I listened to this NON STOP when it first came out ❤ NOBODY. I mean NOBODY did this song better than the original singer and song writer Tracy Chapman. When I listened to the covers which seemed to be more popular in the last few years I always felt as if something was missing. Despite the amazing vocals of the singers who covered it. It is the quality you mentioned. What a lot of pop fans would consider “imperfections”. The jagged edges of her voice. They go straight to my soul.
I was in high school when this song came out in the late '80s. The storytelling combined with her voice makes her so special. This song is timeless...it's a tale as old as time...How many women can feel in their very soul, the weariness and resignation in Tracy's voice as if it were their own? It touched me to see how this affected you too!
Great song! It was the first song I heard from Tracy Chapman & bought the album. All the songs on it are great. She is a very good singer-songwriter & storyteller. I have always loved her unusual voice. Other hit singles are Talkin' 'bout A Revolution", "Baby Can I Hold You", "Crossroads", "Give Me One Reason" etc.
She's singing about dreams; the dream to have a better life and then how badly she's failed by her man in achieving that dream. No matter how hard she's worked, he follows her father's footsteps, drinking, staying out late, ignoring their kids. Her dreams are unfulfilled. It's so hauntingly sad, so tragically beautiful. A song of hopes, dreams and loss.😢💞
I feel there would be a lack of accountability and self reflection in this interpretation. It plays into the narrative of women essentially having no agency and power in allowing certain characters into their lives. It's not the full story.
This song always brings tears to my eyes too, my step brother went through a terrible child hood, this was his favourite song he listened to. A song about escaping. It's amazing how songs can bring us to a particular time or person. This particular tune is poetry.
There is something so beautifully tragic about this song. The repetition of the acoustic guitar riff evoke a patterned cycle in the life of the protagonist. Great reaction.
❤❤❤ always love your reactions, your analysis and the emotions on your face say it all, thanks...by the way, the whole debut album of Tracy Chapman's is sooooooo good, inncluding Fast Car. The whole album gives you goosebumps.
She realizes at the end, she doesn't want to work and take care of another drunk... like her father was, so she tells him to get in his "Fast Car" and keep on driving! It's weird cuz I was around 20 when this came out and although I loved hearing it on the radio, I never knew what it meant until recently?😮
I'm always very emotional listening to this song. It's a very special song to many of us. The futility and desperation from under which so many of us live is extraordinary. Often the only meaning we glean from the insufferable orchestrations of our daily routines is a prayer we form within us to manifest an objective reality apart from the one we live. I think we can all appreciate this feeling of an unrequited existence-- of feeling disenfranchised from the potential for your life. What a treasure Tracy is as an artist, storyteller and songwriter. Exquisite voice and presentation. What a beautiful rich tone! I just adore her artistry and elegant, gentle nature as she performs.
The greatest moment of the past year was when Tracy Chapman played "Fast Car" at the Grammy Awards with Luke Combs. It was a moment of transcending joy.
Loved this song when it came out and still do.I remember watching Tracy do the Amnesty International tour in 1988 with Springsteen, Sting, and Peter Gabriel. She was awesome and did great along side those heavy hitters!
It’s a song that to me always feels like growing up and the reality of having broken dreams and empty promises. All that excitement and ambition and immortality that comes with being young and having dreams and being in love only to have time pass and reality set in and now she’d tell him to take that fast car and keep on driving.
Came back after the grammy performance reaction. She should be still performing in the spotlight!!! Her storytelling ability is beyond imagination! I loved her then,,now and always!!! Chills forever!!!!!❤❤❤❤❤
This song makes me love everything about Tracy Chapman. Who she was, what she did in her time, and who she is now. I can totally relate to the seclusion that she enjoys in her life now.
In the late 80s folk music was basically dead and a relic of the late 60s. Then, in 1988, Tracy Chapman burst onto the scene, seemingly out of nowhere, and breathed new life and energy into the folk music genre. 💗
I moved home 23 years ago, for a career, ive went through a lot and 5 weeks ago, i moved back to my family and friends, and my mental health has improved dramatically. Like Tracey says - I Feel like i belong again. ❤ it's a wonderful feeling. To anyone who is feeling hopeless in anyway, make that change, take that leap of faith, do everything you possibly can to be you again. It's the best thing I've ever done. ❤
This song was all over the place whn i was growing up. You know when you get a random whiff of something that immediately brings you back to some summer you will always remember? Th8s does that to my ears.
