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I don’t like country music; it’s just not my taste. I grew up on it because my mother loved it, but at some point, it changed to be just this side of Dave Matthews Band mixed with Hootie and the Blowfish, a fake kind of “party rock,” if you can call it that, that’s just not anything that interests me. Give me Alabama, Oak Ridge Boys, Charlie Pride, Conway Twitty, Johnny Cash, Tammy Wynette, George Jones, and everything else I was forcibly marinated in while sitting in the backseat of my parent’s Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme, and I could sing along all day, almost involuntarily. I like the memories more than the music, but one inspires the other, so I’m in.
Modern country, meh. I’ve never been that big of a fan of anything other than indy/alternative rock, stuff I’d only hear on Canadian radio late at night growing up in Detroit. But some things you simply can’t escape. I never liked hair bands, though some songs are ok, but I was aware of it. I had no use for folk, but I know who the Indigo Girls are, and I never attended Lilith Fair.
And I know who Tracy Chapman is, as does anyone over the age of 30, I suspect. Her song, “Fast Car,” was inescapable. It was a huge hit when it was released in 1988, got heavy rotation on MTV back when the M stood for Music, and has been around ever since. Some hits come and go, others linger. Chapman’s song has lingered.
It’s a fine song; I just find folk music boring. But I don’t find it obnoxious to the point I feel compelled to turn it off like some modern incoherent rap or techno “dance” music. It’s fine background music that allows you to ignore it as much as you want to while still knowing something is there; a useful void-filler.
Still, it’s been some time since I’ve heard the song or even thought about it because why would I? I don’t really listen to music much; I’m more of an audiobook guy now. So when I saw Tracy Chapman’s picture next to a hairy white guy in a tweet from a New York Times “reporter,” I stopped for a second out of curiosity. I’d seen enough of these “outraged-by-proxy” stories to recognize them simply by the photo.
The writer, someone called Emily Yahr, tweeted out, “As Luke Combs’s hit cover of Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” dominates the country charts, it’s bringing up some complicated emotions in fans & singers who know that Chapman, as a queer Black woman, would have an almost zero chance at that achievement herself.”
To that moment, I didn’t know Chapman was “queer.” To this moment, I still don’t give a damn.
But what is the point of the story? To piss people off, to smear country music fans as racist homophobes, to divide, and to lie to do it. (You can read it here. Don’t worry, it’s an archived version so the Times won’t get the clicks.)
Yahr, either because she or her editors are incredibly dumb lap dogs for the progressive movement and decided a cover of the song by some country artist called Luke Combs (I told you, I have no use for the stuff) was newsworthy because he’s white and the songwriter is black and gay. She wrote, “One particular cover has struck a chord that no one saw coming.” Why? A good and popular song is a good and popular song. Does it really matter if someone white covers a song by someone black or vice-versa? How about someone gay covering a song by someone straight?
Of course it doesn’t; you’re not an idiot leftist. To idiot leftists, skin color or who someone screws is all that matters – the individual is irrelevant; disposable, really.
The cover is a hit, which upsets people who find joy in being upset by stupid things. Yahr reports the cover’s success “prompted a wave of complicated feelings among some listeners and in the Nashville music community. Although many are thrilled to see ‘Fast Car’ back in the spotlight and a new generation discovering Chapman’s work, it’s clouded by the fact that, as a Black queer woman, Chapman, 59, would have almost zero chance of that achievement herself in country music.”
Honestly, everyone in the country has “almost zero chance” of having a number one country or any other kind of hit. Why is it special that Chapman is black and queer? It’s not.
Lil Nas X is black and gay, and he had the biggest country hit ever with a song called “Old Town Road” a couple of years ago. It went huge worldwide and raked in millions upon millions of dollars. If only we were all so oppressed.
But Yahr never mentions any of it, as its existence would negate the entire point of her piece.
The story quotes professional victims and race-centric activists. It invokes George Floyd because it’s a required useful tool for the left to signal liberal chardonnay-swilling suburban women hoping to gain social credit points at their next school board meeting counter-protest to protect kids from learning how to read or do math at the expense of memorizing even more pronouns.
The story is stuffed full of quotes from people who have no connection to Chapman or Combs, ready to express their anger about something no one directly involved in the events discussed is remotely angry or upset over. If victimhood-by-proxy were an Olympic event, the Times would have interviewed all the medalists in this category.
