Tracy Chapman

I was thinking of "Fast Car" recently and the P&J thread made me look for her thread, but there's never really been one dedicated to her career.

I guess I'm curious about her beyond her first s/t LP, which is a pretty singular classic. she was a really inspiring presence during her cultural moment in the late '80s.

Anyway what else is good? I think I'm going to try to find the debut today, been wanting to dig into it again.

was "Give Me One Reason" the last twelve bar blues to reach the top 10?

I forgot that was such a late success. 1995!

I always check out a new Tracy Chapman album when it arrives, and they're always satisfying, but I really don't remember much about any of them except for liking them at the time.

I've heard from some people in San Francisco that she's turned into a reclusive shut-in, which is sad.

I binged on her music this summer. So good. There's a live acoustic recording of Baby Can I Hold You from French Radio on YouTube that is incredible. Definitive version for me.

http://youtu.be/UTF2qZbVnCM

thank you omar for starting a real-deal thread about tracy chapman! i posted to one of the other TC threads but none of them were just about her in general

the debut is just incredible

i don't know much about the rest though, i'm curious. i often have "talkin bout a revolution" floating around in my head

http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/2013-11/enhanced/webdr06/5/13/grid-cell-9612-1383677856-4.jpg

it's kind of a shame that the charts don't have much room for music like this anymore. and i mean i generally LIKE a lot of the songs on the charts. that period in the late '80s and early '90s seemed particularly good for a mix of every imaginable genre, including a folk song.

Then Play Long reaches Tracy Chapman and comes back with a whole lot else: http://nobilliards.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/tracy-chapman-tracy-chapman.html

Then Play Long reaches Tracy Chapman at her own Crossroads: http://nobilliards.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/tracy-chapman-crossroads.html

And I reach her biggest hit in the United States.

It’s pleasant pop-blues number (as you say). Somewhat “ephemeral,” yes, but — would you turn the radio off if it came on? I wouldn’t.

I would turn off the radio, burn the car, and execute anyone within 500 ft of it.

lol

was "Give Me One Reason" the last twelve bar blues to reach the top 10?

― example (crüt), Thursday, January 15, 2015 9:17 AM (five years ago) bookmarkflaglink

I just found myself wondering this this morning. So was it??

I've heard "Fast Car" two days in a row sitting in public spaces. Far, far from where my musical interests were in 1988, but I loved it then and still do. I was doing an overnight college radio show at the time, and I remember accidentally hitting upon an amazing segue at four or five in the morning one show: Judy Garland's "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" into "Fast Car."

I've never liked her albums (at least they mean well) but "Fast Car" is a major exception. Great single.

i'm not sure how one... how would you say this? Not... like Tracy Chapman?

Wonder if anyone in 2021 feels their hopes were raised too high in 1988 by "Talkin' Bout a Revolution."

i'm not sure how one... how would you say this? Not... like Tracy Chapman?

Well, I don't hate her music. If someone put it on in a coffee shop, I'd sit through it and listen without complaint. It's just...how would you say this...not that interesting.

Wonder if anyone in 2021 feels their hopes were raised too high in 1988 by "Talkin' Bout a Revolution."

The album came out seven months before the GOP won the presidential election (again) in a landslide. Not a criticism against the song, but it must have been massively deflating to anyone who believed in the same sentiment. If I was a politically-engaged voter at the time, it would have been that way for me.

Past "Fast Car," I didn't really like anything else. I do have her first album, which impressively remains on Wikipedia's biggest-selling-ever page: 20 million copies.

As I often wonder with certain left-field hits: could "Fast Car" be a big hit today? The easy answer is no, but weird songs still break through. (Weird in the sense of being different than everything else. "Fast Car" was not weird per se; it was just a 1972 hit in the midst of hip-hop taking over the charts.)

i love her entire catalogue tbrr

Didn't "Fast Car" stay popular through the nineties/early 2000s though, or become popular again, or something? I definitely think of it as a song I grew up with, though it was theoretically before my time.

I do have her first album, which impressively remains on Wikipedia's biggest-selling-ever page: 20 million copies.

