FAST CAR is a Song About Caregiving
Driving home in a snowstorm today, the song Fast Car came on the radio. I can sing every word because I've loved it since Tracy Chapman first released it in 1988. But maybe I had never listened carefully to the words before. This is a song about craving escape from a prison of caregiving and poverty. It's also about feeling helpless and invisible. And yet there is hope in the words, too.
You got a fast carAnd I want a ticket to anywhereMaybe we make a dealMaybe together we can get somewhere
Any place is betterStarting from zero, got nothing to loseMaybe we'll make somethingMe, myself, I got nothing to prove
You got a fast carAnd I got a plan to get us out of hereBeen working at the convenience storeManaged to save just a little bit of money
Won't have to drive too farJust across the border and into the cityAnd you and I can both get jobsFinally see what it means to be living
See, my old man's got a problemHe lived with the bottle, that's the way it isSaid his body's too old for workingHis body's too young to look like his
So, Mama went off and left himShe wanted more from life than he could giveI said, "Somebody's got to take care of him"So, I quit school and that's what I did
You got a fast carIs it fast enough so we could fly away?Still gotta make a decisionLeave tonight, or live and die this way
So, I remember when we were driving, driving in your carSpeed so fast, I felt like I was drunkCity lights laid out before usAnd your arm felt nice wrapped around my shoulderAnd I, I had a feeling that I belongedI, I had a feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone
You got a fast carWe go cruising, entertain ourselvesYou still ain't got a jobSo I work in the market as a checkout girl
I know things will get betterYou'll find work and I'll get promotedAnd we'll move out of the shelterBuy a bigger house, live in the suburbs
So, I remember when we were driving, driving in your carSpeed so fast, I felt like I was drunkCity lights lay out before usAnd your arm felt nice wrapped around my shoulderAnd I, I had a feeling that I belongedI, I had a feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone
You got a fast carI got a job that pays all our billsYou stay out drinking late at the barSee more of your friends than you do of your kids
I'd always hoped for betterThought maybe together you and me'd find itI got no plans, I ain't going nowhereTake your fast car and keep on driving
So, I remember when we were driving, driving in your carSpeed so fast, I felt like I was drunkCity lights lay out before usAnd your arm felt nice wrapped around my shoulderAnd I, I had a feeling that I belongedI, I had a feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone
You got a fast carIs it fast enough, so we could fly away?You still gotta make a decisionLeave tonight, or live and die this way
Here is Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs singing the song together at the 66th Grammy Awards.
And here is the original music video from 1988. It's a song that surely speaks to the hearts of caregivers, young and old, including those who decided to stay and those who chose to leave.
