Random Musings

After watching “One Day” about a month ago, and after hearing the song “Talkin’ Bout A Revolution” being used in one of the very early scenes when they were in Emma’s little apartment, I began to return to my Tracy Chapman album once again and have been listening intently to it for the past month.

It’s truly a remarkable album.

Thoroughly worthy of its #261 ranking on Rolling Stone’s list of “500 Greatest Albums of All Time”.

My first exposure to Tracy Chapman was way back in the late 80′s when my dad first popped the cassette tape of her brand new debut album in the car and I just listened to the tape over and over and over again.

(Back then music was harder to come by, and we cherished every cassette tape we bought.)

I was still so young then, but I remember it all rather clearly.

The thing that I remember most was not being able to tell if Tracy Chapman’s voice was that of a male or a female.

I was pretty certain it was a male voice.

I had to be convinced repeatedly by my dad that Tracy Chapman was indeed female. (Hey, I was not even ten yet back then!)

The debut album “Tracy Chapman” had 3 songs that were instant classics – “Talkin’ Bout A Revolution”, “Fast Car” and “Baby Can I Hold You”.

Twenty-something years later, these songs still sound as fresh and as brilliant as ever.

She used really simple chord progressions for many of her songs.

For instance, “Talkin’ Bout A Revolution” is just G-C-Em-D all the way, but there was something about the way she wrote and sang them that made the songs sound so alive.

It was all about a woman, a guitar, and her bag of social message songs, carrying on in the fine tradition of past folk masters such as Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, etc.

Really amazing stuff.

Apart from the Big Three songs, the album is loaded with many great songs.

They say music today isn’t what it used to be, and I think that’s absolutely true.

Where is the heart, the soul, the voice in music nowadays?

The answer is probably blowin’ somewhere in the wind.