Did you know Tracy Chapman’s song “Fast Car” isn’t about an automobile traveling at a heightened velocity? Did you need someone to explain it to you? Did you want someone to?

Thanks to Chapman’s fantastic Grammys performance alongside cover artist Luke Combs, people — mainly dudes — have, unasked, taken it upon themselves to be extremely weird about both the song and the original singer. From interpretations about how the lyrics that cite living in poverty and alcoholism are actually hopeful to explanations of how upward mobility was actually possible when it was written in 1988 to soliloquies about how Chapman is actually an unknown figure — it seems that no one online can be normal about this song.

For those of us who have, until this point, avoided bad opinions and poor explanations about “Fast Car” for over 30 years, it can feel a bit surreal, like we’re suddenly stuck listening to the children of the men who brought out acoustic guitars during college dorm parties. Unfortunately, pedantic, ill-informed, “it’s new to me so it must be new to you” internet discourse is the norm now.

What Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” is about

It’s a testament to Chapman’s Grammy’s performance that “Fast Car” has become a conversation again. She sounded great, and critics and seemingly everyone else who was watching Sunday night praised Chapman as one of the best acts of the evening. But there’s another factor too. Chapman, who came onto the scene in the late 1980s, doesn’t occupy headlines the way star musicians do now. She’s not on splashy world tours or doing massive promotion. She’s living a relatively low-profile life. Her performance on one of the music industry’s biggest occasions felt special, like we were being........

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