Sexuality in the Arts

 “Fast Car” lyrics by Tracy Chapman:

You got a fast car
I want a ticket to anywhere
Maybe we make a deal
Maybe together we can get somewhere

Any place is better
Starting from zero got nothing to lose
Maybe we’ll make something
Me myself I got nothing to prove

You got a fast car
I got a plan to get us out of here
Been working at a convenience store
Managed to save just a little bit of money
Won’t have to drive too far
Just cross the border and into the city
You and I can both get jobs
And finally see what it means to be living

See my old man’s got a problem
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
My mama went off and left him
She wanted more from life than he could give
I said somebody’s got to take care of him
So I quit school and that’s what I did

You got a fast car
Is it fast enough so we can fly away?
We gotta make a decision
Leave tonight or live and die this way

I remember when we were driving, driving in your car
Speeds so fast I felt like I was drunk
City lights stay out before us
And your arm felt nice wrapped round my shoulder
And I had a feeling that I belonged
I had a feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone

You got a fast car
We go cruising entertain ourselves
Still ain’t got a job
And I work in the market as a checkout girl
I know things will get better
You’ll find work and I’ll get promoted
We’ll move out of the shelter
Buy a bigger house and live in the suburbs

I remember when we were driving driving in your car
Speeds so fast I felt like I was drunk
City lights stay out before us
And your arm felt nice wrapped round my shoulder
And I had a feeling that I belonged
I had a feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone

You got a fast car
I got a job that pays all our bills
You stay out drinking late at the bar
See more of your friends than you do of your kids
I’d always hoped for better
Thought maybe together you and me’d find it
I got no plans I ain’t going nowhere
Take a fast car and keep on driving

I remember when we were driving driving in your car
Speeds so fast I felt like I was drunk
City lights stay out before us
And your arm felt nice wrapped round my shoulder
And I had a feeling that I belonged
I had a feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone

You got a fast car
But is it fast enough so you can fly away?
You gotta make a decision
You leave tonight or live and die this way?

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“Change” lyrics by Tracy Chapman:

If you knew that you would die today
Saw the face of God and love
Would you change?
Would you change?

If you knew that love can break your heart
When you’re down so low you cannot fall
Would you change?
Would you change?

How bad, how good does it need to get?
How many losses? How much regret?
What chain reaction would cause an effect?

Makes you turn around
Makes you try to explain
Makes you forgive and forget
Makes you change
Makes you change

If you knew that you would be alone
Knowing right, being wrong
Would you change?
Would you change?

If you knew that you would find a truth
That brings up pain that can’t be soothed
Would you change?
Would you change?

How bad, how good does it need to get?
How many losses?  How much regret?
What chain reaction would cause an effect?

Makes you turn around
Makes you try to explain
Makes you forgive and forget
Makes you change
Makes you change

Are you so upright you can’t be bent?
If it comes to blows
Are you so sure you won’t be crawling?
If not for the good, why risk falling?
Why risk falling?

If everything you think you know
Makes your life unbearable
Would you change?
Would you change?

If you’d broken every rule and vow
And hard times come to bring you down
Would you change?
Would you change?

If you knew that you would die today
If you saw the face of God and love
Would you change?
Would you change?
Would you change?
Would you change?

If you saw the face of God and love
If you saw the face of God and love
Would you change?
Would you change?

(Click on images to view them individually.)

© All rights reserved by Tracy Chapman.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracy_Chapman

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Commentary:  When “Fast Car” came out in 1988, the song destroyed me.  It just crushed me.  I loved it.  I didn’t know all the reasons why, but I knew some of them. 

In 2005, when Chapman’s song “Change” came out, it was ideal timing for other important problems that were going on in my life. 

It wasn’t until recently, that I put the correlation (choralation) of the two songs together (I’m very slow sometimes).  Both songs are about making changes, hard changes.  They are songs about breaking out of the confines of habitual, familial, and learned patterns. 

It’s fitting that a love of my life was a checkout girl who worked together with me to leave so many of the strict religious confines of our pasts.

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