I used to think the Man in the car for a good while, but it is not mentioned in the song anywhere. Instead, the man wakes up and, finding his woman gone, walking and knocking on doors, looking for her. "man sleeping ... in a large apartment house" only made sense after I accepted this interpretation.
The main picture describes the solemn feeling of the woman on a journey "a little metal box under the stars"; although E cleverly never uses the word "alone" he describes it so well. I think thinking the man is in the car is a trap he has set up deliberately in the chorus "woman driving man sleeping".
Also "there is no radio to play" to me suggests something about the nature of running away (and not about the imposed silence of a sleeping passenger). Like she took an old car and didn't really prepare for the journey.
To me, it makes a lot more sense if man is in bed, woman in car; each of them get's their own piece section and only in the chorus the relationship is mentioned by what each of them does.
Anything that would be common between them (such as man searching for woman, woman taking toll money from his purse, him reading the map etc.) is very carefully avoided.
I used to think the Man in the car for a good while, but it is not mentioned in the song anywhere. Instead, the man wakes up and, finding his woman gone, walking and knocking on doors, looking for her. "man sleeping ... in a large apartment house" only made sense after I accepted this interpretation.
The main picture describes the solemn feeling of the woman on a journey "a little metal box under the stars"; although E cleverly never uses the word "alone" he describes it so well. I think thinking the man is in the car is a trap he has set up deliberately in the chorus "woman driving man sleeping".
Also "there is no radio to play" to me suggests something about the nature of running away (and not about the imposed silence of a sleeping passenger). Like she took an old car and didn't really prepare for the journey.
To me, it makes a lot more sense if man is in bed, woman in car; each of them get's their own piece section and only in the chorus the relationship is mentioned by what each of them does.
Anything that would be common between them (such as man searching for woman, woman taking toll money from his purse, him reading the map etc.) is very carefully avoided.