Tracy Chapman

    One of last week's assigned readings was about Tracy Chapman. I have been a fan of her song Fast Car for a while now, and I actually thought that it was sung by a man when I first heard it because of her deep voice. I never actually took the time to analyze the song's lyrics, mostly I just sung along with the chorus. The song is a lot deeper than it appears when you first listen to it. The song is about a poor woman working at a convenient store that wants to escape to anywhere because it will be better than the life she's living now. She wants to chase her dream of being somebody in the world and making a better life for herself. I believe that in the line "you got a fast car" she is referring to man in her life. I believe that since the song is set in the past, back then men we're mostly the ones that owned cars. The woman in the song relies on the man as her chance to get away and start over new. When his arms were around her she felt like she belonged. From the lyrics "I got a job that pays all our bills, You stay out drinking late at the bar, See more of your friends than you do of your kids, I'd always hoped for better", you can see that in the end he let her down. She was the one paying the bills and he's blowing through the money getting drunk at the bar during the week. In most households men usually provide the main source of income. I admire that Tracy Chapman has natural talent and her voice does not need to be modified in anyway and that she started singing just a little after she learned how to talk. A quote that stood out to me in the article was "Singing for Herself Armed only with her voice, her guitar and her conscience, TRACY CHAPMAN has helped make protest music fashionable again". That statement alone represents how affect using your voice to express yourself can be. With only her guitar and her voice and the words that she wrote she has reached out to people all over the world and join in her protest. She writes her songs to express herself, which is a powerful act. I really liked that Bernie Sanders used her song Revolution on one of his campaign ads. I believe the song was a perfect fit.