Tracy Chapman

kinda feel like posting chapman songs until you guys acknowledge her as one of the pivotal voice of her generation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwEphYkovtk

I thought this revive would be about the fact she got a 450k settlement from Nicki Minaj recently

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-55591957

I thought this revive would be about the fact she got a 450k settlement from Nicki Minaj recently

I think I posted this upthread, but it's a good resolution to an otherwise BULLSHIT case. I get why Chapman was angry, but it's outrageous that she was willing to go through with a lawsuit that blatantly sought a very damaging precedent, penalizing anyone for even experimenting with sampling on what are essentially private work-in-progress mixes that were never meant for release.

(rather I posted about the case when the lawsuit was filed, not the resolution)

Well, she sued after it was linked to Hot 97. A federal judge did rule that the sampling was fair use, but said a jury should decide whether Minaj was legally responsible for the leak (the settlement followed).

(“linked” = leaked)

Yeah, it's all there in the BBC link (and the Hot 97 leak in the previous link). The judge made a good call, but it doesn't always go that way. Look at the cases that basically brought an end to that golden age of sampling around the end of the '80s and start of the '90s.

I hear you. Yeah, at least there was a good judgment in this case. I think the “Blurred Lines” case was really damaging.

this has been a wonderful revive

I mean it's not exactly the first time she was sampled, Nice and Smooth is still out there on streaming so I don't think she's necessarily opposed on all counts (plus various derivatives of Sometimes I Rhyme Slow over the years)

Maybe not, but that doesn't change the language of the lawsuit. The real problem was whether they blew her off and purposely "leaked" the track rather than honoring her request - that should have been their only focus from the start. It's one thing to be pissed about that, but that doesn't excuse the broad implications of what they were suing for.

wow

Pre-fame Tracy Chapman doing "For My Lover," in 1986, holy hell
https://t.co/NXN3fzdaTC

— Jessica Hopper (@jesshopp) May 30, 2023

I am now that teacher who derails class to do an impromptu lesson on "Fast Car."

That's awesome - reminds me of my very favorite moment ever on the Simpsons:

https://preview.redd.it/have-i-ever-told-you-kids-about-the-60s-v0-u0u81zdhm9p81.jpg

"Have I ever told you kids about the '60s?"

(ah, so much for the photo)

You're not derailing--it's the one thing they'll remember. I played and talked about "Fast Car"--and Nice & Smooth---for 15 or 20 minutes with 7/8 class two years ago. I hope they remembered and winced the first time they heard that utterly pointless cover that's out there.

"baby can i hold you" hit me hard the other day

I love that so many people still love this song, but something I feel has been lost to the generations is it's not exactly unearthing a lost classic. This song was *huge* and ubiquitous back in 1988 (I was 13), and Tracy Chapman was huge. The song went top 10, she won a Grammy, etc. (and fwiw, she did it again, and even more successfully, in 1997, with "Give Me One Reason"). The Luke Combs thing is a nice coda to the story, but I didn't know the background of the song's original success:

Elektra Records released "Fast Car" on April 6, 1988, one day after the parent album, "Tracy Chapman". That June, Chapman appeared at the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concert, where she was initially scheduled to sing three songs. Just before surprise guest Stevie Wonder walked onstage, he learned that his keyboard's floppy disk had gone missing. He left in a panic, forcing the event organizers to usher Chapman back to the stage with nothing but a microphone and her guitar. As the organizers readied the stage for the following act, Chapman performed "Fast Car" and "Across the Lines". This performance brought attention to Chapman's music, with sales for Tracy Chapman increasing greatly, enough for it to top the Billboard 200 chart on August 27, 1988. "Fast Car" itself would reach number six on the Billboard Hot 100 the same week.

Talk about fate.

I recall that at Brown University she was voted "most likely to marry her guitar." She is all-time.

Pointless boring personal story: There was a moment in about 1989 where I was playing pool in the basement of the student commons. A woman I vaguely knew had selected "Baby Can I Hold You" on the jukebox. Her friends had left, but the song hadn't played yet. She came back in and just stood, alone in the corner, listening thoughtfully.

I never dated her or anything; we were just friends, but that moment stays with me

I love that so many people still love this song, but something I feel has been lost to the generations is it's not exactly unearthing a lost classic.

twitter was insufferable when that Luke Combs cover came out due to people in their 20's yelling that no one ever cared about the black woman who wrote and sang the original ... like, just because you weren't born yet doesn't mean the thing wasn't a massive hit, it was so omnipresent that I actually got sick of it and I love that song. Having someone cover your song and make it a hit again like 35 years later is a dream for any songwriter.

