Apparently written to order for a National IIRC petrol advert, 'Getaway' is a groovier update of 'Summer Holiday' for a hipper crowd ("Take a look at that deep blue sea, don't you think it looks great? Not a cloud to be seen in the sky and the sun won't wait"). Or at least Fame tries to give it a hepcat polish, but the song's roots are perhaps betrayed by an octave splitting horn motif that sounds like he's hitting the road in a clown's car with offset wheels.If it's aim was to be memorable then it succeeds admirably, but it also succeeds in being admirably irritating; a brass horn blast of misplaced jokey humour to soundtrack the recurring punchline to a joke that Fame's too cool for school vocal never tells. It raises a smile on first appearance but thereafter follows an exercise in teeth grinding anticipation as we await the next time it barges in. Which is why I've always preferred Sandie Shaw's 1969 version to Fame's; the honk is there too, but it's tamed and toned down to form a neat bridge between the liyrics instead of a dominating in your face honk that completely overshadows the good work Fame and his band put in.
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