Damn right impressive. I may not be a fan, but objectively speaking, it's stunning that an album like that became a massive blockbuster. Given how it was made, the subject matter, etc., I think that kind of success is pretty great.

I guess I imagined the revolution she had in mind was more than a Democratic presidential victory, but, yes, Bush winning couldn't have been heartening.

(xpost) Maybe? I don't know that it's ever really gone away--I've always heard it every so often. I guess it's relegated to Adult Contemporary stations, or whatever they're called now. The Nice and Smooth song might have helped keep it around through the '90s.

TS: "Fast Car" by Tracy Chapman or "Sometimes I Rhyme Slow" by Nice & Smooth

I was there (clem too) when the debut and "Fast Car" took root in the most mechanized -- I imply no judgment -- top 40 of my lifetime to date. These exceptions happened: think "Don't Dream It's Over" and "Luka" the year before.

"fast car" is pretty much a perfect song i reckon

rt

agree

~ be someone be someone ~
😢

honestly that song might be The Great American Novel

not on the level of "Fast Car," but i remain fond of "Mountains o' Things" off the first album, even if the lyrics are rather on the nose.

and "Talkin' Bout a Revolution."

Hard to remember exactly, but maybe Chapman and Vega helped open some space for Sinead O'Connor's big chart breakthrough in 1990?

(Enya, Tinita Tikram...I've probably forgotten someone; there were a mini-boom of female singer-songwriters then.)

Poor grammar were around too.

Hard to remember exactly, but maybe Chapman and Vega helped open some space for Sinead O'Connor's big chart breakthrough in 1990?

(Enya, Tinita Tikram...I've probably forgotten someone; there was a mini-boom of female singer-songwriters then.)

I don't know if they were really lumped in together, but I never associated Enya or O'Connor with Vega and Chapman, they just seemed fundamentally different.

Like Chapman, I'm not really a fan of Vega's albums (much less so) - but "Luka"'s a great single. The one figure (or rather the one album) out of the "folk revival" scene that really stood out for me was Michelle Shocked's Short Sharp Shocked. I didn't even discover it until last year and surprisingly loved it. It's too bad her career went in a crazy direction after that.

(FWIW, here's Greg Kot's contemporary write-up of the "folk revival" https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1989-04-06-8904010655-story.html )

(I should add I never associated Enya with O'Connor either. She joked that she started shaving her head again because someone mistook her for Enya - at least I hope it was a joke.)

The thing all of those ^^ acts had in common was heavy rotation on VH-1.

Vega's best album = 99.9F.

i'm not sure I'd go that far but it's top three for sure

Luka and Fast Car are indeed terrific, era-defining singles from two artists whom I’ve never really been able to get into otherwise.

'Fast Car' was too omnipresent when I was too young to really appreciate it but it's revealed its beauty + genius to me in recent years.

As has 'Baby, Can I Hold You', which I have a hard time getting through without misting up.

After a related conversation, I made this 80s folk mix, not meant to cover all the bases, just some favorites.

She's not a great singer or songwriter, but I really appreciated the soundstage of her first album. Maybe I'm influenced by the look of the album cover and the videos, but it's the way the instruments and the mix outline a shadowy world. Understated but dramatic.

"fast car" is pretty much a perfect song i reckon

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, March 8, 2021 5:49 PM bookmarkflaglink

every time I hear Fast Car it I get emotional in a very sort of non-specific way, i can’t account for it. Those moods of hope & loss & desperation just bubbles something up inside me

with my circle of friends & outside friends & acquaintances it was always THE song that everybody sang together, guy or girl, old or young... like you just have to go for it & give it your anguished best

its an incredible song, no question

once I was going through a tough time and I heard it at Walgreens and started crying

the lyrics always get me, but she also sings it with such conviction.

that verse...

