to me too. Angelfish reminds me so much of myself. I'm going to marry it.

Im not trying to question that undeniably smart interpretation, but I think this song is about a mother who is an alcoholic, ergo she is always drunk ergo she cant drive.

I suspect there's an awful lot more in these lyrics than a bit of drink driving...

"There's too much inside" - is a bit of a pathetic line if we're just talking about too much booze. I'll propose she's talking about too much emotion inside.

The tussle with mummy, grandpa, and grandma all crying out "Come with me darling" makes me think that the song is about a child custody dispute. Mummy is in a trauma and wants her "darling" (a "little boy"?) because "we've got to get out to survive". Note that mummy has a "pistol on the side", presumably to enforce her will over grandma and grandpa's.

"Mummy can't drive" is perhaps an acknowledgment from mummy that despite knowing her destructive influence on the child, she cannot suppress her maternal instinct to be with him. And hence the song is tragic, distressing, and potentially violent.

A great song, I love how they use ambiguity by picturing an example of driving to convey the problem of drinking

There's too much inside

I agree with casper2095, on one hand it tells us she's drunk too much but I also think it lets us see the world from her point of view - she has so many problems that it is impossibly hard for her to stop drinking now

Come with me darling She said, come with me darling

Another ambiguity example - on one hand she wants her child to get into the car and go somewhere with her (I'll get to that later) but on the deeper level she introduces a child custody dispute as casper2095 has said. I think it also might mean she wants her child to understand her problem, that it's not so easy to stop drinking (depending on how old the child is)

She can't see the stars See the light See the street See the sky See anything

Literally it means she can't see properly when driving because of being drunk but when given more thought in my opinion each of these things she can't see tells us something different about her: stars - that tells us she can't see the beauty of life thus giving in to her alcoholic problem light - tells us she has no hope for the future which is later reinforced by the inability to see 'street' - when I hear 'street' in this case I think of a mother looking out the window at children playing. I think these two tell us she can't see a possible future where her and her child are happy together sky - that might also mean beauty of life but I think it also could mean she doesn't know her limit when it comes to alcohol (you know, sky is the limit) anything - a conclusion of all of the above and also reinforced how clouded the mind of a person addicted to alcohol, or actually anything, can be

Granny's crying Grandpa's crying

pretty straightforward but I just felt like reinforcing how tragic the situation must be from their point of view - an emotional fight between their love for their daughter and their grandchild - they can't really satisfy one of them without hurting another. if they take away the child from the mother she will start hating them but if they don't do anything about mother's problem it will lead to growing up of their grandchild in terrible conditions which is also shown by: 'Hey, stamp the sunshine out' I also like how the background singing ('let me go' and 'come with me darling' verses) can apply to both mother and child. First of all literally it reaches back to the idea of mother wanting to take her child for a ride but if we look at the situation from mother's point of view 'let me go' could mean that the battle between her addiction and what's good for everybody has been won by alcohol. 'Come with me darling' in this case could show Granny and Grandpa still believing it's not too late and trying to convince her daughter to stop drinking. However, if we apply these two to the child, 'let me go' could mean that her child wants to escape from the mother's problem by going to live with his (presumably) grandparents. 'Come with me darling' in this case would mean the mother still loves her child and begs him to go along with her.

We've got to get out to survive(get out to survive)(2x)

On the literal level it goes back to the idea of the mother wanting her child to go for a ride with her and the realization that this is physically dangerous but obviously that's not the main point. Again, this applies to all of the involved characters - if the mother's addiction isn't somehow stopped it will eventually lead to metaphorical death of her child (living in a broken home), herself (either literally death or seeing herself ruining her son's life) and the grandparents (basically seeing people they love being hurt so much) It perfectly shows how tragic this situation is and is further reinforced by:

She's got a pistol on the side(she's got a pistol on the side)

I think it refers to the mother having suicidal thoughts because of her situation.

It's a great song and sadly many people, including me, can relate to this problem. Another beauty of such songs is that they can be pretty personal so everyone can react to them in a different way, this is my interpretation but I'm sure there are many more