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The Romance of the Road




A lot of you have been listening to that song about a Fast Car quite a bit since the Grammy awards the other evening. I know this because it keeps popping up in my social media feed. I don’t watch awards shows but it was clear that people thought that this particular moment was exceptional. I checked out the video clip afterwards. 

It turns out that a lot of folks didn’t actually know what the song by Tracy Chapman was about. 

It has been incredibly interesting to see white people respond to the resurgent popularity of "Fast Car" by saying it's a testament to hope because all you need is a car and a plan, and Black people respond (correctly) that it's a song about poverty and despair. - - Heidi Moore

guys, “Fast Car” is about a woman trapped in a poverty cycle and the cyclical melody exists as a musical device to represent that. hope this helps - - Bev Gooden

“Small Town” by Mellencamp is a working class song. “Proud Mary” is a working class song. “Do You Know The Way To San Jose” is a working class song. “Midnight Train To Georgia” is a working class song. “Fast Car” is about generational poverty struggling to even be working class. - - Leslie Gray Streeter

We hear those words You got a fast car, Is it fast enough so we can fly away? and, if we don’t know the song, perhaps we project our own feelings and experiences onto them. It is possible to get carried by a song without really understanding what it means. 

Early on in my years of teaching kindergarten I used a particular song as transitional music as the students got up from rest time and moved into self selected activities. It was called “Welcome to the House of Fun.” When my husband explained it was about coming of age and going to the drugstore to buy condoms, I was mortified. That was the end of that.

All that being said - - if we’re going to make such a big deal out of Sunday night’s duet on the Grammy stage, I do think we should take the time to understand the piece of art itself. It’s not simply an iconic cultural moment for us to click and share. It means something. 

Anyway: fast cars. Hold on to your hats, because I’m going to make a hard pivot here. This recent story for HoCo nonprofit NeighborRide tells a different kind of car story.

This week's throwback is just a funny memory...Gerry Tolson, an early volunteer, decided to join our team because it gave him a great excuse to drive around in his awesome new convertible. Little did he know how popular he would be! Several of our clients commented that they loved it when Gerry was assigned to their rides because being picked up by a younger man driving a hot convertible set the neighbors' tongues wagging.



Images from NeighborRide social media

A fast car. A hot convertible. Feelings of freedom, maybe a little romance or intrigue…Of course the hero in this story is not the car, but rather the gentleman who used it to bring people joy.  Do you have a special car memory or story? I do.

One last car story. Bear with me.

Years ago, when I joined a professional church choir in Baltimore, a younger man caught my eye. Not just a younger man, mind you, but one with long hair, a leather jacket, and a hot car, a convertible. 

Was it the car that made him attractive? 

Nah.

The fact that he was the cool college professor who taught the history of rock and roll?

Maybe. This November we will be celebrating our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary.

There’s just something about cars. We infuse them with feelings, memories, status, our own personal stories. I wonder why that is.



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