Driving, Driving In Her Car

Yes, yes — I know, posting again about the Indigo Girls and Tracy Chapman in the same week? I’m not a lesbian cliche. I am just very On Brand. Anyway, as I was saying, you might have heard recently that Tracy Chapman has become the first Black woman to land a No. 1 on the Country Airplay charts thanks to Luke Combs’ cover of her 1988 classic “Fast Car.”

I am decidedly not a fan of Luke’s version, faithful as it may be, because something about having a straight cis het white dude sing those words just hits different. And it also annoys the grumpy old lesbian inside of me that kids today may think a guy named Luke actually wrote this iconic 35-year-old song. Because, goodness, he did not.

But, I am happy that as the primary holder of its writing and publishing credits, Tracy is raking in beaucoup royalties and chart accolades on a song that first charted for her when Ronald Reagan was president. According to Billboard, that’s somewhere to the tune of $500,000 which is no Kate Bush “Running Up that Hill” money, but still clearly will help toward that goal of buying a bigger house and moving to the suburbs. Or, alternately, buy a person a very, very, very fast car.