POP SONG REVIEW: "Fast Car" by Luke Combs

[@Wynneception]

Fast Car is the saddest song ever written to me. It’s the tragedy of the banal. The tragedy of everyday life. Not the kind of tragedy anyone normally makes movies about because it’s too normal, and not a tragedy that affects anyone who society sees as important enough to matter

[@viviennelarrazabal9332]

I want to thank you for this comment, because I’ve always struggled at explaining why this song in particular is so utterly heart-wrenching to me, even though there are many others that cover similar topics, and you hit the nail on the head.

[@helenl3193]

Exactly! ❤

[@friedrichwilhelmvonhohenzo5962]

Totally agree. It’s not some melodramatic tortured romance, it’s just the dull misery of disappointment. Having high hopes, falling short, and losing any hope of things improving. It’s a very real, unspectacular kind of of tragedy.

[@thewatchfemme4051]

Yes, and if you listen to it while driving fast, you will cry.

[@Baseballnfj]

​@friedrichwilhelmvonhohenzo5962 it's also the mundane and awfully bleak circumstances of the singers life... Dropping out of school to take care of an alcoholic father... Her absolutely futile hope... "Now I work in the market as a checkout girl.... I know things will get better" No they wont.... ugh.

[@jmckenzie962]

Todd describing Taylor's re-recordings as her "George Lucas-ing her way through her back catalogue" had me on the floor. He's still got it.

[@Bighomie39]

I'm still so confused by the hype for Taylor re-recordings. It's the musical equivalent of an HD remaster of a PS2 game that changes nothing but the graphics and comes with the DLC bundled in, but they get so much hype around them. I know the Eras tour in general has made Swifties extra rabid this year, but they're still treating a re-recording like an entirely new album that they haven't already heard multiple times over.

[@audenbear23]

@@Bighomie39 A very big part of it is that she's re-recording her first 6 albums so she can actually own them, not just to remaster them, so she's effectively reclaiming her work and that has a strong emotional and symbolic pull to it for fans.

[@Bighomie39]

@@audenbear23 sure, but isn't this like her 3rd one? The first one in the series would have that pull, but using the same marketing tactic for all of them doesn't explain the hype when you're doing it for a 3rd time.

[@audenbear23]

@@Bighomie39 Well, each album has stuff about them that made them significant. Fearless was her first big breakthrough album, All Too Well off of Red is such a fan favorite (and the whole lore behind the 10-min version). Speak Now, that just had its re-release on the 7th, was entirely self-written when she was still fairly young. And sure, the nostalgia factor is very high and plays a part in why the re-recordings are as hyped up as they are. But it feels like there's more to it than just that.

[@Bighomie39]

@audenbear23 I'll be honest I'm listening to the album rn and it's kinda mid so far. On Enchanted rn and the only song I like is Story of Us Edit: just finished the "main section" of the album, yeah my opinion hasn't changed, Better Than Revenge could've been great but gets kneecapped by lyrics

[@peanutismint]

Never heard of this guy but refreshing to see a successful pop singer that looks like a refrigerator repair guy.

[@pervertedalchemist9944]

Or the typical Southerner in a rural city.

[@garystack9537]

In one of his songs he talks about how a hooters waitress left her number on his check with a heart. Respectfully, in the best way possible, I think that deserves the real Oscar.

[@soulbrother5435]

We need new Phil Collins

[@kylescott5839]

That's because he's a Country singer

[@danieleyre8913]

And sings like a refrigerator… …with a compressor problem. Still a nice change from the vapid manufactured pop from more than a decade now.

[@caitrionadoherty9166]

I think hearing 'Fast Car' in the back seat of your parents' car as a child and falling in love with it must be a universal experience because that's my exact history with it too

[@Genevieve1023]

I used to hear it in the kitchen while my mother was cooking. The rest is the same though.

[@judgesaturn507]

Agreed, even though this song is more than a decade older than I am.

[@SpringBlingThing]

Yup, that’s my memory with the song too . 106.7 lite fm in NJ played it all the time .

[@mpazinambao2938]

my dad would play it when we went to buy pizza, we used to hear 'pizza man' instead of 'be someone', he never corrected us. it's a good memory.

[@kevinwillems8720]

I vaguely think that's how I first heard it

[@tcy7250]

Tracy recently said she's happy for Combs and honoured for her song to be charting again and if she's cool w it that's all that matters at the end of the day

[@MarioBario]

Is it her song or the record label's

[@KeegoTheWise]

@@MarioBariohers. the label owns the original performance of the song, but she still retains the rights to the composition itself as the lone songwriter

[@TuesdaysArt]

This cover got her credited as the first black woman to get credited as the sole writer of a country song. In 2023.

[@helenl3193]

​@@TuesdaysArtgood for her, but also jeez that's bleak! I know country is a very white genre but I didn't realise it was THAT white! (I'm British so I maybe I'm just showing my ignorance and this is not a surprise to anyone from the USA)

[@MarianelaAyelenlourdesSajama]

​@@TuesdaysArtwow really?

[@Stark-Raving]

I remember when I was attending a local Community College they'd occasionally have musicians that played by the cafeteria. One time this guy came go play and he played "Fast Car" among other covers and never changed pronouns. He explained that artists wrote their song for a reason, the the story was told the way it was meant to be... they weren't his stories he was just telling them, and he was going to tell them the way they were told to him. I don't remember his name, but I hope he's doing well.

[@arthurdurham]

Reminds me of Jack White's cover of Jolene. I was pretty impressed when he didn't change the pronouns and sang it with even more desperate intensity than Dolly. It was much less common then to not change pronouns, bc musicians were afraid that they'd be called the gay. But it's why that's one of my favorite covers bc it understood the original was written with an intent and you covering it doesn't mean that needs to change bc of your gender or orientation.

[@foreverdirt1615]

Changing pronouns is kind of cringe imo, and it seems to be more of a pop phenomenon. There are plenty of folk songs like Loch Lomond which are written by men and sung by men, but are in the first person perspective of a woman talking about her husband, for instance. I actually think that makes the emotions even more immersive because it removes the implicit segregation of gendered experiences.

[@1nONLY_DRock]

Now there's a person who honors the music.

[@Trenchbroom]

There was an little known college band by the name of Huffamoose that put out a song called "James". It's about a young girl dreaming that her boyfriend will fulfill his potential to be her everything. A song written and performed by three men in their early 30s. It was a surprising thing to hear back in 1995. It makes me happy that such things are not really surprising now.

[@Wildkidnoremak]

I think that his take is very similar to orators of antiquity. They are just the medium by which the story is being told and their only influence should be in that telling. It's amazing how humans really don't change all that much.

[@Bub383]

I think what really makes Fast Car heartbreaking is the cyclical nature of it, by the end of the song the narater is in the same position her mother was, she's back taking care of essentially her father. But her only choices are to stay in that position or continue the cycle by doing what her mother did. That memory is the moment where it seemed like there was an escape.

[@chiaracoetzee]

The really sad part is she never held it against her mother - "she wanted more from life than he could give". This song is not about discovering understanding or empathy for her mother, because she *always* understood, from the very beginning, why she made that choice. She just believed for a little while that her life would be different, and then it wasn't.

[@Rob_Thorsman]

But she doesn't escape or run away. She doesn't leave her kids. She instead runs her deadbeat partner off. That makes her better than her mother.

[@TheJillers]

​@@Rob_ThorsmanTHANK YOU! The end of this song is the part that breaks the cycle - where she says I'm here, I'm not going anywhere and you can choose to stay here and be the person you need to be or you can get out.

[@kissfan7]

That's the one very minor thing I kinda don't like about the song. It could be interpreted as a bit victim-blamey towards working class people. Bad choices play a part in the cycle of poverty. But A) those bad choices often happen because of financial stress and B) even if one makes the good choice every single time, the likelihood of escaping is still slim. But again, very minor thing that simply demotes it from being "a really, really, really great song" to "a really, really great song." And the lyric "You got a fast car, but unfortunately that is not enough to get over the socioeconomic conditions of classism, racism, and the neoliberal capitalism of the Reagan/Bush administrations" doesn't QUITE have the same ring to it.

[@mistr_wizard]

Sadaaaà

[@EpicBeard815]

Todd every summer: "this has been an astonishingly terrible year for pop. I don't remember the last time we had such a dead summer"

[@MeMarcusTheCreator]

😭

[@metroidotherm6170]

The last time he said that was 2018, so it has actually been a while.

[@pinkcupcake4717]

2019 was the year of The Old Town Road, which was a blessed summer.

[@djscrewfan310]

okay but this year it's actually true

[@ProblemsHypest]

@@pinkcupcake4717 The last good summer of what might be the last decent year.

[@krisselissan6539]

Luke Combs voice just doesn’t hit as hard as Tracy Chapman’s, her’s just conveys the dourness of the lyrics so incredibly well

[@LA-mz1dd]

this! he also sounds that he's more droning on then singing with any emotion.