"See, my old man's got a problem
He lives with the bottle, that's the way it is
He says his body's too old for working
His body's too young to look like his"

i feel like, if you haven't had that experience before, i can't talk to you xp

also I - I had a feeling that I belonged
I had a feeling I could be someone, be someone

yeah there are so many lines that hit in the song....

once I was going through a tough time and I heard it at Walgreens and started crying

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

this happened to me the other day when I heard "Breakout" at CVS.

that's so weird. "Breakout" was one that I heard at Wawa during a rough period in 2017 and it had a similar effect on me. although that particular time it was the first time I'd heard it in decades!

honestly that song might be The Great American Novel

― Lily Dale, Monday, March 8, 2021 5:54 PM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

co-sign

I feel like I have a mental map of all the places I have heard "Fast Car" unexpectedly.

The first time I remember thinking, "this feels like the chorus of Fast Car," I was on a school exchange in Russia at age fifteen, and we were on a bus that was going much too fast in the dark and the snow between Novgorod and St. Petersburg, and we were all kind of joking about how we might die, and I felt overwhelmed by a sense of how much I loved everyone there and the conviction that for once in my life I was exactly where I was supposed to be. I haven't kept in touch with any of those people, of course, but I don't think that would have surprised fifteen-year-old me; inherent in thinking "This feels like Fast Car" is realizing that the feeling won't last and one day you will feel an almost unbearable nostalgia for it.

She's not a great singer or songwriter,

once I was going through a tough time and I heard it at Walgreens and started crying

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

this happened to me the other day when I heard "Breakout" at CVS.

― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, March 8, 2021 7:54 PM (seventeen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

me and "that's what love is for" by amy grant. also if pharmacies played prefab sprout's "life of surprises" i would collapse in the middle of the aisle every time

where does Miami Sound Machine "Words Get in the Way" fit on the "in-store emotional reactions" scale

"Keep Ya Head Up" did this to me once, shortly after a death in the family.

the thing about this song that amazes me is that it does so many things: the actual story the song tells is clear and believable and heartbreaking and covers years of a life in a few short verses, and yet what sticks in your mind is something even more powerful, this overwhelming feeling that surges up from the chorus, of hope and clarity and loss and nostalgia, the feeling of youth and the feeling of not being young anymore, somehow encapsulated together.

be someone
be someone

I'm guessing no-one will agree there's one chorus too many?

I find the experience of listening to Fast Car so intense that I've never been able to spend enough time with it to think critically about whether there's one chorus too many or not. Every time I hear it, it just rolls over me like a tsunami of pure emotion and changes my mood for a few hours at least.

Didn't realize Neil Diamond covered "Baby Can I Hold You" contemporaneously with her first album. Schmaltzy af, but it's such a solid song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_IwMyDq9gE

I'll usually put on "Sometimes I Rhyme Slow" after to smooth myself out.

xp

Lily Dale completely otm

there was a pop-house track a few years ago by somebody named Jonas Blue that used a sped up sample of Fast Car and it was absolutely massive. but maybe that just shows the power of the song. despite being stretched and twisted into almost unrecognizable shapes it retains this pulsating uranium core of bittersweet nostalgia and hope and loss that will long outlive whatever container happens to be carrying it that year

Enya appears on Sinead's first album!

I find the experience of listening to Fast Car so intense that I've never been able to spend enough time with it to think critically about whether there's one chorus too many or not. Every time I hear it, it just rolls over me like a tsunami of pure emotion and changes my mood for a few hours at least.

― Lily Dale, Monday, March 8, 2021 8:42 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

otm

the chorus is such a rush that it could repeat fifteen times over the course of the song and i wouldn't know. time dilates and a fast car rockets right through the dilation etc. "speed so fast felt like i was drunk" <- incredible image, followed by "the city lights lay out before us and your arm felt nice wrapped round by shoulder" <- so many touching details without ever really getting gushingly sentimental, because you're too in the moment to think anything other than "wow this person's arm feels nice"

the guitar melody is so delightfully simple and beautiful too.

the thing about this song that amazes me is that it does so many things: the actual story the song tells is clear and believable and heartbreaking and covers years of a life in a few short verses, and yet what sticks in your mind is something even more powerful, this overwhelming feeling that surges up from the chorus, of hope and clarity and loss and nostalgia, the feeling of youth and the feeling of not being young anymore, somehow encapsulated together.

