Tracy Chapman - Fast Car

I also enjoyed listening to “Similar Features” by Melissa Etheridge that year.

So talented. I have two of her records. She sued Nicki Garbaj for sampling without permission..

It was a great song, and a great album.

I spent a lot of time listening to it during my three weeks in a Virgina jail.

Her song Bang Bang Bang is a fave from 1992. I hate her song “Give me one reason” though.

This came out as I was graduating from college and I know I first heard it on WXXP radio in Pittsburgh. At first, I thought it was a man singing, and even seeing the video the first time I wasn’t sure. But then when I realized she was a woman, it was also apparent that she was a lesbian. I really loved the melancholy aspect of her music, and Fastcar is iconic, but I think Smoke and Ashes is her masterpiece.

Remember when I was dryin’ at the salon….

I always thought she was British.

I like her intentions but her voice makes me want to commit suicide.

This entire album is great, with touches of brilliance, like Talkin’ About a Revolution.

Forgot to add the link...

Great.

Black Pumas did a cover I really like.

she's still technically in the closet, isn't she?

fav:

She's a lesbian?

That was a joke

Whoops. I meant to sign R16 as R15

God, this song makes me so incredibly depressed. The youthful freedom juxtaposed and destroyed by hopeless, inescapable poverty. It's such a painful song.

Hilarious In Living Color parody of Chapman.

I personally thought that Baby Can I Hold You was far better (or just as good!) It was a perfect song for House Of Gucci-

To me (I was only 10 or so when she had this "time") she is basically a one hit wonder. But one with a good and solid talent.

Gay here and I love Tracy. Every song on this album is good.

I’ve never understood her. Abandoned any hope of a career, stopped recording and touring years ago. How does she possibly financially survive? I live in SF and have seen her several times in public over the last 20 years. Painfully shy.

She was in a relationship with Alice Walker for years. Alice is bisexual, no straight woman could have written The Color Purple.

No words to say, no words to convey, the feeling inside I have for you.

Brave trans woman of color, bless her 🙏🏻

oh, that gorgeous guitar playing

just a simple, four chord progression

I am continually baffled by the number of 50+ year old men on DL who think resharing jokes that would have killed in the sixth grade lunchroom is somehow still clever

"I call her SmellyAnne!"

"Jennifer Anus Town!"

"Fingering myself at speeds ...."

This song is as great as any Springsteen Anthem to small town life, dead end streets, hope and hopelessness. Yearning. The lyrics are a novella and the music reads them to your soul. It's propulsive.

It's also urban Mary J and Lauryn Hill and Joni Mitchell too. It takes us forward then drags us back. Which is another way to say that Fast Car is Tracy Chapman's' masterpiece. The music marries the lyrics of the song. It's a work of magic. The lyrics, music and vocal are synergistic and it is unbelievably tender, sad, yearning and FREE. This kind of story song and musical truth comes rarely. I was just a little boy when this song came out, but it inhabits me every time I even think of it. There are many sad songs in this world - Fast Car is a sad song about HOPE. It's moving....literally. It makes you cry, but not surrender.

R19 I love that shit!

Why do DL queens get hung up on chart hits? Is it lack of knowledge or shallow music tastes that do not let their curiosity or understanding see beyond a top 10 position? I do not understand it but every time it shows profound limitations to one’s listening preferences.

R30, I'm drinking Wild Turkey and smoking a Marlboro light, too. RECOIL IN HORROR, OH COOL ONE!

I'd put this in the top 5 American story masterpieces along with Don McLean's American Pie and Bruce's Born to Run.

I think it stems from a lifetime of worshiping only artists like Beyoncé and Britney. It has ruined their chances to see light beyond the shit

I agree r32.

I’d also submit Luka by Suzanne Vega

This is a great song as well.

Fast Car Anne Heche's favorite tune

[quote] I think it stems from a lifetime of worshiping only artists like Madonna and Cher. It has ruined their chances to see light beyond the shit

Fixed, because while you are correct R33, this is DL we are talking about and so the above singers are more appropriate, especially if we are using the phrase "lifetime"

It used to make me cry (MARY!) it was clearly about escaping poverty and dead ends in a small town but she was equally obviously a lesbian which gave it an even more solemn depth about what she was running from.

Only braindead diva worshippers give so much reverence to charts. The Vadgebot and Janbot use the same damn arguments they copy and paste to every thread. You can't have a deep discussion on music in any of those pop star threads. Notice the threads on singer songwriters Tracy, Alanis, Tori Amos, Fiona Apple and Pat Benetar are more civilized.

[quote] I’ve never understood her. Abandoned any hope of a career, stopped recording and touring years ago. How does she possibly financially survive? I live in SF and have seen her several times in public over the last 20 years. Painfully shy.

You may have answered part of your own question. Maybe she found the spotlight too much if she is shy like you say.

I think she invested well. Her first album sold millions of copies. She is very protective of her songwriting, and Fast Car, Give Me One Reason and Baby Can I Hold You have been used in films and commercials. She must get good royalties from them. Fast Car was covered a few years ago and Baby Can I Hold You was covered by Boyzone and was a big hit for them.

Tracy's debut album still resonates.

I remember when I first heard it. I was sitting in a car on Carmine Street. I went to Tower Records and asked someone at the counter about a guy playing a guitar singing a song probably called Be Someone. Found it a week later. I remember the story that she was discovered by a record executive's son playing on a street in Boston.

Tracy Chapman doesn't need a lot of other artists trying to deliver her songs. But Kelly Clarkson killed this.

Tracy was a bit low key. Kelly puts the rasp, hard drums and some stink on it.

R42 no thx I have no desire to hear that frau cover the only version of Fast Car that I or anyone needs to 👂

You can't read R43? It's not Fast Car. And Kelly Clarkson is the best singer in the WHOLE fucking game!