[@dontbefatuousjeffrey2494]

I don't mind him loving it and wanting to cover it for that reason, but he just didn't bring anything new to it. It's respectful homage, but I feel like a cover needs to give a twist or different understanding to a song. A reinterpretation that maybe simply brings out things you hadn't thought of before, even. I first heard it and went "well that felt unnecessary".

[@an0gr0br]

Agree with this. This doesn’t offend my sensibilities or anything, I just don’t understand why it exists. The original does everything better than the cover.

[@Newton-Reuther]

I personally wish he had given Chapman more credit rather than Columbusing the song

[@MelMelodyWerner]

covers don't have to reinvent the wheel. wild that people think this. one of the points of covers is for people to say, "hey, I'm gonna play this song I really love for you." shit dates back as far as music has existed. imagine being like, "ungh, you didn't dramatically reinvent this folk song." homaging is cool and good!

[@ruekurei88]

Buying a 'big house' and living in the suburbs was a dream for a lot of black families back in the day. That was pretty much 'making it' and living the good life to a lot of people. It may seem immensely mundane and inconsequential to a lot of people, but to some, it can be a major dream and life goal, especially a black family/couple before the 2000s.

[@FrenkTheJoy]

What world are we living in where buying a big house and living somewhere nice seems mundane and inconsequential? I feel like most people these days have a dream of living in a house, even if it's not the suburbs specifically. Just living somewhere where you can't spit into the bathroom from the kitchen is nice.

[@viiviviviiv]

@@FrenkTheJoy the early 90s. The Simpsons is such a perfect time capsule of that time. Homer and Marge are supposed to be STRUGGLING in that starter house. Nowadays that seems affluent. Middle class is eroding, wages haven't kept pace with inflation since the 1970s. If it had, minimum wage would be at 22$ an hour.

[@ahhculdee]

What's odd is that is also the dream for a lot of Appalachia where Luke is from.

[@VoidCael]

The suburbs are just affluent urban sprawl and wasted space. It's painted as the American dream, but it's the American nightmare of forced conformity. If we had normal zoning laws like other countries, living in the US might not be as much of an unaffordable and alienating experience. I'm glad I live somewhere rural with a variety of people and housing styles instead of such a 'dead space'.

[@GAoftheBlackFlames]

@@viiviviviiv it wasn't a starter house tho it was literally bought for them buy Grandpa simpson and they have to take out tons of mortgages on it to keep it.

[@ScreamsGeo]

Luke Combs *did* do one thing different with the song, though it might have been unintentional. At the end of the song, Luke's version still says "We've got to make a decision", while in Traci's version, "*You've* got to make a decision". From how I look at it, the main character in Luke's version is still trapped in the same cycle from her childhood, while in Traci's version, she's had enough of her partner's shit, and has issued an ultimatum: shape up or ship out.

[@Creampuf1977]

It's gotta be the most heartbreaking line. After all that time, all that dreaming, believing in them and encouraging them, they end up still breaking up because despite all the love they have for each other, that love is worthless if they can't make eachother happy.

[@cheddarssalad1230]

“My dad used to listen to Tracy Chapman in the car” hit home. My dad loves her. He always jokes that he saw her in concert and was one of five dudes in the crowd.

[@yltraviole]

My dad loves her too, but he's kind of oblivious to her "gay icon" status, haha.

[@warlordofbritannia]

@@yltraviole In a way, that’s almost idyllic in a meritocratic manner. On the other hand, the ironic ignorance is a tad…symbolic 😂

[@yltraviole]

@@warlordofbritannia He doesn't speak a lot of English, so that's part of it. The "cycle of poverty" theme comes through, but not a lot of the more subtle aspects Todd mentioned.

[@rdrrr]

@@yltraviole I totally get it, though. There's nothing queer in the lyrics of Fast Car. It's sung from a female point of view about a deadbeat romantic interest who isn't given an explicit gender but pretty clearly reads as male. If that's all you knew about Tracy Chapman how would you know she was gay, let alone a gay icon? Immigrant Dads don't have access to our ingrained Anglosphere cultural knowledge😅

[@yltraviole]

@@rdrrr Hahaha, not immigrant! We're just not from an English-speaking country ;) But yeah, a lot of American gay stereotypes just haven't really filtered down to at least my country's straight population. My parents back then had no clue either that the Village People were extremely gay. (I mean, how would they've even known that "village" referred to New york's gay district?)

[@pgibney]

I think Tom Waits had the best answer to the question of being angry someone covered your song. When asked if he was upset with Rod Stewart's cover of Downtown Train, he looked at the interviewer and said "He bought my kids a pool."

[@mikelippenkrantz]

I didn't think it was possible for me to love Tom Waits more than I already do. (Btw, Rod Stewart did a good cover.)

[@Remedy462]

Based.

[@bip321boom]

I love Dolly Partons quote (Paraphrasing): When I recorded “I Will Always Love You,” I went down to the bank and opened my first checking account. When Whitney recorded “I Will Always Love You,” I went down and bought the bank.

[@qty1315]

Honestly, on some level I kinda hate that whenever an artist is like "Hey, I made a bunch of money from it," people are like "I FUCKING LOVE YOU, BRO!! MAKE THAT MONEY!!" So, like, when Todd brought up that one of the things he likes about Luke Combs is him saying "I love making music, and I'd be doing it even if I wasn't making money," because it's such an uncommon thing I was thinking "Yeah, that's a good point. When was the last time you heard an actual big name musician say 'I want to make good songs. It ain't always about the money'." It's even more annoying in the indie music community where you mainly see people talk about music in the context of "This will become popular and make me a lot of money," instead of "I wrote this song because I wanted to write this song." The amount of people who are like "Okay, time to write a song. Let's see what's popular right now and how many memes I can have on here, and then I need to find someone to shout me out to promote it, and pay for some advertising for it on TikTok, and come up with a video so it will go viral, and possibly a dance because the TIkTokers like dancing, I guess," just makes me sad. It's why we're surrounded by music, but there's so little that catches on.

[@Constanza235]

@@qty1315 Someone else making a cover of your song and paying you for it is just free money, why would they be upset by it?

[@wakkawakkagaming3710]

Not changing the "checkout girl" song is such a small detail but it really shows he respects the song. Even if he doesn't get the importance necessarily, he understands the song didn't need to be changed, it was already complete. A hackier singer would've changed it to "checkout boy" and it would've been icky

[@TJ20232]

I hate that shit in covers. Really irks me.

[@beccak8166]

I had the exact same thought when I heard it. Also hearing a male sounding voice sing about being a check-out girl honors the legacy of Tracy chapman as an out queer woman

[@adamchristensen2648]

That detail may be the only reason I don't hate the cover (I also don't care for it, I wouldn't seek it out to listen to it or anything, but I don't hate it). I love Tracy Chapman, and covers of her work have been mostly disappointing. Edit: just got to the part of the video where he addresses this and that reaction was exactly how it went down when I heard the cover 😂.

[@TheRealMycanthrope]

Go outside

[@TheRealMycanthrope]

​@@beccak8166does it though?

[@Mellerman4]

I think there is an element of optimism in Fast Car as well. The singer dropped out of school to take care of her father because no one else would and she felt like she had no choice. Now, faced with a similar situation of her partner becoming an alcoholic and needing her to take care of them she takes control of the situation. She says "you have to make a decision" and either live the life that we've made together or get in your car and leave. The singer feels empowered enough to give her partner an ultimatum. It's not much but it is more than what she had before.

[@rgs8970]

"Fast Car" is a song that I've understood more deeply over the years. It's not just the song; it's Tracy Chapman's raw delivery. It's one of those rare studio recordings where you can feel the energy as though you were there live

[@janelle7778]

This song always moved me deeply as well and I felt like the lyrics were just pure anthropology and a piece of a vintage documentary about living life on the margins of society at that time. It’s so intimate and personal and Tracy really sold it.

[@enriquegilmour]

Great video as always Todd. You are the greatest content provider on the planet. When I was a 16 y.o. kid in 1988, a metal head friend of mind loved this song and would play it when we were burning a doob. I didn't understand what he liked about it then and I don't like the song now. Especially a country music version. I hate country music and refuse to like anything country.

[@bewilderbeastie8899]

I can't listen to it anymore, it makes me cry

[@ddjsoyenby]

yup it's a beautiful classic.

[@aegisScale]

Admittedly I'm not in the best mood, but even the piano bit Todd did of it just . . . Moved me.

[@recordrob3887]

The original was huge at the time. The reason this only charted at #6 was that sales of 7 inch singles was part of the singles chart at the time. Most people who loved that song didn't buy the single, they bought the whole damn album. This song made the album go to #1 and sell millions.

[@tdiman46]

truth. singles charts are honestly pretty shoddy overall, but especially in pre-CDs and digital eras they were

[@nah....6151]

correct, the album reached #1 when the song was peaking on the charts... people liked the song enough to trust in buying the album instead of just the single

[@CeeBee781]

And the album was great

[@ArizonanSummer]

And also, a song sounding like Fast Car in 1988 going as high as to make #6 is a humongous feat.