― Lily Dale, Monday, March 8, 2021 10:20 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I clicked on the Tracy Chapman thread by accident, but this post made me very glad I did. 🎯

A song that comes closest to the heady queerness, also with a first-person narrator and shoulders:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmZhKlvuepI

That song's the happy ending to the "Fast Car" scenario.

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

I think he was talking about hearing the cover, which is in a sense the very definition of a "reeducational flogging" for those that didn't know or remember the original.

I think the question we really need to be asking is What is Tracy Chapman's net worth?

I heard her uncle invented the Chapman Stick.

Also, Chapstick.

My question was a response to this: "most ppl who engage with art in this fashion are not able to adjust their POVs when presented with conflicting information." When I decided the cover was tepid and pointless (I exaggerated; I didn't need to hear it 30 times, more like three or four), I had no conflicting information; I had no information at all.

I am, again, very happy to see Tracy Chapman get all those royalties. Given a choice (and assuming equal compensation, which maybewouldn't be the case), I would rather the origninal had made a return like "Running Up That Hill" via a movie or TV show. I've always loved hearing the orignal on the radio a few times a year almost nonstop since it was a hit--it always comes from some other place next to whatever's around it. But what often happens in terms of radio in these cases is the origninal disappears in favor of the cover--ask Harold Melvin or Percy Sledge. (Actually, you can't.) She'll get the royalties, you just might not hear Tracy Chapman singing "Fast Car" anymore.

I mean, she also made $450,000 after Nicki Minaj tried to sample "Baby Can I Hold You."

2021 story on that

Post

Jesus--"origninal" twice?

Her four most recent setlists:

FEB 4 2024
Tracy Chapman at 66th Grammy Awards

Fast Car

NOV 2 2020
Tracy Chapman at Late Night with Seth Meyers, New York, NY, USA
Talkin' 'bout a Revolution

APR 16 2015
Tracy Chapman at Late Show With David Letterman, New York, NY, USA

Stand by Me

DEC 2 2012
Tracy Chapman at Kennedy Center Honors 2012

Hound Dog
Sweet Home Chicago

a similar example as far as covers might go was when No Doubt covered "It's My Life", the cover was ubiquitous for awhile but i hardly hear it anymore but i do hear Talk Talk's original out in the wild a lot.

xxpost Clever of you to change the spelling to get the trademark.

xxxxxpost You think the radio stations that were playing the Tracy Chapman version are going to play the Combs version instead?

Depending upon the station, I hear the Simply Red and Michael Bolton covers regularly. I thought they'd disappear too. They haven't.

Not all stations, but some will for sure. Whatever stations at whatever point in the future are directed at the audience who made the cover a hit, that's what they'll play.

Everyone, I have to break in and mention that I don't know why-in-the-f I said (above) that the original song was in the "Barbie" movie; I was thinking of a totally different song from the same era. Thanks for not calling me on this "brain f*rt" (...a phrase a loathe, but I'm going to punish myself by using it here).

Clearly you think all female folk singers from the late '80s sound the same.

At this point Chapman's version has more than double the Spotify streams than Combs' version-- 800 million to 376 million. And that's after Combs being on the charts for 44 weeks.

Im trying to imagine where they could possibly have used “Fast Car” in the Barbie movie

Ken sings it

I bet they could've made Allan sing it

Maybe when they are driving the car?

That must have been what got my wires crossed, yeah...

"Fast Car" might have actually made more sense than "Closer to Fine" as a driving away song but it's too much of a bummer

(xposts) That's good--honestly, my engagement with Spotify is minimal. I'm thinking more in terms of radio, and, again, going by the dogged persistance of many bad cover versions I could name.

There's also an L.A. car chase iirc

and speaking of "dogged persistence"

Closer to Fast Car

Try That In A Fast Car

It also kind of totally defeats the point I was making – in that "Fast Car" was a much bigger hit than "Closer to Fine." So I suppose what actually made that song "work so well" was that it's one folks of a certain age will recognize, but doesn't otherwise have a big cultural presence (whereas the Combs cover of "Fast Car" was released around the same time as the movie). Same with the Matchbox 20 song... such great choices for the way they were used, IMO

Fast Car has like seven verses? Nine? I lose track.

