http://www.metacafe.com/watch/wm-A10302B0000196761F/tracy_chapman_fast_car_official_music_video/
I haaaaaaated this song when it came out. It seems during the Summer of 1988 this song was played somewhere (the radio, the grocery store, elevator intercoms, etc) every 5-freakin' minutes. Overplay really made me loathe it. It wasn't until many, many years removed that I came to like this song. You can file it under two of my favorite kinds of songs: "Songs that tell a story" and "Songs about wanting to blow out of your stinkin' town". It's got both! Now "Fast Car" is the song that I secretly love to belt out at the top of my lungs when I'm driving in a car. It's fun to see if you can sing the whole story, especially the fast parts, without losing your breath!
This song especially reminds me of a great time in life....the Summer of 1988. It was one of my favorite summers. One of my friends was taking summer courses at The University of New Hampshire, me and another friend would go up every weekend and stay in her dorm room. We hung out with some guys at a couple of different fraternities up there and just had a summer of good times...going to Pirate's Cove beach in this one guy's white vintage convertible, driving up to North Berwick, Maine to swim in their stone quarries, many parties, many barbecues, lots of dancing, lots of summer flings. It was one of the most fun summers I ever had! Whether I liked it or not, at the time, this song was the soundtrack to that summer!
Tracey Chapman was raised by her mother in Cleveland Ohio. By the age of eight Tracy knew how to play guitar and was writing songs. Chapman was raised as a Baptist, but attended an Episcopalian high school where she was accepted into a program called "A Better Chance" which helped minority students attend private school, such as Wooster School in Connecticut (her alma mater). From there Chapman attended Tufts University in Massachusetts.
While in college, Chapman would busk in Harvard Square. She also began playing in coffeehouses all over Cambridge, Massachusetts and played often at Club Passim. Another student at Tufts heard her sing and told his dad, Charles Koppelman, about her. Koppelman ran a publishing company and signed Chapman in 1986. After she graduated from Tufts with a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and African Studies he helped her to get signed by Elektra Records.
Soon after, she released her self-titled debut album in 1988. She performed the song "Fast Car" on t.v. on the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute Concert in June of 1988 and the song blew up and was played all over the radio. She began touring in support of the album. The album spawned other hit songs including "Talkin' 'bout a Revolution" and "Baby Can I Hold You". The album was critically acclaimed, sold well, and won Chapman 3 Grammy Awards including "Best New Artist" (which is popularly known to be a curse as the winners of this award rarely go on to duplicate the success they experienced with their debut album after winning the Best New Artist Grammy.)
Her next album, 1989's Crossroads did not repeat the success of her first album, and by 1992's release of Matters of the Heart Chapman's fan base was a smaller but devoted audience. She had a resurgence with her fourth album New Beginning (1995) which spawned the hit "Give Me One Reason", which won a Grammy Award for "Best Rock Song" (whaaa???? Oh Grammy's....you're sooooo out of it. I don't consider this a rock song at all, but that's how lame the Grammy's are!). "Give Me One Reason" became Chapman's most successful single of her career, but by the release of her 2000 album Her Telling Stories her music was mainly being played heavily in Europe and on Adult Alternative radio stations in the U.S., and not universally over mass numbers of mainstream stations.
Chapman had other releases 2005's Where You Live and 2008's Our Bright Future. She still tours extensively in Europe and select North American cities. In the mid-1990's Chapman dated famed author, Alice Walker ("The Color Purple"). In 2004 Chapman was given an honorary doctorate degree in Fine Arts by her alma mater, Tufts University and recognized her commitment to activism. She is known for her politically and socially active songs and often performs at events in support of charities from Make Poverty History, amFar, and AIDS/Lifecycle, and currently lives in San Francisco.
Lyrics:
You got a fast car
I want a ticket to anywhere
Maybe we make a
deal
Maybe together we can get somewhere
Any place is
better
Starting from zero got nothing to lose
Maybe we’ll make
something
But me myself I got nothing to prove
You got a fast car
I
got a plan to get us out of here
been working at the convenience
store
Managed to save just a little bit of money
Won’t have to drive too
far
Just cross the border and into the city
You and I can both get
jobs
finally see what it means to be living
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
My 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
You got a fast car
Is it fast enough so we can fly away
We
gotta make a decision
We leave tonight or live and die this way
so I
remember when we were driving,driving in your car
Speed so fast it felt like
I was drunk
City lights lay out before us
And your arm felt nice wrapped
round my shoulder
And I,I had a feeling that I belonged
And I,I had a
feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone
You got a fast
car
We go cruising to entertain ourselves
You still ain’t got a job
And
I work in the market as a checkout girl
I know things will get
better
You’ll find work and I’ll get promoted
We’ll move out of the
shelter
Buy a bigger house and live in the suburbs
So I remember when
we were driving,driving in your car
speed so fast It felt like I was
drunk
City lights lay out before us
And your arm felt nice wrapped round
my shoulder
And I,I had a feeling that I belonged
And I,I had a feeling I
could be someone, be someone, be someone
You got a fast car
I got a
job that pays all our bills
You stay out drinking till late at the bar
See
more of your friends than you do your kids
I’d always hoped for better
But
maybe together you and me'd find it
If you got no plans and ain’t going
nowhere
Take your fast car and keep on driving
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 round
my shoulder
And I,I had a feeling that I belonged
And I,I had a feeling I
could be someone, be someone, be someone
You got a fast car
But is it
fast enough so you can fly away
You gotta make a decision
You leave
tonight or live and die this way
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