This is another entry in my ongoing “songs that visited me and decided they wanted to stay” series. I hope you like these enough to become a paid subscriber, because I really need you to keep this series going…
Fast Car - Tracy Chapman
See, my old man’s got a problem
He live 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
So mama went off and left him
She wanted more from life than he could give
I said somebody’s got to take care of him
So I quit school and that’s what I did
It still amazes me that this song became a radio hit. Not because it’s not a great song, but because here was a tiny black gay lefty folk singer armed only with an acoustic guitar, pitted against all the synths and whomping drums and right wing politics of the era. Here she was singing a genuine PROTEST song, although maybe that bit got lost when the drums kicked in and you were singing along to this bit…
So I remember when we were driving, driving in your car
Speed so fast, I felt like I was drunk
City lights lay out before us and your arm felt nice wrapped around my shoulder
And I had a feeling that I belonged
I had a feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone
….because admit it, you were.
At that moment at least, the song felt almost triumphant, and it was easy to forget that American circa-1988 wasn’t gonna allow any happy endings, especially for a black woman and her deadbeat man. The poverty in Fast Car is crushing. It overwhelms everything in its path. And it’s the worst kind. It’s the kind you’re born into. Poverty like this was not the usual subject matter for a hit pop song fresh off 8 years of Reagan looting the middle class.