Just checked, it's probably six or seven, depending how you count. Verse 4 is a half-verse and verse 7 is a repeat of verse 4. I think. But feel free to correct me if I have it wrong.

So Europeans took a crack at this already

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnspjM3RG4Q

you just might not hear Tracy Chapman singing "Fast Car" anymore.

― clemenza, Monday, February 5, 2024 1:40 PM (forty-three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

i just hard her singing fast caar at the grammys yesterday

The Jonas Blue version peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart, behind Zayn Malik's "Pillowtalk".[66] Its UK peak meant it charted higher than Chapman's original

Are you guys okay?

i remember exactly where i was when i heard the jonas blue version, it was a windowless gym which was lucky because i would have hurled something through some plate glass right then if i could have

My dogged persistence.

I assume the number of streams on Spotify is the number beside the song's running time when you look up that page?

https://i.postimg.cc/mgVsnrwk/percy.jpg

If so, Percy Sledge's original has 202,187,066 streams.
Michael Bolton's cover: 202,477,576--almost dead even, but more for the cover.
Harold Melvin's "If You Don't Know Me by Now": 64,745,809.
Simply Red's cover: 252,963,471--four times as many.

I don't know if I'm reading those numbers right, or what time-frame they refer to. And maybe those aren't good analogies for Tracy Chapman/Luke Combs. But over time, these things do not necessarily turn out like they should.

How “should” they turn out?

It’s pretty much a given fact of music consumption that the original version of a piece of music is not necessarily the definitive version. In fact, I’d argue that there’s no pint in worrying about the definitive version of a song, particularly one like “Fast Car” which seems to my ears to be constructed in an easily-digestible manner that almost invites other musicians to take their own stab at it.

You also can't test how much the covers may have "lifted up" the originals, by drawing attn (for some listeners) that they may not have otherwise received...

(xpost) I think that's true with some songs, but I absolutely think that some originals are definitive, and I don't want them to fade over time and be relaplaced by an inferior cover. And I definitely include "Fast Car" in that category.

apologies if this was already noted, but as of this morning the Chapman version was the number 1 streamed track on iTunes

Ah good, things are turning out like they should now

jonas blue's version of "fast car" has 1.1 billion (with a "b") streams

I have given "origninal" a partner with "relaplaced"...I think I need to switch to voice text or something.

That was mentioned earlier, and again, that's good to hear. Guess I'm thinking more years from now. Anyway, I don't like the cover, and that was really all I came on here to say.

It would have been funny if Jonas Blue had rushed the Grammy stage with a glow stick.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkl_Vq1SWKg

Only version I'm playing^

"Fast Car" was a popular song and it still is.

clemenza, I’m not cuckoo-for-cocoa-puffs over the cover either but I’m happy it’s not a) blatantly offensive, and b) done by someone determined to give Tracy Chapman all the shine she deserves for writing the song

"sometimes i rhyme slow" is great

Now that, I loved.

hell yeah

i was on 125 and st. nick

I got a plan
to get us outta this thread

But what often happens in terms of radio in these cases is the origninal disappears in favor of the cover--ask Harold Melvin or Percy Sledge. (Actually, you can't.) She'll get the royalties, you just might not hear Tracy Chapman singing "Fast Car" anymore.

How often was this 35 year old song getting played on the radio (and where) to start with?!

It was like Norah Jones’s “Don’t Know Why” at the time, in heavy rotation, and never fully left CVS playlists. Outlasted “Luka.”

Yeah, the places that do play it are ones that play folky stuff or 80s music and they aren’t going to swap it out for a Country cover.

a note-perfect country cover even

I still heard "Fast Car" a fair amount even before the Combs cover — on '80s oldies stations, or Jack FM stations, it's never really gone out of circulation I don't think.

I find the Combs cover stupendous, I'm slightly embarrased to say brought tears to my eyes when it randomly popped up as I was listening to the NPR 2023 playlist, still can't quite put my finger on why it works so well, but alpine static described it well:

deference, i think, is the word you're looking for. he just plays it as best he can w/o doing all sorts of shit to "make it his own" because, assuming we believe him, he just loves the song and it makes him think of his dad.

this is why it's good.

