This song is truly incredible. The images, the emotions, the rhythmic feel, and the vocal delivery paint a haunting, disturbing, and yet hopeful picture of life that is unfortunately all too common. A picture of lives often ignored and dismissed. A picture of the desire and the NEED to escape that life. Master songwriter Tracy Chapman (pictured above) authored this amazing song, one of many in her long list of credits.
"Fast Car" is a picture of escapism, the desperate fleeing of lives stuck in an endless cycle, seemingly going nowhere, with little chance for change unless the "fast car" can somehow break the cycle. Note these lines from the chorus:
"You got a fast car
Is it fast enough so we can fly away?
We gotta make a decision
Leave tonight or live and die this way"
You can feel the desperation and the urgency. You can also feel the hope, the hope of making that decision to leave. To be able to evoke this kind of emotion in short 4 line chorus is absolutely remarkable.
This song is also a picture, a mini-movie really, of the stark reality of the lives of far too many less fortunate people in our own country, let alone the world. You see scene after chilling scene in this movie. The dead end job and trying to save as much as possible, however little that may be. The mother abandoning her family, leaving the child with no choice but to quit school and give up her dreams to care for a broken alcoholic father.
These are scenes that happen all too often, that happen everyday. This is not a Hollywood reality show, this IS reality. Big difference.
While not personally knowing this hard reality, nor experiencing it first hand, I've had a taste of it in a rather odd way. To make a long story short, my partner and I adopted a young Muslim man whom my partner, while working on a photography project, found on the streets in Bali. He had been thrown out of his housing, beat up for dropping a plate in the restaurant where he worked, then fired without pay, and left broken and homeless, with little hope. Seeing the hurt, pain, and fear in his face made our hearts break. So we took him under our wings, tried to comfort and encourage him, eventually enrolling him in school to get a education to better himself. He now has a job, hope and dreams. I guess we were, and still are, his "fast car".
As this movie continues, there are glimmers of hope. She briefly escapes with a companion in the car, away from the visuals of her life, and feels a comforting human touch to lift the spirits. And hope of a better life.
"I remember 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 'round my shoulder
I had a feeling that I belonged I had a feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone"
Musically, the rhythmic arpeggiating of the chords (C, G Em7, D, capo on the 2nd. fret) create a hypnotic feel, keeping the listener totally engaged, and focused on the brilliant lyrics. This is songwriting at its absolute finest.
The other component of this song that makes it outstanding is the production. David Kershenbaum's (pictured below, in the studio with Tracy) masterful production highlighting every nuance, vocal and musical, of this extraordinary song earned him a Grammy Award, and deservedly so. Having had the distinct pleasure of working with David (see previous post), I can tell you for a fact that his focus is 110% on the song. He is a songwriter's dream producer. As with me, I'm sure both Tracy and David felt like they had the perfect artist /producer marriage on this record, so much so that this union produced two more records. I would have loved to have seen the look on David's face when he first heard this song, the excitement in his eyes. I'm absolutely sure he knew exactly how great a song this was going to be.
The album "Tracy Chapman" ended up grabbing six Grammy Award nominations, winning three. Since then she has gone on to release a total of eight records, winning yet another ( her fourth ) Grammy Award for the hit single " Give Me One Reason". Tracy Chapman is a master songwriter, telling emotionally powerful and touching stories with six strings and a pen. And, of course, a keen insight. One final thing, also notice, that in "Fast Car", it is not about clever rhymes, as there are none, none whatsoever; it is about the story, and making it moving and believable. So let's listen now to a great performance of this iconic song.
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