Pantagruel's Full Review: Tracy Chapman by Tracy Chapman
Twenty years after the release of her debut album, it is pretty obvious that this is where Tracy Chapman reached her creative peak. Oh, there are probably a handful of songs she has recorded in the years since then that can be considered among her career highlights, but she caught lightning in a bottle with the album Tracy Chapman. It went multi-platinum and won a slew of Grammy awards (a sure kiss of death if there ever was one). As a result, Chapman went from coffee shops to center stage practically overnight on the bill of such political concerts as Amnesty International and fundraisers for the Democratic Party. Liberal causes were quick to associate themselves with her, and the fact that she was a female, African-American singer/songwriter increased her exposure.
But Chapman would have been seen as little more than a novelty act if she couldn’t back up the hype. Fortunately, the songs collected on Tracy Chapman are uniformly strong. Chapman takes her keen observation of daily life and transcribes that into simple yet effective lyrics. The songs were written over a five year period, which must have given her ample opportunity to hone them.
The music is acoustic-based material in the traditional singer/songwriter mold with drums, bass, keyboards, and electric guitar added in for tone. This sparse production helps to accentuate Chapman’s lyrics. Chapman herself plays acoustic guitar on most of the cuts (and electric guitar on two tracks). The melodies are, if not necessarily buoyant, easy to sing and hum along to.
Chapman sings in a husky, soulful style that at times makes her sound masculine. She also has a habit of repeating her verses before moving to the chorus or even the next verse. At first, I took this to be a simplistic songwriting style, but frequent listening prove it to be more complex than I had given her credit for, since repeating the verses not only helps to drive her message home but builds tension within the song.
An example of this method can be found on the two minute piece sung a cappella and entitled “Behind the Wall.” The song’s topic is domestic abuse. Chapman sings the first verse twice, then the bridge, then repeats the first line of verse one (“Last night I heard the screaming”) to set up the song’s climax.
The opening “Talkin’ Bout a Revolution” harnesses the fire and spirit of the best 1960s protest songs, even if the lyrics are a bit naïve (“Poor people gonna rise up and get their share” ain’t happening anytime soon).
The real gem of the album is the next song, “Fast Car,” which became a Top Ten hit in the summer of 1988. Staying true to her writing method, Chapman takes the line “you got a fast car” and weaves a story of a poor young couple’s attempt to escape the ghetto and not repeat the lives of their parents. On the chorus, the drums kick in and we are taken with her on that ride where:
The speed so fast I felt like I was drunk The city lights laid out before us And your arm felt nice wrapped ‘round my shoulder And I-yi-I had a feeling that I belonged I-yi-I had a feeling that I could be someone, be someone
Chapman’s character sings those last two lines as if she really believed she could be someone and break free of the cycle that traps millions of people just like her, consigned to a life of dreams and always hoping for the better but never achieving it.
Although “Fast Car” alludes that it is the men who have the problems (the father is an alcoholic and the boyfriend an out-of-work freeloader), what goes unexplained are the reasons for it. The song that follows, “Across the Lines,” addresses race issues and contains a line that may be the key to the male problems in “Fast Car:” “On the back streets of America/They kill the dream of America.” Any “back street” confrontation that involves African-Americans and Caucasians (and you can include Asian-Americans and Hispanics in that mix) on opposite sides is fodder for the media and fuels bigotry and ignorance, from the schoolyards to the boardrooms.
“Mountains o’ Things” opens up the funkier second side of Tracy Chapman and continues the dream of the singer in “Fast Car.” Set to a slight calypso beat, here the singer fantasizes of leaving her 9 to 5 job for a life of luxury, feeling she deserves it because she “Know(s) what money’s worth” and inviting “those whose sole misfortune was having mountains of nothing at birth” to join her. “Consume more than you need/That is the dream” that she has. However, Chapman sings from the other side of the fence by having her character imagine how lonely she would be with all of her possessions, and how using people as stepping stones comes at the cost of her soul.
In addition to her social and political observations, Chapman also wrote a number of songs dealing with matters of the heart. “If Not Now…” and “Baby Can I Hold You” touch on a lover’s inability or unwillingness to express himself. “For My Lover” examines to what extent a woman will subject herself (“Two weeks in a Virginia jail/For my lover, for my lover”) and question if her heart is stronger than her mind. “For You” is a secret note between mind and heart inspired by newfound love.
Tracy Chapman is a strong debut that showed amazing potential for the young singer/songwriter. That she has not been able to come close to that potential may be attributed to her swift rise and the pressure it must have put on her. Or it could simply be that Chapman said almost everything she had to say on her first album.
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