― alpine static, 31. december 2023 00:06 (one month ago)

well, also because Tracy Chapman wrote an incredible song

― alpine static, 31. december 2023 05:22 (one month ago)

I had not heard "give me one reason" prior to the fast car revival, so that's been a pleasant surprise

One of the reasons I am inclined to think fondly of Combs’ decision to cover it is that “Fast Car” is such a non-judgmental and anti-self-aggrandising song - this is where it derives a lot of its power, the absence of judgment makes piercing observations like “says his body’s too old for working / his body’s too young to look like his” that much more crushing.

If you don’t feel an immense amount of humility in covering this finely wrought, hand drawn map of human frailty, then you probably wouldn’t even have liked the song in the first place.

One of the things I love about this song (in either version) is how well it demonstrates how emotional restraint can imply its opposite. “Says his body’s too old for working / but his body’s too young to be looking like his” - not judgmental but crushing in its observation. Hi

lol at me trying to write long posts on my phone

the best "fast car" cover is jim o'rourke's 20 minute one

oh wait it's 30 minutes

not a very fast car then huh

Love those alpine static posts from December. I also believe that many of today's popular male country artists would have felt uncomfortable singing the "checkout girl" line as written.

Never got into Xiu Xiu's cover.

The Jim O'Rourke one feels like one of those "30 minutes of Billy Joel saying 'JFK Blown away'" Youtube videos.

Xiu Xiu’s cover works well in context

O’Rourke’s cover sucks but I would enjoy to hear Tracy work her way into that version

O’Rourke’s cover is sublime

I've also seen Xiu Xiu do their cover twice, once while opening for Swans, and honestly, I remember nothing else about the show except how incredibly moving it was.

Listened to the Combs version just now, and now listening to the Chapman original. Both iterations still rip my heart out.

And then, of course, Apple Music was like hey, wouldn’t you like to hear “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” right now

not that the lyrics aren't one of the most stunning features of the song, but the recurring acoustic melody manages to conjure up the imagery on its own, even if the song were to be wordless.

Not that there aren't loads of great songs on Chapman's later albums (there are!), but there's something very special—to me, at least—about the debut and Crossroads. Maybe it's because I love "interzone"-era production (the keyboards, etc) that gets pushed aside on the rest of her discography in favor of more natural-sounding recordings.

Anyway, has Chapman performed on tv or even performed at all between the wind-down of Letterman's show and this year's Grammys?

I remember being super psyched when she did Letterman in 2015 but I can't think of any other time I've seen her in the intervening nine years.

Just “Talkin’ ‘bout A Revolution” on Seth Myers on Election Night, 2020.

Something about this poster makes me realize Chapman could have ended up a Rounder Records folk artist if the time and opportunity had been off.

We are thrilled to see Tracy Chapman get all the love after that transcendent Grammy performance! A new generation of folks are falling in love with her, just as we did back in 1985 when she played our room for $4.50. Check out this vintage poster that still hangs in the club. pic.twitter.com/Ois41mFxwr

— Club Passim (@clubpassim) February 7, 2024

“Fast Car” racked up 949,000 official on-demand U.S. streams on Monday (Feb. 5), the day following the Grammys — up 241% from the 278,000 it notched the prior Monday (Jan. 29). That’s a big gain, though it’s nothing compared to how the song exploded in digital song sales, soaring 38,400% from a negligible amount to nearly 14,000. The Combs version also saw some huge gains over the same period, rising 37% in streams to nearly 1.6 million and nearly 3,900% in sales to just over 6,000.

Could it be enough for Chapman’s “Fast Car,” which originally peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1988 to return to the chart? It’s not impossible, though it will have to do well enough to make the top half of the chart to be eligible for a re-entrance, due to Billboard chart rules about catalog songs. If it keeps cruising through the week on its early momentum though, it may have a shot — and as of Wednesday, it was still No. 2 and No. 52 on the daily U.S. charts for iTunes and Spotify, respectively.

xpost Speaking of that era, Elijah Wald with a great post and photo:

https://www.facebook.com/elijah.wald/posts/pfbid035xdeq7XGWAHJY7TrexbEn1L3XLLhpSTyo8Kqv9qSmvH3Bthb189uViEatYvdbHPyl

love that Passim poster, glad to see they still exist

There was a WTF interview years ago with Brian Koppelman where he talks about "discovering" Tracy Chapman and helping her get her record deal.