[@nate567987]

@@ArizonanSummer I mean it was going up with sweet child and gorge michal

[@charlesedward5047]

In my opinion, Combs reached #1 because of lack of "competition". In August of 1988 when Chapman reached #6, George Michael was at #1, Elton John at #2, Chicago at #3, Guns N' Roses at #4, and Robert Palmer at #5; pretty big artists during the 80s.

[@JayBigDadyCy]

I was trying to say the same in my comment, but you put it way better (and more brief lol). I couldn't tell you one hit song right now that is new I don't think.

[@shinyskunk]

I agree with your comment, but it's worth pointing out that this song has only reached #2 - that god damned Morgan Wallen song has been at #1 since it came out.

[@paulakroy2635]

@@shinyskunkI’m rooting for Morgan wallen to stay number 1 just to fuck with r/popheads to be anger

[@shinyskunk]

@@paulakroy2635 it does become funnier the longer it stays there, just a banner for how shitty the year in pop is. if that new olivia rodrigo song doesn't unseat it i'll be so sad tho.

[@cfredrics]

Shitcago

[@PogieJoe]

One of the coolest aspects of Todd's work is his ability to take you through his changing feelings and thought process when examining a song or artist. It's like we're watching him sort out his feelings in real time and it makes it really easy to join him for the ride.

[@ZacPB189]

I'm classically trained, so it's weird when straight covers are considered controversial when that's what 99.999% of classical music is. I think Luke Combs doing what is essentially a by-the-book performance of Chapman's "piece" is a sign of the respect he has for her writing and orchestration.

[@moviemaestro800]

That's a fascinating thing, how with most music, it's about the specific recording, rather than the score itself, regardless of performance, like in the concert world.

[@roan9914]

Though with classical music different performers still put their own spin on the score, my dad’s my favorite conductor was Toscanini and pianist Horowitz, because of their distinct stylings

[@caspian3755]

I don't think one can compare what conductors and orchestras do to a work by, let's say, Beethoven, with what a pop-singer is doing to a commercial, copyrighted song. The composer literally wrote their works to be performed by other musicians/orchestras, which over the centurys created a cultural tradition of playing them, to keep said musical tradition alive. Also for example, nobody knows what the first performance of Beethoven's 5th symphony sounded like. But we know what Chapman's recording of Fast Car sounds like. So yeah, I don't think classical performances or recordings count as covers in the same way as in popular forms of music.

[@FangsFirst]

This was possibly the most interesting conversation I ever had on a date: she was trained in opera, and I grew up with a dad who *loved* music (since he didn't write anything on it, I've taken it on myself to be executor of his "musical estate", and finding out how to make 8,000 vinyl records get good homes over the past month has been....daunting) so we had exactly these divergent perspectives. She was all about the skill and talent in performing a piece "well", as I was pointing to The Replacements' "Here Comes a Regular" that happened to be playing on the overhead and saying that, that broken-ness of Paul Westerberg's vocal character and "unprofessional" emoting was what appealed to me. She spent a road trip listening to Big Star over and over again to try to understand what I loved so much about them (she caught me right when I found them for myself). I don't think she ever quite made sense of my perspective, and I've still never quite sorted out how the worlds do (or don't) cross over, even in all the discussions of transformative vs. respectful covers (saying this particularly as one of the seven people in the world who still prefers the original Nine Inch Nails version of "Hurt" by a mile). Anyway, as ever, I hope she's doing well, and it was nice to be reminded of that conversation and trying to understand such an almost "inverted" way of looking at music.

[@foxxtrot]

I agree with the take that this song feels like it's about a heterosexual relationship. It always read to me like it was about a woman trying to escape a poverty and an abusive Father situation (at least emotionally or financially abusive), but was doing so by attaching herself to a man that had a lot of the same problems that she was running from. It always felt like it was fundamentally about being caught in a bad cycle with different men who are too similar. Which I think it my big problem with male singers doing Fast Car, the dynamic isn't really the same, and I don't think it makes a ton of sense.

[@warlordofbritannia]

Eh, art exists to be continually reinterpreted. It’s literally the same song but if you’re getting a different vibe then they’re doing something right.

[@foxxtrot]

@@warlordofbritannia Sure, and I'm definitely not trying to tell Queer people they are wrong in their interpretation. If they wanted to share, I'd gladly listen. I probably wouldn't be convinced, but I'd be interested in the interpretation.

[@michaelpacinus242]

I think you are jealous

[@endymallorn]

A man singing it is an active admonishment of the losers out there. It’s for the guy listening to music while he’s drunk and away from his wife, maybe even a DUI waiting to happen. A reminder that she’s still there, waiting for him to man up. Chapman is more desperate, more lost. She’s got a voice that says she’s forced herself to accept this. A man singing it even in the most depressed voice isn’t accepting that horrid shit that he’s seen in other men around him and which he could have become. It’s a process of altering, of singing her words back to her to say, “message gratefully received and I will pay it forward”.

[@williamd2989]

'man up' pffft. Being a decent spouse who isn't neglectful or abusive of alcohol has nothing to do with 'how much of a manly man' you are, we can stop talking like it's the 1950s.

[@jrjard]

As a person raised by his lesbian grandmother and her partner in the 90s (I'm 36 now) the situation in the song of having a separate family and kids was actually fairly common. That said, I grew up in the same town as Melissa Etheridge and I never heard any of her or Chapman's music until I was well into my 20s. Our radio was a lot of smooth jazz and Motown.

[@werewolf_sif]

My parents were lesbians and yeah, the family situation suggested in the lyrics definitely checks out.

[@talonthehand]

I’m two years older than you and also grew up in Leavenworth - non-zero chance we knew each other. Hope you’re doing well!

[@judgesaturn507]

Surprised Todd didn't mention Melissa Etheridge when talking about lesbian music, she's the first person that comes to mind for me

[@dragonX71]

Leavenworth needs a much bigger sign for Melissa, the one there is a shame

[@jrjard]

@@talonthehand very fine! I hope you're well, too.

[@Bobbnoxious]

In a fairly recent One Hit Wonderland Todd mentioned how "Don't Worry, Be Happy" beat "Fast Car" for the Song of the Year Grammy, and he wasn't happy about it. Glad he found a way to do a deep dive on Tracy Chapman's masterpiece.

[@FalconPain]

I bet some people are wondering why he didn't give her version the One Hit Wonderland treatment. They're like "Give me one reason why you can't!"

[@NickFieldMedia]

@@FalconPain Tracy Chapman is one of those singers that some people might think is a one-hit-wonder but they probably just don't realise they know more songs by her. 'Talkin' Bout a Revolution' and 'Baby Can I Hold You Tonight' are both likely examples of this.

[@FalconPain]

@@NickFieldMedia Those were both released as singles, but neither cracked the top 40. Fortunately, she did have another top 10 single later...

[@janicejanostak2545]

As a lesbian in her 50's who remembers when the song originally came out, 1) the notion that it is a "lesbian national anthem" is news to me. I'm pretty sure there are other contenders for the crown, and 2) I always assumed she was singing to a man. Part of that is surely the "assumption of hetereosexuality" that we all engage in out of habit (yes, even gay people) but I wasn't out yet and Tracy was certainly not broadcasting her sexuality. I do appreciate the idea that this song is keeping coin in Tracy's bank account, though. Probably better than any 401K

[@laundromatjones4337]

I think you might be an outlier in this; as a devotee of the lesbian music festival scene in the 90s, Tracy Chapman was everywhere. It was an open secret. This was on the first mixtape I ever got from a girlfriend, ffs

[@majesdane]

I'm a much younger lesbian (in my 30s) and it always spoke to me even before I knew it was a lesbian anthem. Discovering in my teens that it was a lesbian anthem just made sense.

[@beezany]

I think the line about her kids works a few different ways. It works as plausible deniability for queer folks in the 1980s, it works as a reference to queer folks having complicated family relationships, and it also works for communicating that being a queer woman with kids was just as aspirational has being a woman of color with a big house in the suburbs.

[@thirteenfury]

As a queer cis-guy, I was under the impression that k d lang and Melissa Ethridge are responsible for "lesbian national anthems".

[@annburlingham4563]

I have never heard of it being called a lesbian anthem - my goodness! - but I was out as a bi woman when the album came out, and somewhat familiar with the women's music scene at the time (Margie Adams, Tret Fure, Holly Near, Lucie Blue Tremblay, etc.), I heard the album and recognized the lack of pronouns as a strong clue that Chapman was a lesbian. (I also thought her voice sounded a whole lot like Joan Armatrading, who was also not out but whose songs were comfortable to a woman-loving-woman.) Not using pronouns felt like a clue to those in the know, while allowing for the possibility - ably achieved by "Fast Car" - of commercial appeal to mainstream audiences.

