As i was riding home the other day, someone who clearly knew what he was doing behind the wheel smoked past me in a BMW M3 set up for track use. The smell of hot metal and oil brought back memories, among them the lyrics to 'Red Barchetta' by Rush. I made the mistake of thinking about them a wee bit too much, and.. well...
"My uncle has a country place that no one knows about
He says it used to be a farm before the Motor Law
On Sundays I elude the Eyes and hop the turbine freight
To far outside the wire where my white-haired uncle waits
"Jump to the ground as the turbine slows to cross the borderline
Run like the wind as excitement shivers up and down my spine
Down in his barn my uncle preserved for me a new machine
For fifty-odd weeks to keep it as new has been an easy dream
"I strip away the old debris that hides a shining bike
A brilliant Moto Guzzi from a recent modern time
We fire up the willing engine responding with ka-chunk
Tire spitting gravel I commit my weekly crime
"Well-weathered leather hot metal and oil
The scent of country air
Sunlight on chrome the blur of the landscape
Every nerve aware
"Suddenly ahead of me across the mountainside
A gleaming family RV wallows towards me, two lanes wide
I spin around but take my time, this hardly is race
Then head back down the valley as another tries to chase
"Ride like the wind without straining limits of machine and man
Laughing out loud with glee and hope, not that I’ll need a plan
At the one-lane bridge, the giants are back there in the countryside
Ride back to the farm to dream with my uncle at the fireside"
