Fast Car

 “Who the heck is that?” 

“Get the hell out of here. You know who that is.” 

“Hand to God I have no idea.”

That was my husband and me; him learning that the elderly hippie with the cane is Joni Mitchell and me learning that my husband managed to reach his mid 50s having never heard of Joni Mitchell. He wasn’t kidding. My husband is Korean and his parents only ever listened to classical music at home, and so he has no clue about any American music recorded before 1980 or so. I sang a little bit of “Big Yellow Taxi” for him, and now he knows that Counting Crows didn’t invent that song. 

*****

Yes, I watched the Grammys last night. I never watch the Grammys but apparently, I have become a Swifty; and I had to see Taylor perform. I didn’t see her perform (and I haven’t read recaps so I don’t know if she did) but I did see her accept one of her Grammys. And as much as I love Taylor now, she was not the highlight of the show. She wasn’t even close. 

“Fast Car” has been one of my favorite songs from the moment I first heard it in 1988. It stopped me in my tracks - it was so different from anything else on the radio in that Madonna and Michael Jackson dominated era. I never get tired of hearing “Fast Car.” That song never gets old. 

I’m not a country music fan and by that I mean that I actively dislike most non-Johnny Cash non-Patsy Cline country music. Don’t @ me. And so no one was more surprised than me when I heard Luke Combs’ cover of “Fast Car” and liked it immediately. I liked the cover for itself and I loved Luke Combs because he so obviously loves Tracy Chapman and he was so happy to have revived her song for a new generation of listeners. 

It’s so rare that you get to see a perfect performance - filled with love and joy but also musically flawless, but that is what Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs did last night. Combs was obviously in awe that he was on the Grammy stage, singing with Tracy Chapman, who beamed at him throughout like a proud mother. Everything is trash right now; only it isn’t, not when you get to see Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs sing “Fast Car.” 100/10. No notes.