Anyway, has Chapman performed on tv or even performed at all between the wind-down of Letterman's show and this year's Grammys?

I don't think so - I remember the Letterman appearance being singled out years later as her last public performance.

I've always loved "Fast Car," it's probably one of my favorite singles from the '80s, so the revival it's getting is very welcome, but I kind of wish the rest of her debut was as starkly produced. The a cappella "Behind the Wall" is also great, but the full-band arrangements for songs like "Mountains o' Things" and "For My Lover" kind of dilute the impact.

Dang, I need to go play "For my Lover"

Good Oxford American essay on For My Lover

back in the 80s I saw Tracy Chapman in the Cleveland airport and lost my shit bc I was 12 and had never seen a musician in an airport before, or even a musician IRL. i went over to say hi and say thank you, and she was very gracious and kind.

My friend used to work at a fancy boutique grocery story in San Francisco and once gave Tracy Chapman advice on which cheese to buy. I think I would have fainted.

If you don’t feel an immense amount of humility in covering this finely wrought, hand drawn map of human frailty, then you probably wouldn’t even have liked the song in the first place.

truth bomb

yeah I only saw a clip of the Grammy performance but I was moved as hell. And like Alfred, Combs heartfelt looks of admiration towards Chapman struck me as well and hit me hard as a music lover. Sorry for corn. Heart emoji.

I posted this in the Springsteen thread, but I've always loved this clip of Chapman and Springsteen singing "My Hometown."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCYbnLNEPD4

Not crazy about the way “Fast Car” has become a “meme” on social media in the past week; but these are the times we live in…

Fast Car (Bass Boosted)

Something I'd completely forgotten until I got talking with another retired teacher today; we both supply now, both used to work at the same board, and she was telling me that she and her husband are seeing Springsteen in Barcelona in a few months, which led me back--the clip above should have been enough of a reminder--to seeing Chapman in 1988 at Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens as part of the Amnesty International show with Springsteen, Gabriel, and others. Normally not my kind of thing, but I was seeing a woman at the time who wanted to go.

Springsteen, Sting, Youssou N'Dour, Peter Gabriel, Tracy Chapman and k.d. lang...that's totally a line-up I would go to see if it was 1988. (Even Sting's set is mostly good, leaning heavily on the Police and bringing in Gabriel for a duet on one of his better solo numbers.)

(FWIW, per that article, face value was $30...that's still only $66 today if that's all Canadian dollars.)

Somewhere this week I read that the Amnesty show was a big break for her, last-minute filling in for a big name that had to drop out.

Looks like "Fast Car" did re-enter the Top 100 on Billboard somewhere around #40.

She lives (lived?) by my kids preschool so I'd see her cruising by every once in a while...

on foot, not in a...

fast car.

https://i.postimg.cc/Sxj7WsnT/tracy.jpg

Lol at that sandwiching

I kind of wish the rest of her debut was as starkly produced. The a cappella "Behind the Wall" is also great, but the full-band arrangements for songs like "Mountains o' Things" and "For My Lover" kind of dilute the impact.

It finally occurred to me that her tour supporting her debut was probably what I was hoping for and sure enough there are plenty of bootlegs out there including several soundboard recordings.

In terms of sound quality, this one isn't the best - a cassette dub of a soundboard recording, from the looks of it, it wasn't bootlegged at the correct speed & pitch and this YouTube upload comes from an attempt to correct that. I'm posting here because the second song is unfamiliar and couldn't be identified. The uploader refers to it as "If I Ask You." Is this one of Chapman's unreleased originals or is it a cover?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbFt0MOVHCQ

(It's at 03:23 - for some reason, I wasn't able to post a site-generated link that went to that spot.)

July 1988 shows in Montreux and Philly seem to be the best in terms of audio. Should be easy to find out there in lossless form.