[@CeeBee781]

If there’s one thing I love about this cover, it’s that it’s introducing a new generation to Tracy Chapman, and this incredible, evocative, heartbreaking story of a masterpiece of a song.

[@abbreviateddisc]

I've always thought Fast Car was about a man as well, mainly because she makes a point to mention her father's alcoholism and how she had to drop out of school to take care of him after her mother left them. The final verse seems to indicate she's ended up in the exact same situation as her mother: stuck with a deadbeat, drunk husband.

[@gcooper642]

Yes. Writers often tell stories about people who aren't them. Justin Currie wrote a great song from the perspective of a woman getting ready for the wedding of the man she's loves to someone else. I don't think Tracey Chapman ever shot anyone for her lover and ended up in a Virginia jail either.

[@Gear3]

I kind of took it at as the opposite, where the singer and the father were both the stable ones who had jobs and built families, even if in the father's case it destroyed his body. And then the spouse in both cases just wanted to live fast and loose and ended up leaving to go do that.

[@kaingates]

​@Gear3 I'm sorry but what did the line "he lives with the bottle that's the way it is" when she sings about the father tell you?

[@Gear3]

@@kaingates What did the line "His body's too young to look like his" tell you? That the singer's father destroyed his body with work for the family and then the mother ran off because he was a wreck that she didn't want to take care of. Kind of like the singer who has a job and a spouse who would rather be out living their own life then taking care of the family. I think there is a fairly large difference between drinking because life wore you down and drinking because you want to hang out with your buddies.

[@annburlingham4563]

When I first heard the album, I looked at my then boyfriend and asked if he understood she was a lesbian. There was not a gendered pronoun on the whole album and believe me, we bi and lesbian women were used to hearing exactly that in so much of "our" music. Actually, there was a good bit of women's music out there, but nothing with overtly same-sex content was getting onto mainstream radio by a long shot. I'm glad that heterosexual people can see themselves in the song, too, and I'm sure that's one reason it's left ambiguous, but recognize that a woman singing to a woman is an equal, if not the strongest, option.

[@josueporras446]

“Fast Car is good". There has never been a truer statement in life 🥺

[@MiSambra]

"Fast Car" got consistent radio play all throughout the 90's. So much so that I couldn't believe it was released in '88. I don't think Luke's version will ever eclipse it.

[@Genevieve1023]

They still play it today sometimes.

[@jackroberts2704]

Still does

[@rthj6446]

Not just sometimes. It is cemented as a part of human history we prefer that aliens judges us by.

[@bridgetg6857]

I think it's pretty much responsible for the indie/folk wave of the 90s

[@uglyaniimals]

it rly does sound so much more 90s then 80s

[@DannyBeans]

This is my first exposure to Luke Combs. He comes across to me as a good guy just sharing a song he likes. I'm cool with that. And massive respect to him for keeping the narrator female - I think the themes in the song are universal enough that it makes as much sense coming out of a straight white guy as anyone else, but keeping it as written shows a refreshing self-assuredness that a lot of men lack. Like, could you imagine Toby Keith singing it that way?

[@Stinsonator2]

Luke and Tracy performed "Fast Car" together at the Grammys and then Toby Keith died the day after. Are you a prophet?

[@albertmiller2electricbooga897]

Gosh Todd is such a good scriptwriter, always tricks you and sets a story

[@cmoneman3025]

I love Todd's writing, he's masterful at it

[@Genevieve1023]

I wonder if his younger brother still writes with him?

[@RenaldyCalixte]

​@@Genevieve1023Todd has a brother? 😮

[@Genevieve1023]

@@RenaldyCalixte Yeah. He's been on the podcast a bunch of times. But, Todd used to mention him sometimes before that.

[@DodderingOldMan]

Fast Car is possibly the one single song in all of existence that could not possibly benefit from having another voice singing it. Chapman's performance, her distinctive voice, is just perfect for the lyrics and the melody and everything about it.

[@michaelpacinus242]

She sounds like a balloon

[@atomdecay]

Like when people cover Michael Jackson. Just leave it alone lol.

[@MrP1nk92]

Jamie Stewart of xiu xiu does it justice imo

[@michaelpacinus242]

@@MrP1nk92 no this song actually blows regardless of who quails it out

[@prvoloptaski]

​@@MrP1nk92xiu xiu cover is stunning

[@gabingston3430]

With how dead the current music scene is and how everyone is turning to older music for comfort, I could honestly see covers making a huge comeback , especially since Luke has proved that they can succeed. I for one would take straight-ahead covers over lazy sampling.

[@MiklaneTrane]

That's the one thing I'll give to this record in the current landscape: It's an honest, straightforward cover instead of the mash-up/remix/remake treatment that Blue by Eiffel 65 and Tiny Dancer by Elton John have been given. Those songs are so grating to me, they feel like lazy cash-ins on nostalgia whereas a plain old cover comes across as more respectful of the original work.

[@Panda-rb7fl]

It seems that up until relatively recently, the 80's maybe, it was much more common for bands and artists to cover each other...I mean it's the whole reason there are "standards" in Blues, Jazz, Motown, Soul, etc. I don't see anything wrong with it, after all, the listeners will still gravitate to the version they like best, even if that happens to be the one they hear first 90% of the time. I remember loving The Fugees "Killing Me Softly" (in my defense, I was thirteen), then finding the version by John Holt which is now my favourite. And I agree with Miklane Trane that covers, even reimagined covers, are more authentic than remixes/mashups.

[@lucasbell4831]

That’s a good point. I’d rather have “Fast Car” by Luke Combs than a shitty, generic and extremely forgettable piece of country backwash that interlopes a “Fast Car” sample.

[@DannyBeans]

Careful. That's how you get Weezer's cover of "Africa."

[@FrenkTheJoy]

@@EmilyandtheG Yeah but like, how? Do I just search for "good music" on youtube and scroll for all eternity?

[@Firegen1]

The original is literally the song of my life (it came out the year I was born). But also Chapman was one of my childhood heroes because as a black woman, she represented the kind of me that I am. I hold it close, so tough to see it remade in a cold commercial way. But I'm too old enough to know it will inevitably happen in weird ways. If people find it again and better still that whole album then brilliant.

[@pervertedalchemist9944]

I remember when Tracy used to get played a lot on BET. Of course, this was during a time when they had no problems playing artists out of their usual scope. They even gave rotation to people like Living Colour and Lenny Kravitz before they blew up.

[@Firegen1]

​@@pervertedalchemist9944Oh wow!. Did you tend to listen to it a lot back then? I have added part to this as I'm a European Black Woman. It shouldn't resonate so hard, but it still does. In some ways I felt more connected to folksy artists and rock artists because the Americana tended to translate to my experiences a bit more. This could be a Sheffield or Glasgow or Normandy or Pisa. It just hit.

[@laserbeamlightning]

Fast Car is one of my favorite songs of all time. I’m younger than it and not even black but the way she wrote it so honestly speaks across all boundaries to tell a tale of love and tragedy

[@Firegen1]

​@@laserbeamlightningI love that! It should be able to translate, it's what makes it such a classic. Have you ever heard "Talking about a revolution"? Same album. I'll never get over "revolution sounds like a whisper"

[@killerqueendopamine]

Hello fellow 88 baby! I didn’t have a connection to this song, but I do with chapman’s Give Me One Reason. I don’t think it’s as old but I loved how she was as a GNC woman. I’m obviously not black but I needed good female role models who were different. I appreciated that about her.

[@FritzMonorail]

That comparison to the Watchmen movie is so perfect. It really is a perfect example of what it looks like when someone doesn't quite get the source material but clearly loves and respects it.

[@gabrieldavis7128]

Not getting a piece of art and still trying to do something with it isn’t respect. It’s fanaticism. To propose that they are the same is no different than saying that love is an erection.

[@MelMelodyWerner]

as a comics-loving lesbian, I think it's actually a really bad comparison, personally. Zack Snyder has literally said in one interview I recall that his draw to Watchmen (as well as Heavy Metal¹) was its mature contents. I wouldn't call that "respect" so much as I would say it's a juvenile fetish. whereas Luke Combs loves the song because it speaks to him as someone who was poor. that's valid and respectful. that is one level upon which the song self-evidently operates, an audience to whom Chapman was obviously speaking. the idea that art is something that needs to be solved, that you can't have different valid perspectives and different interpretations is juvenile in itself too. Luke "gets" the song-he is able to engage with it on terms that are more than merely aesthetic. his interpretation differs from the one that people have arbitrarily deemed the only valid one because art is just puzzle boxes to be solved now. Zack Snyder could not engage with Watchmen in any sense beyond surface level aesthetics. he saw it was a proto-grimdark comic with attempted SA, nude booba, bloody violence, cool vigilantes, and naughty words, got mad horny, and then xeroxed it badly. ¹not gonna look that interview up again to properly cite it, but you can google "Zack Snyder Watchmen Heavy Metal interview" and it'll come up.

