I'll admit I hadn't heard of her name until January this year.
I was on the way home from an All Time Low concert and I heard Fast Car for the first time.
Something about the chord pattern, emotional vocals and tempo struck me and the name
of both the song and artist stayed on the back of my mind until I next heard the song.
This weekend gone by, I put Tracy's name into You Tube and I listened to Fast Car.
All I could say was wow. Just wow.
The 1988 release that had taken me twenty four years to hear took my breath away,
brought tears to my eyes and moved me in a way that no other song has done for a long time.
The opening chords instantly caught me and the lyrics
are so well crafted that I felt as though I was listening to
a story that was so engaging I forgot where I was for
a glorious five minutes.
My thirteen year old, 'The Wanted' and 'Glee' obsessed
sister even appreciated the brilliance of the song, as did
my Mum and Dad who fondly sang the lyrics at the mention
of Fast Car. I'm not surprised the video has well over
27 million views on You Tube, as well as many millions more on the various lyrical videos.
It may have taken me twenty four years to come across Fast Car and Tracy Chapman but even in 2012, in a world over filled with the pop, dub step, techno and auto tune galore, this song reigns supreme. It is a long reigning queen, a song so powerful that it transcends generations and I hope that in the future, I will play this to my children and they too will be captivated by this beautiful song in the same way I have.
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