Thank-you for a wonderful reaction to this emotion-evoking amazing song! Between her voice and the lyrics.. powerful stuff! After I heard her on the Grammys this year, I went back and watched several of her renditions of the song; one really stuck out to me. Before she even released the song, she was singing in Wembley Stadium at an event for Nelson Mandela.. after she performed, she ended up being asked to go back on stage as a filler when Stevie Wonder’s equipment faltered.. she sang this song. She was so young, and you could hear voice almost trembling a little - but she nailed it, and the lyrics got the attention of the huge crowd!! She’s definitely a ‘one-off’!!
Watch the performance of this with Tracy and Luke Combs did at the 2024 Grammy Awards. Luke did a hit cover of this last year, and this is his favorite song. Tracy has not given permission to cover this until now. Thus, last year she won an award at the COUNTRY Music Awards, for songwriting. She’s the first person of color to be honored that way. The duet she and Luke did is OUTSTANDING.
Seeing Tracy live is one of my favorite concert experiences in my life. In college, my wife bought tickets to her concert as a birthday gift. It was her first tour for the first album before it got big. Sat in the auditorium, there was only a stool, a mic stand, and a guitar on stage. Tracy walked out looking so small on the big empty stage. She filled the place with her voice and music. My wife became a huge fan that night as well.
Such a beautiful song, simple but powerful. If memory serves me correctly, she became huge after being given a chance spot at a festival at Wembley Stadium, then I think an act pulled out and based on the reaction to her first set, she was asked to redo her set again! Again stretching my memory but I think it is along those lines!
It's one if those songs that that you relate to more if you've lived through some of the events described. This song meant nothing to me as a 14-year-old when it came out, but now, after so many ups and downs ( like the loss of loved ones) and some brushes with homelessness, the song's tale of the endless struggle for a better life really speaks to me. It's one of those songs that give you chills and make the arm hairs stand up, because it's that good, but mostly because of its brutal honesty.
Saw her live in her home town -Cleveland. Long moments of silence before applause. Try Behind Closed Doors. A cappella. Chilling statement, beyond goosebumps , this one takes your breath away for real.
Being a child of the 80's with an obsession with music of every genre and decade; it thrills me to have the privilege of sharing the moment you first heard a great song you knew might stick with you forever just how I felt hearing them for the first time years and years ago. :)
Masterpiece. The song starts out tragic, builds towards a better future and ends back in the tragedy. "You stay out late at the bar and see more of your friends than you do your kids". And she eventually tells him to F off. "I ain't going nowhere, so take your fast car and keep on driving". They end up living and dying this way.
I can honestly say I can not get through this song without crying...I am a recovering alcoholic and was in a very very dark place l lost everything and I would listen to this song ( drunk) and when the part comes " I had a feeling I could be someone " I would break down because I would think , I grew up with nice things, have a college degree, had a great advertising job in NYC ,(lost that)etc etc and I would think , this is what my life has become, I am a drug addict / alcoholic , that is what I have become, ugh ...But I am happy to say I have 20yrs clean and sober , have things back in my life , but I still can not get through this song without crying
Just shows how a masterful storyteller in very simple words and with a simple song tells more about the underbelly of society than lengthy papers and fancy novels. This song is haunting. Loved the album when it came out, and TC's songs just stay with you. They are unforgettable. Thanks for an emotional and honest reaction.
To me, This song is about Codependency. The pain and suffering, not of the Alcoholic, but the Child of an Alcoholic. It robs them from their childhood and their life
Great song! One of the songs that marks a significant time in my young adulthood. Maybe you could check out one of her songs called At This Point In My Life, from her second album.
I just subscribed because I have watched a few of your reactions. You are not only gorgeous but sensitive and have a deep understanding of music and what it can do for people. Thank you and keep them coming. I think it was your reaction to a whiter shade of pale that did it for me and made me subscribe. I cried right along with you. Anybody who doesn’t feel something when they hear that song must be dead inside.
I subscribed to your channel because of how you reacted to this I know people react that way because you’re relating to the situation in some sort of personal experience just my opinion though thank
loved this reaction. very moving. this song is a little piece of perfection. it is so simple. the repetitive nature of the song. that defining guitar riff that threads throughout the song. the chorus that truly releases into something gorgeous. flying. hope. and each time it is shaded slightly different from tracy chapman, so we hear the hope fade. stunning. stunning. stunning. art at it's most artful! also thank you for being open emotionally. guys are not encouraged to do that in life so much, and it is silly. maybe I've watched too many male reactions to the BARBIE movie lately, so am distrustful of how men respond to things, especially things that ask of them to look and feel through someone else's eyes. this ability and impulse is lacking in a lot of these guys alas. I am a middle-aged gay man. so I have the unique perspective of knowing how guys behave and operate and feel because I am one, but by being gay and an outsider from male culture for a lot of my life, i have also really observed how men act and respond to things from the outside. also I have observed the things they don't have to mess with in life. the things they take for granted, the ways they help in life automatically. the voices and ideas they don't seem to hear at times. it is an interesting place to be. in any case, great reaction. I look forward to more. I have liked and subscribed. thanks for posting.