[@jameslaidler2152]

As sad and heartbreaking as the song is, I think people aren't talking enough about the very last line in the song. "You need to make a decision, leave tonight or live and die this way." It's an open ended story. The main character is giving the choice to leave, or stay and make things right, stick with the family. That always struck me about this song. She's making a stand for what's important to her.

[@Baseballnfj]

Maybe....

[@isthatrubble]

I never thought that's what "leave tonight or live and die this way" meant. I always thought she was telling herself: you have to choose, are you leaving this useless guy now, or are you going to be trapped here forever?

[@ThisCommentWroteItself]

At the beginning, I think everyone was sitting in suspense, palms sweating, hoping to God that Todd wouldn't say that the original Fast Car was mediocre

[@ceelee9222]

Yep, I would've seen him in an entirely new light...Ironic since he is in the shadows.🤣🤣

[@imblue9839]

an automatic unsubscribe

[@BlakeGeometrio]

Absolutely. My finger was hovering above the unsubscribe button.

[@csabaweisz8791]

I knew that it wouldn't be the case, because he was so angry in the Don't Worry Be Happy OHW episode, when that song won the grammy over Fast Car

[@theoneguyoverthere]

Oh ye of little faith 😂. In all seriousness, though, I’m certain there’s at least one person who unsubbed because he only said it was “good.”

[@johndavis48076]

If Tracey is getting a check from it then good for her! Like the distinction of being a hit in 2023 vs 1988. You had to put time, effort and money into liking your music.

[@cronejawford978]

If it's actually selling physical media then yes. If it's mainly streaming then Ms. Chapman will get very very little.

[@jackaufenhand5710]

I'd just like to say about that "best actor" idea for Tracy, yeah she abso-fucking-lutely deserves that for her songs. Not just Fast Car, all of them. They come straight from the heart. Each line is this brutally honest expression so real and down-to-earth that you feel connected to it even if you've never lived those experiences yourself. Just look up the lyrics to "Behind The Wall", you don't even need to listen to it and you can envisage what she's singing about like it's a memory.

[@TuesdaysArt]

Behind The Wall is such a gut punch. Her voice alone carries the power of that song.

[@mandymanatee3076]

100% agree. I don’t buy that The Weekend wouldn’t “wanna know” his girl was cheating, he wouldn’t care, he didn’t even know they were exclusive 😂 buuut Ed Sheeran? I believe it. Good ol Ed would 100% read The Ethical Slut and take the kids out for ice cream while so you can get railed by the neighbor.

[@gcooper642]

I find it bizzare he called Tracey Chapman "safe". To be fair a lot of people don't listen to lyrics, but she sounded quite political to me at the time.

[@edward8597]

@@gcooper642 Can you believe she got the words "Poor people gonna rise up and take what's theirs" onto radio stations in 1988? I was just easing into radical politics at the time, and hearing someone make an openly revolutionary statement on the radio was *absolutely* a big moment for me. And absolutely not "safe" for yuppies.

[@thirteenfury]

​@edward8597 It's not like Chapman was the first to get anti-materialism songs on the radio though. "Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones is almost 70 years old and still relevant today. Blues and early Country Western are almost exclusively about the struggles of being poor and had radio (even TV) airtime over the decades.

[@lisgod3]

Why do I have the feeling that someone in the Luke Combs camp is angling to have Tracy and Luke duet this song at an awards show in the next 12 months? It just feels in the background, someone is going to push for this to happen somehow.

[@pigfish99]

Not gonna lie, that would sound pretty awesome.

[@lisgod3]

@@pigfish99 i can't believe it but i called it. it happened at the grammys tonight

[@MACMAMI]

If anything, I'm surprised it has taken this long for Nashville to cover this song. When you really get down to it: lyrically sooooooooo much of it can easily be conceived in a Nashville songwriting session. A specific example of this is in the third verse: "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." Country music is known for its use of turn-of-phrases, family being a central theme, and use of juxtaposition/duality such as from sinning on Saturday night/regret on Sunday morning for thematic inspiration. The above verse constitutes all of that. Country music is also known for its use of relatable imagery to paint an emotional, grounded portrait of everyday life much like folk music does...............and that descriptive quality is very much why "Fast Car" has also stood the tests of time. I'm definitely relieved and heartened the Combs cover left the pronouns of the original alone out of respect. Nothing can touch the lived-in vocal performance of the original obviously, but that's not a knock on Combs as I certainly wasn't expecting anyone to top Chapman's to begin with. So I'm perfectly content that "Fast Car" will continue to resonate to more generations of listeners.

[@kaingates]

Good thing this is derived from folk music (which is the music Tracy writes; contemporary "urban" folk).

[@Baseballnfj]

I definitely thought this was folksy country sounding back when I first started really listening to muisc. I too had the thought that this would be a country cover eventually... just not in 2023... fuck

[@Nibsti]

I guess this is the best way one could learn Luke Combs made a Fast Car cover.

[@cybercrasherstv]

It's a number two hit song you could easily ignore, that's fascinating

[@HolyCanoley]

@@cybercrasherstv Don't you have to know something exists before you can ignore it? I didn't know this existed either, but it's not like I went out of my way to not know about it.

[@TheDealer1228]

@@cybercrasherstv It's easy to "ignore" if you don't watch the charts and aren't chronically online. I didn't know this existed either.

[@futuristic.handgun]

​@@TheDealer1228Yep, this. I had no idea of it's existence.

[@Nibsti]

​@@cybercrasherstvWell I don't listen to the radio, don't look at charts, and don't live in the USA. Sorry if you don't believe me. I just really wanted top comment and 100 likes.

[@StormWildSpace]

No, Tracy's version will ALWAYS be the best version. Her voice is what does it.

[@durnsidh6483]

Having never heard any version of the song before this video, I have to agree with you. Tracy does it better.

[@ddjsoyenby]

have to agree she genuinely sounds pained and desperate and you can hear the painful life experiences in her singing alone.

[@bdp8102]

She has the best voice that ever was or ever will be ❤

[@aegisScale]

It's no contest.

[@MeandMonkeyLP]

Yeah okay no one here said something to suggest the opposite

[@jenniferbaumgarden9293]

The original recording still makes me tear up when I hear it to this day.

[@OLBICHL]

yeah, it hits the feels so hard... tracy is an incredible singer

[@gemmamalo96]

I get shivers every time I hear it... including every time a clip of it played during this video!

[@amagicallaura]

it's just such a brutal song. staying optimistic in spite of everything being against you, trying as hard as you can and still things don't work out...

[@beauwheeler6228]

I’m with ya. At the time it came out no one was releasing music that hit you in the feels . The first time I heard it I teared up. The idea of someone having so much hope and then that hope being crushed just devastated me at that moment.

[@jaydee4697]

I think one of the reasons why the original 'Fast Car' hits so well is that so many can relate to that feeling of wanting something better. One of the first times I properly listened to this song was when I was literally working on a check-out at a supermarket; I related so much to that yearning for a better life and a better future with it. Half a decade later, whenever I hear that song, it takes me back to those bleak winter mornings and hearing Chapman's voice echoing down the aisles. Fantastic song.

[@mewdreamer]

I've only heard the original Fast Car, so I can't really compare it too well with this cover version. The original version works so well because of Tracey's voice and delivery. It has such a melancholy tone, a bit of a uplifting moment when she remembers this fond memory and then back to depressing when she ends up basically back where she started. That mixture of sadness and clinging to hope through a good memory just really works with her voice so well. Despite being a tragic kind of song, it's always felt soothing to me with both her voice and the guitar music too.

[@nicoledempsey3415]

I think Combs is making a good comparison here interpreting fast car as country. The struggles of poverty is a historic link between the black and poor white community. It hits at the roots of country being revolutionary and left of center, Willie nelson, Bob Dylan, etc

[@pigfish99]

I feel that Luke combs' version is more of a tribute to it, more than anything. sure, its good, but not as good as the original, but you can tell from the way hes singing it, that he reveres the song; its a true part of him.

[@Rob_Thorsman]

It's not the Greatest Song Ever Written (or sung, in this case), it is merely a tribute.

[@EpicgamerwinXD6669]

Screw the Grammies, if Todd makes a video about pop song review on your song, that’s how you know you’ve made it! Bonus points if he actually likes the song itself.

[@anonymousinkproductions8624]

Who’s Tom?

[@TheManWithTheFlan]

@@anonymousinkproductions8624 Pfft, this guy's never heard of Tom lmao

[@EpicgamerwinXD6669]

@@anonymousinkproductions8624 sorry typo

[@beatrix-persephone]

Tom in the Shade

[@sariarosegold]

@@beatrix-persephone that got me a good laugh. thank you

[@megleland6320]

When it comes to covers, I always ask myself "would I ever choose to play this version, over the original." Listened to this whole song, twice, and no, I would probably always rather it be the original track. It isn't bad, it just isn't unique enough to pick over hearing Tracy sing. Her voice is more unique.