Not offended in any way, shape, or form, was really the only person who should matter in the whole story: Tracy Chapman. She didn’t comment to the Times (neither did Combs), and the only thing the folk singer ever said about it was positive, issuing a statement to Billboard reading, “I never expected to find myself on the country charts, but I’m honored to be there. I’m happy for Luke and his success and grateful that new fans have found and embraced ‘Fast Car.’”
That’s it, that’s all of it. But that’s not good enough for the left. Chapman is a very private person, never having “outed” herself (something the Times curiously only casually mentions while screaming she’s gay throughout the story on her behalf), who is perfectly fine with a white guy covering her song. It’s the activist left, the people running the Democrat Party and media, who aren’t.
The same mentality that looked at polls showing only 5 percent of Native Americans even remotely offended by the name “Washington Redskins,” yet caused those offended, bored, white activist suburbanites to crusade on behalf of the people who weren’t offended to change the name to Commanders, are back on behalf of Chapman. They aren’t bothered by the fact that she isn’t bothered; she’s just a delivery device whose opinions or desires don’t matter. It’s the ultimate in opportunism and where the modern left lives.
It’s how the left governs – they declare their positions to be the will of the people without regard for all the evidence to the contrary and scream, “This is what democracy looks like,” while suing every time they lose a referendum or vote of elected representatives, decidedly the exact opposite of what democracy is.
Leftists are bad people who seek to divide everyone on issues big and small for their own advantage; they do nothing by accident. They may not ruin everything they touch, but it’s not for lack of trying.
“ it’s clouded by the fact that, as a Black queer woman, Chapman, 59, would have almost zero chance of that achievement herself in country music.”
And of course, the leftist elites seem to think people are stupid enough to believe that Tracy Chapman wasn’t successful FORTY years ago because she’s coloured and a lesbian.
I bought everything she produced in the 80’s and did not care about her skin colour or sexual preferences.
Neither did millions of people who bought soul music and tamla motown music FIFTY YEARS AGO which we all loved.
Neither did the fans of Jazz and Blues 60 and 70 years ago.
How much longer do these leftist elites think coloured people need to be given affirmative action for?
Look up The Great Awakening from the plandemic and you’ll see the answer.
Defund the UN now!
Yes.
I notice the top two songs in America right now are country songs – AS USUAL. “Try That in a Small Town,” by Jason Aldean, and “81 Million Votes my Ass,” by the Truth Bombers.
Aldean is right of course, because we ALL know BLM and Antifa have only been allowed to rampage in big blue cities, and “The Truth Bombers are right about the illegitimacy of the Basement Biden Residency.
Aldean is smeared as a racist for pointing out real racism, and the Truth Bombers are smeared as conspiracy theorists for pointing out what everybody with even a single brain cell knows is the truth. We all know how much Dirtbagocrat leftists hate the truth.
The lyrics of both songs are great and so are the songs. I suggest people look them up. They’re worth the web search. They’re funny, too.
It’s hard work fundamentally destroying a country founded on economic, religious, a Bill of Rights and social freedom.
No nook or cranny is too invisible nor unimportant enough to ignore.
The Left have taken hold against the will of the majority and they are not taking any chances. Politicizing music, lit, art, sports is standard on the totalitarian to-do list. Mores around sex, personal relationships and marriage have to be transformed like everything else. We are like Kafka’s Gregor, the U.S. has woken up, seemingly overnight, to discover we have morphed into a hideous looking insect. It’s not a good ending in the story either.
I didn’t know Tracy Chapman is black or folk, I she was white and country.
There will come a time when we stop caring what the Sodomites say. Until then, Derek Hunter will continue whining.
Well, that is three minutes of my life I won’t get back.
Maybe now this moron Emily Yahr will savage The Four Tops for having a successful cover of The (white) Left Banke’s “Walk Away Renee,” or Aretha Franklin’s hit cover of (the white) Carol King’s “Natural Woman” or (the white) Burt Bacharach/Hal David’s “I Say a Little Prayer,” or Issac Hays’ cover of (the white) Jimmy Webb/Glenn Campbell “By the Time I Get to Phoenix.” I can’t wait until she discovers that (the white) The Beatles’ “Twist and Shout” was a cover of the (black) Isley Bros. hit. Her head will explode in rage. Glad to know that The New York Times, our “paper of record” employs such stupid, shallow, ignorant people.
Good points. Normal people don’t care who covers a song.
Shallow and ignorant for sure! But I think these papers are no longer interested in the truth so much as their agenda. And Emily Yahr serves her masters well.
The left wrecks everything because it is run by and designed to appeal to malcontents, grifters, graspers, losers, and similar subhuman garbage.