You should also listen to Tracy’s “Give Me One Reason”. ❤️
Great Suggestion
I listened to this NON STOP when it first came out ❤ NOBODY. I mean NOBODY did this song better than the original singer and song writer Tracy Chapman.
When I listened to the covers which seemed to be more popular in the last few years I always felt as if something was missing. Despite the amazing vocals of the singers who covered it.
It is the quality you mentioned.
What a lot of pop fans would consider “imperfections”. The jagged edges of her voice.
They go straight to my soul.
Can you believe it came out 36 years ago? Wow. Iconic song. ❤
have you heard the xiu xiu cover? its the only one i think comes close.
I was in high school when this song came out in the late '80s. The storytelling combined with her voice makes her so special. This song is timeless...it's a tale as old as time...How many women can feel in their very soul, the weariness and resignation in Tracy's voice as if it were their own? It touched me to see how this affected you too!
Great song! It was the first song I heard from Tracy Chapman & bought the album. All the songs on it are great. She is a very good singer-songwriter & storyteller. I have always loved her unusual voice. Other hit singles are Talkin' 'bout A Revolution", "Baby Can I Hold You", "Crossroads", "Give Me One Reason" etc.
Ughh...all such good songs!!!
Tracy is a poet, not just a songwriter. Love this song. It says so much.
She's singing about dreams; the dream to have a better life and then how badly she's failed by her man in achieving that dream. No matter how hard she's worked, he follows her father's footsteps, drinking, staying out late, ignoring their kids. Her dreams are unfulfilled. It's so hauntingly sad, so tragically beautiful. A song of hopes, dreams and loss.😢💞
On the positive side, instead of leaving like her mother did, she tells him to go. Break the cycle for her children.
Wow
I feel there would be a lack of accountability and self reflection in this interpretation. It plays into the narrative of women essentially having no agency and power in allowing certain characters into their lives. It's not the full story.
Such an amazing track
Truly incredible. Hope you’re well Taylor!
You get totally absorbed into each record. I feel every one of your expressions.😊😊😊😊
The simplicity of the music allows all the focus to be on the story... so beautifully.
This song always brings tears to my eyes too, my step brother went through a terrible child hood, this was his favourite song he listened to. A song about escaping. It's amazing how songs can bring us to a particular time or person. This particular tune is poetry.
Simplicity shines when pure and evocative! The lyrics hit the heart. Thank you for sharing! 💕🎶
There is something so beautifully tragic about this song. The repetition of the acoustic guitar riff evoke a patterned cycle in the life of the protagonist. Great reaction.
❤❤❤ always love your reactions, your analysis and the emotions on your face say it all, thanks...by the way, the whole debut album of Tracy Chapman's is sooooooo good, inncluding Fast Car. The whole album gives you goosebumps.
She realizes at the end, she doesn't want to work and take care of another drunk... like her father was, so she tells him to get in his "Fast Car" and keep on driving!
It's weird cuz I was around 20 when this came out and although I loved hearing it on the radio, I never knew what it meant until recently?😮
I can remember this song the 1st time around. It still has the same resonance now as then❤
I'm always very emotional listening to this song. It's a very special song to many of us. The futility and desperation from under which so many of us live is extraordinary. Often the only meaning we glean from the insufferable orchestrations of our daily routines is a prayer we form within us to manifest an objective reality apart from the one we live. I think we can all appreciate this feeling of an unrequited existence-- of feeling disenfranchised from the potential for your life. What a treasure Tracy is as an artist, storyteller and songwriter. Exquisite voice and presentation. What a beautiful rich tone! I just adore her artistry and elegant, gentle nature as she performs.
The greatest moment of the past year was when Tracy Chapman played "Fast Car" at the Grammy Awards with Luke Combs. It was a moment of transcending joy.
Loved this song when it came out and still do.I remember watching Tracy do the Amnesty International tour in 1988 with Springsteen, Sting, and Peter Gabriel. She was awesome and did great along side those heavy hitters!
Great reaction. She's one of the few musical poets who remains dedicated to her art.
That's correct. She's a poet.