[@drb4074]

I agree on your judgment check for a cover. I have many covers that I prefer over the original. But if it doesn't give me a unique twist or take on the original, it's not making my cut. As an (older, not into it as much now) EDM lover, I had the same criteria for remixes. There are billions and billions of remixes of almost every song in EDM, especially in the 2000-2010s area. Even spilling over into many pop songs being taken to get "remixes" upon "remixes". And most of them are just hot garbage.

[@ronstewtsaw]

I generally agree, but if one of my favorite performers is covering a song, the criteria change. If I were a fan of this Combs fellow, then I think I would be thrilled with this song. Pearl Jam's cover of Last Kiss is the same sort of thing. The fact that it is a straightforward, unironic cover of a crash ballad, but in Pearl Jam's style, made it worth listening. Even if I am not generally a fan of Pearl Jam or crash ballads. I'm trying to say that a person's taste in cover songs might be influenced by their relationship with the cover artist.

[@keeneboy7700]

It's best described as... inessential.

[@nataliekmaguire]

Agreed. It's not bad, but I would never be inclined to play it, and if I heard it on the radio, it would make me want to listen to the original. (I feel exactly the same about the Disney remakes)

[@OrgaNik_Music]

Yeah, more or less the same. I just don't see the point of doing a cover that is in no way different from the original. Like these covers are rarely bad, but there's not much point to them either.

[@bartje321]

At least the essence of the song has been preserved, unlike crimes against music done by people like David Guetta, Bebe Rexha, Anne-Marie, Coi Leray, Ava Max

[@pickles224]

I agree with most of this. Bebe and Ava are doing boring synth-pop that’s getting ignored (mostly for the better), and David Guetta is doing bad covers of ‘90’s hits, but I’m rooting for Coi Leray. I like her retro style, but she seems to be chasing trends.

[@TimmyTickle]

You can add Latto to that list

[@cope847]

Isn't it a hallmark of a great song that it speaks to everyone. That everyone can idenify with it. A universal story if you will.

[@bubblegumbitch2191]

Mainstream and popular have almost become an insult nowadays but things are popular for a reason good faith or bad faith criticism included it shouldn’t be such a bad thing if you like popular things it shouldn’t mean your taste is less good so I completely agree with you I just hate the discourse of hating popular things with the idea that you are a less good person for liking stuff like that it’s such bullshit

[@champagnepapisocialist5903]

Complaining about Combs' cover out-charting Chapman's original sounds like complaining that Maleficent out-grossed Sleeping Beauty. It's not a commentary on the quality of either, it's because the entertainment industry has gotten more efficient at sucking profit out of performers and consumers. It's a pyrrhic chart victory, like most chart victories these days.

[@baraka92]

Right! But also, adjusted for inflation (and pretty much in any other way), Sleeping Beauty mops the floor with Maleficent.

[@smidlem1117]

tbf todd rebuts that stance, it's just the way he structures his scripts where he launches counter arguments he disagrees with in good faith and then interrogates them further. had me for a bit too calling the luke combs version unconditionally straight when singing about being a checkout girl in that deep a voice is the most transfemme thing i could think of lmao

[@BB-te8tc]

Oh god I remember arguing about this with my brother 25 years ago when he was bragging about how the Spice Girls were better than The Beatles because "they sold more records"

[@ThisCommentWroteItself]

??????? The music industry is vastly less profitable now than it was 30 years ago because nobody pays for music anymore? And also, Billboard just compares songs to other songs in a given week, it says nothing about how popular a song is in the abstract? This comment makes absolutely no sense.

[@DumbIdeaPresentedStupidly]

Fast Car feels bigger than the US charts, that was the song played at Nelson Mandela 70th Tribute Concert. That feels bigger than what people are listening to on spotify

[@philly_sports1558]

Fast Car is one of those songs that I almost feel is too good to cover. It’s just so personal to the artist that wrote and sang it and anyone who tries to release an official cover of it would seem phony by comparison. Johnny Cash’s Hurt cover is one of the only examples I can think of that added new personal meaning to a song that already had a ton of personal meaning.

[@loverboyclement6767]

xiu xiu have a very strange and experimental cover of this song that i personally feel is better, although most people would probably disagree bc it’s very off-kilter to say the least

[@pervertedalchemist9944]

It's understandable why people had their tomatoes out ready for Luke Combs.

[@laserbeamlightning]

The closest was probably Khalid

[@johnindigo5477]

He's been singing it since 2014. Back when he was posting vines. And During quarantine released a full version. It feels like he needed another single till the end of the summer.

[@jbmp1390]

Facts. I have nothing against artists wanting to cover a song that's meaningful to them. But when it comes to a song like this, the original is so incredible, I just don't see covers of it as being necessary.

[@seanmcloughlin5983]

Todd is doing everything within his power to not have to talk about Flowers by Miley Cyrus

[@xatuyou8045]

Here’s probably really upset that “jaded” isn’t taking off because he wrote on Twitter about how much he loves that song.

[@c.r.parish5908]

I like the Mary Spender cover of Flowers.

[@ForestGreenSharpie]

or ice spice it seems

[@judgesaturn507]

I can imagine that showing up on his worst list for some reason, maybe at #10 like Surface Pressure

[@seanmcloughlin5983]

@@judgesaturn507I still have not forgiven Todd for that one That song is an anthem for kids who have to take care of their families and pretend their ok with it

[@Themoushtaceleague96]

There have been 3 types of covers this year: 1. Luke Combs’s cover of “Fast Car” where it’s inoffensive and is enjoyable but won’t eclipse the original. A thumbs up, this is a good song to put on and play with the original back to back 2. Falling in Reverse’s cover of “Last Resort” where it’s basically “sound of silence” by disturbed and made for movie trailers. Basically middle of the road cover 3. Lil Uzi Vert’s cover of “Chop Suey” where it’s just horrible

[@krinkles147]

lil uzi vert’s chop suey isn’t serious as far as i know and i find it hilarious

[@MrGetownedLP]

The Watchmen analogy is perfect, you can tell Combs is enjoying performing the song. I see this song as way more melancholy after this video, too - mad good analysis 👏

[@jadenthemusicfreak]

Honestly I LOVE that Luke Combs didn't change the lyric "so I work in the market as a checkout girl". To me that little detail makes the song more beautiful in context, it shows respect to the original song, and is a great showcase that he's comfortable enough with his masculinity to not have to change it. I know that there's a billion other covers of Fast Car out there just as Todd showed in the video, but I haven't listened to any of them on my own to know if those versions changed the lyric or kept it the same. When being sung from a male perspective at least.

[@RobJaskula]

That and "your arm felt nice wrapped 'round my shoulders"

[@jadenthemusicfreak]

@@RobJaskula True

[@genghiscan2918]

That's the reason it was Luke Combs covering it, and not Luke Bryant or Jason Aldean

[@uneek35]

@@RobJaskula Hey, some guys like to be held too.

[@Seth9809]

@@RobJaskula You do understand that the most masculine thing about the male body, besides the obvious, is the wider shoulders. Why would a heterosexual male, not want a woman to be touching something that makes him a male?

[@laurabii99]

i think luke combs singing "so i work in the market as a check out girl" is my gender now

[@Mr96POP]

“Fast Car” is one of those songs I never thought would get a cover since it’s so personal to Tracy Chapman.

[@bl00dy_c4p3]

Xiu Xiu beautifully and vulnerably cover it. a solo acoustic and tooling the lyrics to be about the experience of being queer and uncertain of your future is heartbreaking and pointed.

[@Justin-pd8io]

Jim O’Rourke also did an excellent 30 minute rendition, though it’s only recording is from a live bootleg sadly

[@bl00dy_c4p3]

@@Justin-pd8io yoooo didn't know that been meaning to check his shit bc of his tenure at Sonic Youth

[@Thomasmemoryscentral]

Actually there is a 2016 dance remix by jonas blue in 2016 that peaked higher than the original

[@KeegoTheWise]

@@bl00dy_c4p3man, i wish i liked the xiu xiu rendition more because i actually really like some of their albums. i will give it this, it is a very earnest and heartrending cover. but i just can’t get over how jamie stewart is almost completely inaudible for most of the song

[@thegazetteyt]

The thing about this song is that it’s quite rigid. There’s not much space to play to make it a song that’s individual to who’s singing it so when you get a cover you get a literal cover it almost feels like a karaoke song. I think that’s a blessing and a curse for this song.

[@mattg9364]

As someone who grew up on Fast Car, no one will ever take it away from Tracy.... The words still bring a tear to my eye and as I grow older and go through these things in my life it just hits harder and harder. Thanks Todd for your effort and content! Absolute gold

[@StephenShepherdOfficial]

This is the kind of music critique that shows me time and time again why you are one of my top 3 music critics. You have the analysis from almost every angle, the history, your humbleness, varied connections and comparisons, and your constructive opinion.

