Tracy Chapman wins CMA “song of the year” for “Fast Car”

[Anonymous]

I love this for her:

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/tracy-chapman-luke-combs-fast-car-song-of-the-year-2023-cmas-1234873495/

Such an iconic song from my college years. I love that she is getting a new wave of royalties and recognition. (She won a Grammy for it 35 years ago too).

If you have never seen it, check out her spontaneous debut at Wembley in 1988. The crowd‘s hush. It’s like they sensed the presence of greatness.

[youtube] https://youtu.be/teZsA_ci-7E?si=U9PFUgy_wMEI36Td[/youtube]

[Anonymous]

That's such an old song (which I did not like). How is it now just getting to the ears of country music fans?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That's such an old song (which I did not like). How is it now just getting to the ears of country music fans?

oh, because it was remade by a white man. I got it.

[Anonymous]

Good song, and good for Tracy Chapman, but Luke Combs adds nothing to the song at all. Just sings it the same way but with a male voice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good song, and good for Tracy Chapman, but Luke Combs adds nothing to the song at all. Just sings it the same way but with a male voice.

OP here. I don’t mind his cover, but I do agree it’s kind of a carbon copy. A little more instrumentation and twang but…

[Anonymous]

I'm thrilled for Tracy Chapman that this won Song of the Year but sort of nuts that Combs won single of the year for it. I agree that he did nothing to add to a previously great song (except introduce the song to a new generation of listeners and country radio?)

[Anonymous]

I love this song and like Pp I’m really happy Tracy Chapman is getting more $$$ and recognition for it. The way she sings it can never be beat, though.

[Anonymous]

I loved that song so much. Hated the cover. All wrong.

[Anonymous]

Love the song, and very happy for her to get more recognition among a new audience.

I can appreciate Combs introducing the song to a new generation, but I also feel he really didn't add anything. It still feels like HER story, just sung in his voice. I think he could have really made it his own with some tweaks to the lyrics so it doesn't feel like such a distinctly female experience ... but then we'd probably all be complaining that he changed it and it's just not "Fast Car" anymore. Such is always the dilemma with covers, I guess.

[Anonymous]

To me the Luke Combs version is like the movie version of a book you loved 🥰 that doesn’t live up to your expectations on screen. Tracy Chapman is the book.

But, if she’s getting accolades and royalties now, that’s great.

[Anonymous]

I enjoy both the original and the cover.

[Anonymous]

I read that after progressives got all up in arms about a white man covering a black woman's song, Tracy Chapman very graciously acknowledged her song was getting a whole new audience that it never would have gotten. It has also translated into a great deal of royalties and also new accolades. She is probably making more now than she made when it first came out.

Most people who made it big in some way when they are younger, want to be remembered and become relevant in later years.

A win-win for TC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love this song and like Pp I’m really happy Tracy Chapman is getting more $$$ and recognition for it. The way she sings it can never be beat, though.

+1

Such a range of emotions.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:That's such an old song (which I did not like). How is it now just getting to the ears of country music fans?

oh, because it was remade by a white man. I got it.

You’re so woke aren’t you? You’re not as clever as you think, you’re exhausting.

OP here. I'm pretty "woke" (I'm not sure why you think that's a pejorative?). I love that Luke Combs covered this. It's not like he STOLE it. He covered a great song by a great artist, who became the first black person to win a CMA. It's fantastic.

More power to him. And to her. I love crossover songs... The reality is most songs could be performed in a variety of different styles/genres.

I just think it's crazy that a folk song from 1988 that was firmly embraced by the college radio crowd and propelled to the top of the charts resurfaces 35 years later in the country music world ... where it hit the top of the charts. There aren't that many remakes that have that kind of success, let alone crossovers.

The irony here is that the crowd that liked her songs were probably woke back then, while I, the PP who stated "oh, because it was remade by a white man. I got it." am not a progressive, at all. But, I recognize how a song that was written and sung by a black woman 35 years ago, only now won a CMA because a white man sang it, hsa a tinge of racism in it.

OP here. I'm not seeing the racism? Trace recorded it as a folk song, not a country song. She won four Grammys. Fast Car was nominated for record and song of the year in 1988 (she won best female pop vocal performance). But it was neither recorded as nor marketed as a country song, so it couldn't have been considered by CMAs in that era?

Songs can be crossover.

Some country songs have hit Top 100 Billboard not only 35 years ago but more than 50 years ago. Here's a list.

https://www.liveabout.com/best-country-pop-crossover-songs-3248140

Only 6 of those songs have been since 1988 unless I'm missing something, they all were country hits first that were adopted by the pop radio audiences.

How many pop songs end up on country stations/charts?

That is the point. Mainstream will take country music, but country music never really takes to pop songs, unless it's sung by a white man, it seems.

No, my point is country musicians don’t cover pop music in general… got any other examples of crossover hits the other way? Otherwise this is just an anomaly and you are stretching

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's such an old song (which I did not like). How is it now just getting to the ears of country music fans?

oh, because it was remade by a white man. I got it.

Much bigger impact when Tracey sang it