Bye r44

R42 says KC puts some stink on it?! Lmao! Yeah she shits on a shitty song!

I’m amazed at how dumb things get.

r34 we've long been overdue for another Suzanne Vega thread... the youngins need to hear the stories of what a massive cunt she was.

That album by TC is in my top ten all-time favorite albums. Love it.

Marvellous cover.

The saddest song I’ve ever heard. I don’t really identify with the song… but I easily could have, if my life had been slightly different.

She was considered very edgy in the 90s

Why is someone insisting that some DLers like the song because it charted high?

Are you serious R22?

First album has been certified 6 times platinum and the new beginning album has been certified 5x platinum. Another platinum album and a few gold records. She owns her catalog and wrote most of her own songs. I doubt she has to worry about money for the rest of her life.

yeah, I watched the video again for the first time in years because of this thread, still makes me cry.

as an aside, when I was watching it I thought 'well, at least it's not as sad a Johnny Cash covering' Hurt' and the video recommendation when I scrolled down just a bit was... JC Hurt. good algorithm.

R55, and the coup de grace would be "Luka".

I have always hated that stupid song r56. but yes, it's also definitely depressing

Tracy Chapman probably made enough money off of her first album alone to live comfortably for the rest of her life. Like Natalie Merchant, she lives a pretty quiet, low-key lifestyle. They don't live the big, expensive celebrity lifestyles like Beyonce, Madonna or Mariah.

I wonder how popular music would have evolved without the media consolidation that occured thanks to the 1996 Telecommunications Bill. Clear Channel bought out most of the radio stations and the format shifted from DJ run programs by music aficionados. To playlist style radio stations with corporations pushing the singers they invested and manufactured.

The first time I heard it I thought she was singing “You gotta fat assed car.”

R54: unless she lives completely frugally like Ghandi, those huge sales on a debut album were nearly 35 years ago! How can that money possibly last? Her catalog of albums has been out of print for years so maybe she’s getting big digital sales. I’ve been told that the only way to make a living as a recording artist is via continual live performing which she hasn’t done in 15 years. She must’ve figured out a formula that works for her.

She was with Alice Walker who had a lot of money from book sales, teaching, selling the movie rights for The Color Purple and public speakings. Maybe Alice supported her?

Where does TC live? Some states you can live very easily on next to nothing.

Heck, even in NYC you can. How does Fran Lebowitz live? All she spends money on is books and cigarettes.

r61 she definitely made several million from her first album, and several million more from the other ones. She lives a very low-key lifestyle and probably invested well. She lives a comfortable existence.

And she still gets royalties. She released a greatest hits album a few years ago.

Fran Lebowitz is wealthy. Don't believe her when she claims otherwise.

Details about Suzanne Vega being a cunt, please.

I would also like to hear about Suzanne Vega's cuntitude.

Details on how Fran Lebowitz became wealthy, please.

R68: I can speak to this a little. About 10 or 15 years ago Vega was touring with the singer Duncan Sheik. They each did their own sets and at the end came out together and did a song. After this show they both were doing meet and greets and signing CDs. There were 10 or 15 people lined up at his table to meet him and literally nobody at hers. She looks over at us (I was in the line for him) and said, out loud in a bitchy voice: "Is EVERYONE here tonight to meet Duncan Sheik?". She seemed like someone who I would NOT want to know socially whatsoever.

They dudes wanted to fuck Sheik not Chapman

R71: it was actually Suzanne Vega, not Tracy Chapman. But all the gay dudes (including me) wanted Sheik, for sure.

I got weird hair. They tried to fix it with a blow torch.

R61 she had 2 multiplatinum albums one other that went platinum and a few gold. She’s wasn’t a dumb kid who blew all her money on drugs, cars and bling. She’s a tufts educated woman who invested well and owns her music. Nicki Minaj wanted to use a part of “baby can I hold you” a few years back, and Chapman said no. She used it anyway and Chapman sued her.

I recently read all the lyrics to this song and it made me want to kill myself.

Loved this and Give Me a Reason.

Give me a reason was one song by her I hated.

I’d like to see Tracy and Anne Murray sing a song

Give me one reason to eat your pussy and I’ll do it.

Of course the dudes wanted to fuck Duncan Sheik, this is how beautiful he looked in his twenties.

Hey, I've come around on this- and perhaps the lyrics mean the singer HAS broken the cycle. In the beginning of the song, she has to take care of her old man because her mother ran off. At the end of the song, she tells the Fast Car driver to drive away and leave her and his kids. I think that might be a hopeful message, she isn't doing what her mother did and instead telling the hopeless wastrel to leave them so she can fix the next generation without his alcoholic influence.

I never read the actual lyrics, and since there are so few, I think it's an important change in the cycle.

That’s positive r81

I love Mountains o’ Things from her debut album.

[quote] Of course the dudes wanted to fuck Duncan Sheik, this is how beautiful he looked in his twenties.

Even when he was young and pretty I knew he wouldn't age well.

Bravo to looking toward the positive - but a song that ends with lyrics - Ain't got no plans, ain't goin nowhere - is a little too hard to see a positive future

Ok, R85, but how about "ain't goin nowhere", as in, she isn't abandoning her children like her mother abandoned her, perhaps in a some guy's fast car with some plan, perhaps..?

I will choose to see it as a positive.

BECAUSE ... the fast car is an escape. Not real.

It's a dream, that just takes you to another place where the same cycle persists, and not ever going to free you.

Oh shit, I'm not even high.

Of course the car is metaphoric, but it is also REAL as any vehicle that Springsteen wrote about. Bruce loves that song by Tracy Chapman. Who wouldn't? It's both epic and deeply intimate. It cuts through to the bone.

Her debut album was just brilliant.