Tracy Chapman

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.