[@JoshuaFagan]

It's so weird having Running up a Hill last year and then Fast Car this year on the charts. 80s nostalgia is taking over everything, but at least it's good 80s nostalgia, not Chicago.

[@tmtmtlsml]

It blows my mind that Chicago is considered an 80s band when the song I most associate with them, "25 or 6 to 4" was released in 1970.

[@SaskRider2]

@@tmtmtlsml Chicago between 1970 and 1975 was like candy to the ears. But as soon as If You Leave Me Now hit the scene in '76, it was all downhill from there.

[@cecilie...]

I kinda love Chicago unironically. Hard to say I'm sorry is one of the first songs I remember listening to as a child and the nostalgia is just too good, haha

[@indigomizumi]

I'm waiting for the 70s prog rock resurgence. Let's make people say Yes again.

[@authoranonymous8892]

​@@tmtmtlsml Same, my dad had their Chicago album from 1970 and their Chicago V album from 1972 so I associated Chicago with the early 70s.

[@ScreamingAllTheTime]

I love how he doesn’t change the gender pov when he sings the song. Like yes Luke, you sure are a checkout girl. Also, Luke’s version doesn’t make me violently emotional the way Tracy Chapman’s original version does and idk if I hate or love that. Like it still gives me the tragic feeling about the cycle of poverty but with Luke Combs version doesn’t make me cry just thinking about it like Chapman’s does.

[@TheTheoTherone]

Todd's hot take in the intro: This beloved, top charting song from 35 years ago is.... *drumroll* A GOOD SONG! Me: Ok, let's see where he's going...

[@JessCDoesHistory]

*Hears opening notes of Fast Car and the tears start immediately* I swear, I don't do it consciously, but I cannot hear Fast Car without breaking into tears.

[@pip-pip5029]

Same ❤

[@pip-pip5029]

I almost didn't watch the video cos I thought I'd cry

[@MankanChayor]

I first heard the original Fast Car on the radio as a kid back in 2000...I assumed it was current at the time! It was a shock to find out within only the last couple of years how old it was! The simple production is so timeless.

[@TheDealer1228]

As a '92 baby I never knew it was that old until Todd mentioned it. It's one of those songs that was frequently on the radio during my childhood, so I always assumed it was a late 90s/early 00s cut.

[@KillJoy2004]

Odd, I could tell that it was from the 80s immediately, the production though certainly less so than other hits of the time, still nonetheless feels so terribly dated to the 80s. It’s subtle but it’s there I feel.

[@mikesum32]

I respect that he didn't change the "checkout girl" line.

[@joemurrell2099]

I love that I get all my pop music info through Todd, I just stay unconnected from that world for months, then bang! Here’s something that’s happened in pop, and that’s me covered til the best/worst lists

[@AshleyParkreiner]

Never thought I’d hear a Todd video use a Xiu Xiu song for its credits. That cover is so haunting. Probably the only example of someone covering it that I really truly love

[@johnny0000000000000]

thanks for saving me the trouble of having to figure that out

[@emilandersen2195]

Please tell if this is an actual released cover. Because from that snippet heard in the credits it kinda sounds like some vlog video from 2008 recorded with a very cheap microphone.

[@AshleyParkreiner]

@@emilandersen2195 yes! It’s from the 1999 record A Promise

[@AshleyParkreiner]

@@emilandersen2195 yes! It’s from the 1999 record A Promise

[@coileight]

A promise came out in 2003

[@mariarandazzo9739]

As a big Xiu Xiu fan, I was so happy to see that the cover playing during the credits this time was their cover of the song. Probably the only time I knew who was covering it on the credits of your video but man I love the vocals on that cover.

[@fahs]

I am a fifty year old middle school teacher., but also a music snob like many fans of Todd. I know a song is going to be big when kids play it at lunch and they stop what they are doing and sing along. That happened with this song in May.

[@curiousottman]

I heard Chapman sing Fast Car in September 88 during the Amnesty International Tour in Montreal. She was as good live as on her album. Beautiful voice. She sang alongside Sting, Bruce Springsteen and Peter Gabriel. I still have the tshirt from the concert!

[@embunchofnumbers]

What an awesome memory to have ❤

[@brynnplant]

The story behind why he covered it is incredibly sweet, and it's also sweet how straight and honest he did it - especially in comparison to all of the overwrought and overproduced versions out there. The original, Tracy Chapman's version, is absolutely honest and from the heart, and Luke Combs I think instinctively understood that. That's a mind-boggling level of emotional awareness for a male country singer, and I think it's really touching. So I'm for this. I also don't see it doing anything to take away from the original, at all.

[@DannyBeans]

I 100% agree. Could you imagine Toby Keith taking this on?

[@aimeperez469]

"2023 has been a bad year for pop music. Nobody wants new music anymore." Oh, good, so I'm not the only zoomer out here listening to songs as old as I am. That definitely makes me feel better lol

[@briannawhite9307]

I will say, as someone who grew up in a poor, small town, there is an argument to be made in favor of having this song as a country song. When you're an hour away from the closest Walmart, it can feel like you're trapped, and so many of the people who talk that big game end up trying to make it then moving back or just fall straight into their parents vices. The suburbs are not a give in when your parents live in a double wide and struggle to pay lot fees every month.

[@ErieRosewood]

yeah, I disagree with Todd on that. the suburbs are not a safe, easy dream for Chapman, its a pipe dream, an escapist fantasy.

[@Dumb_Killjoy]

​@@ErieRosewood That's part of the reason the song works well as a country song. For a lot of people in rural areas, living in the suburbs is a pipe dream. We're all either too broke or too far from the city for it to be realistic.

[@rticle15]

The reason this song took off, in my opinion, is because Fast Car is simply a great song. And generations of country fans are probably hearing it for the first time.

[@endymallorn]

I doubt that last part. There’s a huge crossover between country and folk. Most people who listen primarily to one know the hits and the history of the other.

[@rticle15]

@@endymallorn sure but i doubt folk songs from the 80s are frequent listening for country fans under 35, who make up the bulk of the current audience.

[@greattitan371]

I had somehow never listened to or even heard of Fast Car before Combs covered it and it took an embarrassing amount of time to find out it was a cover. Now that I've listened to both, Tracy is absolutely the more true to self version of the song and it's overall superior but I still love Combs version because I'm a country boy at heart. (To keep to the part about the current country audience being under 35, I'm 17)

[@Dumb_Killjoy]

I have no clue how anyone wouldn't have heard it before. It's on the radio, TV shows, movies, people's CD/cassette collections. It's ubiquitous.

[@AgnessaMo]

Sounds like a modestly succesful "The Voice" performance at best... not one of the ones that go viral. Better than most Glee covers at least

[@MysticMorigan1998]

I think you really nailed it with that.

[@arthurdurham]

I think the irony is that it's doing so well bc it doesn't change anything. It's not my favorite song of all time but it's arguable that it's one of those songs that did it perfectly the first time. There are just some songs that artists will cover that don't get much traction bc they either can't bring anything new to it or lose its greatness on their reinterpretation. But in this case country music stations and streaming playing a great song in basically its original composition, just with a currently popular singer singing it, got big. It's lack of identity and being performed by the right person at the right time I think is the main factor to its success.

[@oldvlognewtricks]

Hard same. Breaks the first rule of covers for me: either do it better than the original, or make it significantly different. As it stands it’s like a high quality karaoke track… 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@arthurdurham]

​@@oldvlognewtricksThat's a good way to put it

[@MA306]

One big difference between the two songs that I think people may subconsciously pick up on ( I know I did) is that the original breaths more. It has periods where the music just plays and let’s you settle in the story without the need for lyrics. The Luke Combs version bounces from Corus, and verse to verse without taking the necessary breaks in between for the emotional connection to happen with the story. It’s a big contributor to the pop quality of the Luke Combs version versus the folk song aesthetic of the original.

[@jonahfalcon1970]

When doing the duet at the Grammys, Luke couldn't help but mouth the lyrics when Tracy was singing. He's just so into the song.

[@justme0910]

As a queer woman/enby, I have also always read the original song as being written from the perspective of a woman and addressed towards a man ... more specifically, the quintessential fuckboy. It's actually kinda important to the narrative and all the subtext about the additional struggles poor women face simply for being women, forced to take on responsibilities (like domestic labor) that men can get away with neglecting. The narrator starts the song having to take care of one self-destructive, irresponsible man and ends the song letting go of another self-destructive, irresponsible man she's been looking after. It's bleak, it's real, and it's relatable. Every woman I know is intimately familiar with that relationship dynamic, either having gone through it herself or witnessed a female friend or relative go through it.

[@xovvo3950]

It also sets up the the cycle---in the beginning of the song, the whole reason she's supporting her father is that her mom walked out on them. By the end of the song after spending so many years in the same position as her mother, she makes the same choice to leave and we're left with that if she has a daughter, she'll likely sing the same song.