It’s a song that to me always feels like growing up and the reality of having broken dreams and empty promises. All that excitement and ambition and immortality that comes with being young and having dreams and being in love only to have time pass and reality set in and now she’d tell him to take that fast car and keep on driving.
There really are a lot of emotions in this song, but her voice is what remains the greatest for me. 😢❤
Came back after the grammy performance reaction. She should be still performing in the spotlight!!! Her storytelling ability is beyond imagination! I loved her then,,now and always!!! Chills forever!!!!!❤❤❤❤❤
This song makes me love everything about Tracy Chapman. Who she was, what she did in her time, and who she is now. I can totally relate to the seclusion that she enjoys in her life now.
In the late 80s folk music was basically dead and a relic of the late 60s. Then, in 1988, Tracy Chapman burst onto the scene, seemingly out of nowhere, and breathed new life and energy into the folk music genre. 💗
I moved home 23 years ago, for a career, ive went through a lot and 5 weeks ago, i moved back to my family and friends, and my mental health has improved dramatically. Like Tracey says - I Feel like i belong again. ❤ it's a wonderful feeling. To anyone who is feeling hopeless in anyway, make that change, take that leap of faith, do everything you possibly can to be you again. It's the best thing I've ever done. ❤
This song was all over the place whn i was growing up. You know when you get a random whiff of something that immediately brings you back to some summer you will always remember? Th8s does that to my ears.
Thank-you for a wonderful reaction to this emotion-evoking amazing song! Between her voice and the lyrics.. powerful stuff! After I heard her on the Grammys this year, I went back and watched several of her renditions of the song; one really stuck out to me. Before she even released the song, she was singing in Wembley Stadium at an event for Nelson Mandela.. after she performed, she ended up being asked to go back on stage as a filler when Stevie Wonder’s equipment faltered.. she sang this song. She was so young, and you could hear voice almost trembling a little - but she nailed it, and the lyrics got the attention of the huge crowd!! She’s definitely a ‘one-off’!!
Yes, this song hits everyone hard, as well it should! Great reaction!
Watch the performance of this with Tracy and Luke Combs did at the 2024 Grammy Awards. Luke did a hit cover of this last year, and this is his favorite song. Tracy has not given permission to cover this until now. Thus, last year she won an award at the COUNTRY Music Awards, for songwriting. She’s the first person of color to be honored that way. The duet she and Luke did is OUTSTANDING.
Seeing Tracy live is one of my favorite concert experiences in my life. In college, my wife bought tickets to her concert as a birthday gift. It was her first tour for the first album before it got big. Sat in the auditorium, there was only a stool, a mic stand, and a guitar on stage. Tracy walked out looking so small on the big empty stage. She filled the place with her voice and music. My wife became a huge fan that night as well.
Tracy Chapman is one of the greatest singers and song writers to ever live... My absolute favorite singer! ....A LEGEND AND ICON 🙏👏🙏👏🙂↕️👏🙏🙂↕️
Such a beautiful song, simple but powerful.
If memory serves me correctly, she became huge after being given a chance spot at a festival at Wembley Stadium, then I think an act pulled out and based on the reaction to her first set, she was asked to redo her set again!
Again stretching my memory but I think it is along those lines!
🌸 Tracy Chapman is amazing and beautiful and prolific and.....
So many of us know this story in all the different forms it takes!
Love the raw emotional reaction. Music is supposed to make you feel, Tracy can do that. She's a natural gift. Great reaction bro.
Thanks so much!
It's one if those songs that that you relate to more if you've lived through some of the events described. This song meant nothing to me as a 14-year-old when it came out, but now, after so many ups and downs ( like the loss of loved ones) and some brushes with homelessness, the song's tale of the endless struggle for a better life really speaks to me. It's one of those songs that give you chills and make the arm hairs stand up, because it's that good, but mostly because of its brutal honesty.
Saw her live in her home town -Cleveland. Long
moments of silence before applause. Try Behind Closed Doors. A cappella. Chilling statement, beyond goosebumps , this one takes your breath away for real.
Being a child of the 80's with an obsession with music of every genre and decade; it thrills me to have the privilege of sharing the moment you first heard a great song you knew might stick with you forever just how I felt hearing them for the first time years and years ago. :)
Masterpiece. The song starts out tragic, builds towards a better future and ends back in the tragedy. "You stay out late at the bar and see more of your friends than you do your kids". And she eventually tells him to F off. "I ain't going nowhere, so take your fast car and keep on driving". They end up living and dying this way.