Glad I checked back--was going to relate the same college-radio story I posted here two years ago. (My stories are finite.) Same series of posts:

As I often wonder with certain left-field hits: could "Fast Car" be a big hit today?

Got my answer, don't like it. (Happy for her, of course.)

I found "Give Me One Reason" waaaaay more omnipresent than "Fast Car." I don't tire of it.

MTV played the Fast Car video all the time

I recall that at Brown University she was voted "most likely to marry her guitar."

(?)Wikipedia sez she went to Tufts…

Yeah, and the song was huge, that’s also why its use in Barbie was so effective… It wouldn’t have made sense if it was some minor thing.

MTV played the Fast Car video all the time

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown),

I didn't have it in 1988, just top 40 radio.

"Give Me One Reason" earned recurrent airplay years past its peak -- and I hear it in the wild way more often.

Woops, morrisp, my mistake

i find the hate that luke combs is getting over this to be extremely excessive! idc about the cover one way or another, but it's very very faithful to the original (even keeps the "checkout girl" line without changing the gender), and combs has been effusive in his praise for chapman and the original. tracy gave the version her blessing, performed it on the grammys as a duet. i could go on. just feels like it hits the sweet spot of people's very weird cultural feelings about country music and what it signifies, without considering the particulars of the situation.

yeah it's dumb. I don't care about him or his version at all but there doesn't seem to be anything worth hating there. He's made her a bunch more money and keeps talking about her. That's great!

I think you can be happy for Tracy Chapman and find the cover barely mediocre at the same time.

yeah sometimes I feel like people are acting like Crazy Town remade the song or something

What it's interesting about the Combs cover in the context of contemporary country music is how the character in the song's got a plan to get out of town because it sucks and he can't find the love he wants, whereas most country songs by men celebrate the small town or defensive about it even if they gotta be blind-drunk to celebrate/get defensive about it.

People seemed upset that his version charted higher than hers, but both made the top 10 (#6 vs. #2). Given all the differences between then and now in terms of how songs become hits (not to mention Billboard's ever-changing chart formulas), that difference really doesn't seem worth arguing about.

^^^ exactly

I know his version of the song was huge but it really feels more like a Tracy Chapman cultural moment then a Luke Combs breakthrough

just feels like it hits the sweet spot of people's very weird cultural feelings about country music and what it signifies

I was spending time on Bluesky around the time the cover came out, and the number of... takes... around this (which seemed to have very little to do with music) were just stultifying

Luke Combs, until yesterday or maybe the day before my wife confused him with Luke Bryan, which shows what kind of impression he made.

Yeah 1988's #6 meant a lot more than 2023's #2

Seriously.

Luther Campbell should cover "Fast Car," let's see what the internet thinks of that.

Maybe he'll make something

if luke bryan covered fast car it’d somehow end up being about how hot she looks in jeans driving his fast car

i find the hate that luke combs is getting over this to be extremely excessive! idc about the cover one way or another, but it's very very faithful to the original (even keeps the "checkout girl" line without changing the gender), and combs has been effusive in his praise for chapman and the original. tracy gave the version her blessing, performed it on the grammys as a duet. i could go on. just feels like it hits the sweet spot of people's very weird cultural feelings about country music and what it signifies, without considering the particulars of the situation.

I was annoyed by the Luke Combs cover until I heard it and saw him basically paying homage to Tracy Chapman every time he happened to cross my radar; at that point it was clear she wasn’t being done dirty and I got over myself.

Almost as moving for me as listening to Chapman were the adoring looks that Combs kept showing her. The dude obv means it.

And what if you heard the song 30 times and decided it wasn't any good without knowing who did it or any backstory whatsoever?

I mean, it's fine, I am not bitter or anything, but I'd been playing a bluegrass-ish version of Fast Car on mandola/in for like a decade. But now I can't, so.

Also, Chapman is making beaucoup bucks off this cover, reportedly

And what if you heard the song 30 times and decided it wasn't any good without knowing who did it or any backstory whatsoever?

― clemenza, Monday, February 5, 2024 1

I...don't think anyone here was coercing anyone into liking the cover? The consensus seems to be, "This is fine, hooray for Tracy Chapman."

From last July. It's more now:

How Much Has Tracy Chapman Earned from Luke Combs’ ‘Fast Car’ Cover? https://t.co/ExmbH1Hb2T

— billboard (@billboard) June 16, 2023

And what if you heard the song 30 times and decided it wasn't any good without knowing who did it or any backstory whatsoever?

obv it’s time for reeducational flogging