The other day I discovered a new cover of Fast Car by Tracy Chapman. 1 The cover featured Kina Grannis, an artist whom I fell in love with a few years back with her creative music video for her song “In Your Arms”.
As you do when you’re reminded of something, I went to Wikipedia to read about the original song. I was surprised by what I discovered. Fast Car by Tracy Chapman came out in 1989! That couldn’t be right, could it‽ I was 8 at the time. I always remembered this song as a contemporary song from my high school days in the late nineties.
It’s funny how human memory works – or in my case doesn’t work – in remembering events tied to music. It’s probably not a real memory, but I could swear I listened to this song in the car on the way to school. On CD.
My only explanation is that this song is way more modern than it has any right to be.
While you’re here, have a listen to this performance of Chapman’s from 2015. She performs “Stand By Me” on one of the last episodes of Late Show with David Letterman. Beautiful.