[@getconnecteduser]

As a heterosexual man, I felt the same. I had heard the song a few times as a kid, but it was only a few years ago that it played randomly while I was cleaning up the house and I had to stop for a moment because it was the first time I really properly listened to the song. It was so heartbreaking and intimate. Like you found a hidden diary of secrets. I have no idea why a man would release a version of this great song. It needs to be left alone.

[@Jermbot15]

@@xovvo3950 Except no. She isn't leaving by the end of the song, she's telling her self-destructive irresponsible man to either become the father their kids deserve or to take his fast car and go somewhere else.

[@grafphal5103]

@@StruggleoftheOutsider You seem to have a lot hate in you

[@PeterGriffin11]

@@grafphal5103 What did they say that was hateful?

[@GasparLewis]

2012 Miguel is as good an era as any to revisit, I remain confused how Janelle Monae can't cross over to the pop chart, and I otherwise go back to only having any real Top 40 knowledge via Todd and thanking him for his public service.

[@vaelethun]

It physically hurts me that Janelle cannot get a chart-topping hit. She is goddamn amazing.

[@Jeevesie1988]

How Float isn't the song of the summer is just... baffling.

[@ThejollyFrenchman]

It doesn't make sense to me either. She has the voice, she has the looks, she's been in movies so people know who she is.

[@keyscored3710]

​​@@ThejollyFrenchman they're just not that interesting I guess To me at least idk

[@indigomizumi]

​@@ThejollyFrenchmanWhile I don't actively keep up with modern pop music at all, I wonder the same.

[@koneheadcokehead4981]

I hope this makes people listen to the Tracy Chapman version because it is so amazing

[@dazwold]

He actually plays this half a step down from the original. As a cover, it's OK. Tracy Chapman's debut is one of the greatest debut albums of all time in my opinion; and certainly ranks very highly in my list. Across the Lines, Behind the Wall, and For my Lover in particular are superb tracks.

[@direcircumstances]

My body's hormone's tell me exactly when to expect my period because once every few weeks I will find myself sitting at my desk, crying, just from *thinking* about Fast Car by Tracy Chapman. I'm not even listening to the song, I'm just remembering that it exists and how emotionally moving it is.

[@grfrjiglstan]

Honestly, I'm surprised we haven't gotten more covers lately. Tiktok seems like the most fertile ground for covers ever - this should be the Age of the Cover.

[@michaeladkins6]

Especially, after Running Up That Hill hit last year.

[@cityboy2092]

The modern strategy is to just heavily sample the original song to the point that the new recording is basically identical to the original with one or two tweaks thrown in there

[@johnindigo5477]

It is because the artist who become popular for covering songs either completely play it straight and don't add any new musical perspectives. Or completely change the genre as part of thier niche. Metal versions, trap versions etc

[@pervertedalchemist9944]

TikTok and covers is just a bad idea waiting to happen, SMH.

[@SteeZy644]

A lot of interpolations are very popular now (Ice Spice’s Barbie World samples Aqua, David Guetta’s I’m Good samples Eiffel 65, NY drill in general samples old songs, Creepin’ covers Mario Winans)

[@newtpollution]

I have never hit anyone in my life, but I almost came out swinging at my teenage nephew when he said, "What do you mean Luke Combs didn't write Fast Car?"

[@michaeladkins6]

Introduce him to 80s music. He will thank you.

[@Happytravellerkimmy]

Bwahaha. I did the same at some random poppunk show at the fair grounds when they played a Springsteen cover and I said near a boomer "that sounds like a number 1 hit!" He was, uh, perturbed until he realized I was joking.

[@lydiavalentino]

@@Happytravellerkimmy Best part is that Springsteen famously did not reach No. 1

[@GriffinPilgrim]

That Watchman comparison was surprisingly apt. There is really is something to being able to tell someone cares, even they didn't get it.

[@LinesToThePaper]

Todd's work is some of the only entertainment review content on KZbin that feels like it positively expands my knowledge and comes from a well of heartfelt appreciation of what is reflected on. Just grateful for this content, thank you.

[@KomboAndy]

First the movie industry and now music... everybody just seems creatively bankrupt.

[@tooruoikawa8985]

“Wake-up babe, Todd posted from the shadows.” ;)

[@arsenic-catnip]

That makes him sound like an eldredge monstrosity and/or vigilante hero

[@Avrysatos]

The main thing I like about this... is that Tracy Chapman gets royalties from this cover. I don't feel like he has quite the same voice as her though, it just makes us remember the original more.

[@1000huzzahs]

As a Professional Lesbian, I can definitively speak about such Lesbian topics as Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car." I think you did a good job, and covered almost everything I would've covered. Yes, I too always felt the lyrics implied a hetero relationship. Yes, there's absolutely a Queer subtext to it all nonetheless. But I agree with others here that there's no way anyone will surpass the original. It's a true singer-songwriter's song - the kind where Chapman's voice permeates all of it in every sense of the word. When you take her voice out of it, it loses so much more than just a specific type of vocal. One thing you didn't mention (it's ok, I'm not mad, it's no big deal) is that not only were Black people the root of Rock and Roll, Black Queerness is at the root of it. "Big Mama" Thornton crossed gender boundaries, and I feel she is a precursor to Tracy Chapman - the difference being that Chapman *IS* being recognized and paid well when her own work is covered.

[@chugrooster2]

What an awesomely written comment. Kudos

[@JayBigDadyCy]

This song is about the cyclical nature of life and how even though the scenery changes, it doesn't mean people will. My dad got sober 5 years before i did. But growing up i promised myself I'd never become an alcoholic. And throughout HS i barely drank. I liked weed. But late in my senior year I started drinking heavily and within about 5 years i was a full blown, functioning alcoholic. Both my Dad and i broke that cycle. My grandfather never drank a drop (on my dad's side), but he had 3 brothers who died from acute alcoholism by the time they were 50. It's crazy how genetics influence us whether we like it or not. I didn't appreciate this song when i was a kid. I love it now.

[@UltimateAwe]

The longing in Tracy’s voice is palpable. Excellent work as usual Todd.

[@sarahnagy9300]

Speaking as a lesbian, it warms my heart that mainstream country is ready to cover this song without changing it or apologizing for it. We’re in an era where we can talk totally openly about all that makes the original “queer”; that’s not a dealbreaker preventing straight artists from being frank about what it means to them.

[@dinolover]

The song has nothing to do with being queer though, its about escaping poverty. Tracy talks about leaving the poor life behind but her deadbeat bf and dead end job isnt helping her.

[@marvelousTUD]

@@dinoloverPoverty and queerness are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they’re very often linked, unfortunately.

[@sarahnagy9300]

Yeah, I’d agree there’s nothing uniquely queer about the lyrics, but Todd’s video has a whole section about people debating whether Luke Combs “can” cover a lesbian’s song - I’m firmly in the camp of, “Of course he can.”

[@familyguyfreemoviedownload8314]

the androgyny of her voice lends it a distinctly queer energy, i think. as a kid when i first heard it i thought it was a man singing

[@rdrrr]

@@dinolover Modern-day progressive politics often feels like narcissistic indulgence. Boil everything down to a simple identity statement - losing the actual meaning in the process - then claim that identity statement for validation purposes. It strikes me that such superficial analyses aren't about the work, they're about the person doing the analysis. I watched a video that claimed to provide an analysis on the "queer themes" of "Let It Be" (the Replacements album, not the Beatles!). It essentially amounted to "the Replacements were outsiders, so that makes them and by extension their work queer". Using that "definition" essentially any alternative music is "queer" by default... 15 minutes of talking and that's all the video managed to say?

[@jokerzwild00]

As with most strange and random things from yesteryear to suddenly blow up, it comes down to a new generation finding some great old thing and enjoying it for the first time. The original was near universally praised to begin with, it's not that surprising that it's popular again. Chapman's version becoming a hit was kind of an anomaly anyway, but there were loads of anomalies and one off weird hits in the 80s and 90s. Good music is just good music, sometimes it just can't be denied.

[@罪のアリス]

I'm a lesbian and I had never heard any version of Fast Car before now. Definitely like the original most. Luke Combs is too "tears in my beers" country for me.

[@littlekingtrashmouth9219]

I’m stealing that phrase

[@windowlickerch.4241]

Xiu Xius cover is so completely hopeless and sad, it's probably the only one that comes close to being as good as the original (although the original is still better)

[@Vickyeverythingelsewastaken]

"tears in my beers" is incredible. 😄 Todd just has the wittiest comment section of any music youtuber.

[@captaingymshorts]

Tear in my Beer is the name of a song by Hank Williams. A solid country classic:)

[@pleuriglosse8198]

leaking tears over beers once again babey!!

[@musiclistsareus1029]

There are a lot of younger people and country-only people who hadn't heard it before; making this song known to them is a good thing and making Tracy Chapman's artistry in general known to them is a good thing. I applaud this dude I've never listened to making a respectful cover that honors the original.

[@zombiedodge1426]

"Fast Car" arguably belongs on the list of songs about "mediocre romance" Todd did a few years back.