The song made me cry to buddy 🙏♥️
🌹💙 Loved your reaction to this! Thank you. I’m now in my sixties, this song really hits deep! Blessings! 🙏
I can honestly say I can not get through this song without crying...I am a recovering alcoholic and was in a very very dark place l lost everything and I would listen to this song ( drunk) and when the part comes " I had a feeling I could be someone " I would break down because I would think , I grew up with nice things, have a college degree, had a great advertising job in NYC ,(lost that)etc etc and I would think , this is what my life has become, I am a drug addict / alcoholic , that is what I have become, ugh ...But I am happy to say I have 20yrs clean and sober , have things back in my life , but I still can not get through this song without crying
Tracey chapman is too good
To me this song is about breaking unhealthy cycles….. wanting more out of life. Beautiful powerful song
Thank you❤❤❤touched me deep. This song is........I can't find words to describe but I can feel it.
So real.
Just shows how a masterful storyteller in very simple words and with a simple song tells more about the underbelly of society than lengthy papers and fancy novels. This song is haunting. Loved the album when it came out, and TC's songs just stay with you. They are unforgettable. Thanks for an emotional and honest reaction.
I remember when this song came out this song, so unique and so emotional!❤❤ So Beautiful!!❤❤
Always love your reactions Nick, Thanks!!❤❤
To me, This song is about Codependency. The pain and suffering, not of the Alcoholic, but the Child of an Alcoholic. It robs them from their childhood and their life
Great song! One of the songs that marks a significant time in my young adulthood. Maybe you could check out one of her songs called At This Point In My Life, from her second album.
Nick....you are great!❤😊hello from Austria.
Gives you hope and then turns right back around and same old same old. Reminds me a bit of In The Ghetto.
I remember when it came out and it was so popular and thrusted her into fame
I am in love you and your reactions, thank you
Tracy just sang her pain out of her soul. That's what the cover versions can't get.
I just subscribed because I have watched a few of your reactions. You are not only gorgeous but sensitive and have a deep understanding of music and what it can do for people. Thank you and keep them coming. I think it was your reaction to a whiter shade of pale that did it for me and made me subscribe. I cried right along with you. Anybody who doesn’t feel something when they hear that song must be dead inside.
Love this song ❤
Her voice really hasn’t changed much over the years. A little gray but aren’t we all
I miss hearing her, seeing her
No shame brother. Respect
Teenager in my first car. My Best friend bought this tape at the mall (birthday present) cannot count the miles this was on besides Offspring hahaha
She just repeats the cycle with the guy she chose to be with it
I subscribed to your channel because of how you reacted to this I know people react that way because you’re relating to the situation in some sort of personal experience just my opinion though thank
You should listen to her song Behind the wall. Super short but incredibly powerful
Such a somber mood, lyrics are so sad. She ended up with another drinker, like her dad.
Anything like this today? I don't think so. Nothing close.
This starts off so hopeful.my heart just breaks for her and anyone who really is going through this
Try Janis Ian , Seventeen! This is 80's...pretty sure. You are great!
❤
loved this reaction. very moving. this song is a little piece of perfection. it is so simple. the repetitive nature of the song. that defining guitar riff that threads throughout the song. the chorus that truly releases into something gorgeous. flying. hope. and each time it is shaded slightly different from tracy chapman, so we hear the hope fade. stunning. stunning. stunning. art at it's most artful!
also thank you for being open emotionally. guys are not encouraged to do that in life so much, and it is silly. maybe I've watched too many male reactions to the BARBIE movie lately, so am distrustful of how men respond to things, especially things that ask of them to look and feel through someone else's eyes. this ability and impulse is lacking in a lot of these guys alas. I am a middle-aged gay man. so I have the unique perspective of knowing how guys behave and operate and feel because I am one, but by being gay and an outsider from male culture for a lot of my life, i have also really observed how men act and respond to things from the outside. also I have observed the things they don't have to mess with in life. the things they take for granted, the ways they help in life automatically. the voices and ideas they don't seem to hear at times. it is an interesting place to be. in any case, great reaction. I look forward to more. I have liked and subscribed. thanks for posting.
Nick.....can you do a reaction to Cand Dulfer " pick up the pieces" please? Candy is great.
😭😭❤️
Check out her duet with Luke Combs!
Can you please react to joe cocker YOU ARE SO BEAUTIFUL (LIVE in Berlin) the man has got pure soul and passion
❤🩹❤🩹❤🩹❤🩹❤🩹
EKE Bye copywright later.
Not really her father but her partner was an alcoholic
It's interesting how many people react to Tracy Chapman but rarely to Joan Armatrading....
An immigration anthem!!!