Its founder, Marx, told his followers to “criticize all that exists.” Also, Marx’s favorite play was Goethe’s “Faust,” and his favorite character in it was Mephistopheles, and his favorite line was “everything that exists deserves to perish.” Marxism is a destructive ideology that seeks to, and is good at, undermining and destroying everything and good at building absolutely nothing worthwhile. It is the philosophy of hateful, destructive, envy-filled, unproductive, losers.
A case can easily be made that the goal of Marxism is to destroy God’s greatest creation: Humanity itself.
I didn’t know that but I’m not surprised. “Mein Kampf” is less retarded and offensive than Marx’s screeds.
Answer: NO, including their ability to breath.
Also, Tracy will be raking in the royalties from the country version. as well as having some younger folks inspired to go back and look at her catalogue. Why wouldn’t she be happy?
You have to ask this question: does this essay lend “credibility” and recognition to some moron named Emily Yahr? Is this really worth the time to write or read? 80 percent or more of the “news” stories that appear on line that address wokedom’s totalitarian rants and rage do nothing but feed the monster. It would be far more constructive and edifying if the effort was directed to transforming their hateful, empty, vacuous, power-lustful blather into a joke that it should be rather than trying to engage the wokidots (short for woke-idiots) on their own demented and destructive turf.
At lease Country Music is not like certain Rap Music that pushes Violence like the Infamous Ice-T or the one with the CD cover showing their leader pushing a button and the WTC exploding
Yes but rap isn’t music or even singing. It’s just hateful doggerel spoken with no rhythm, melody or harmony.
Great article. Dad Was the Country listener, especially old Honkey Tonk, along with big bands, and old time Gospel. Hank Thompson, Hank Snow, Patsy Cline, Artie Shaw, Glen Miller, The Statesmen, The Blackwood Brothers, the Stamps, and Elvis’s gospel music. Mom turned me on to The Ventures, Booker T & the MGs, and the Beatles. I was more hard rock, southern boogie, and Funk. There’s a lot of their music that I didn’t particularly like at the time, that I like now because of the memories.
Everything is political, everything is racial, and everything is sexual to the left. They’re the most miserable, narrow minded people on the planet I can’t wait to see what emily yahr has to say about Jason Aldean’s current hit that has her fellow leftists in a snit, and CMT running for cover.
Yeah, CMT sure screwed over its fan base. It’s like it wants to be ESPN.
“Try That in a Small Town.” That song is great.
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Yours truly is a ‘geologist by trade, musician by heart.’ My looker mother sang w/ a big-band in Prague 1948. She caught my dad’s eye in the huge dance hall w/ real parquet & chandeliers. My parents had a 2′ high stack of LPs, mostly big bands, Am. bandstand & Elvis. At age six was humming ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ – still dig that piece. My dad drove the commies nuts in the ’50s w/ the ‘decadent capitalist trash’ per the official red party agitprop. The commies then channeled Adolf w/ loud red propaganda blaring from lamp posts on SAs. The distorted noise was inescapable. My dad got mad, opened the window, put the massive wooden radio w/ a gramophone on top on the sill w/ a big band LP. Elvis was next & that blew up the red ‘hood. The then teens came by the 100s, started to dance & chant, ‘We want Freedom, we want Elvis!’ Of course, the red militia beat the crap out of them. My dad also rode a Harley 750 Knucklehead. The entire red woke ‘hood hated us. Few days later, the Czech KGB kicked the door down ~3 AM & took dad away. My mother almost had a heart-attack! Several weeks later, he came home but lost his job as a chemist, was declared the enemy of the state & the people & sentenced to ditch digging. So, our woke radical marxist lefties politicizing music ain’t nothing new. The red-brown comrades of old did likewise.
In the mid ’60s while in college, we listened to the Beatles, Ray Charles, Otis Reading, Wilson Pickett, Sam Cook, Aretha F., et all, on LPs. No W music on the radio.
Since I play guitar, like only traditional C&W, Marty Robins & such. Like most music genres except hip-hop & rap. The woke & moronic wench Yahr is a typical leftist sourpuss & killjoy. Never heard of Tracy C. but happy for her royalty checks due to the new cover. Same w/ the yuge hit by Jason Aldean. The boycott of his song ‘Try that in a small town’ is making him very rich. Schadenfreude anyone?
Apropos the Wuhan-covid hysteria & full-blown fascism of the lockdowns & lies. Mocking is the right medicine. Copy & paste into YT — I miss your Face-2021 — a peppy HD country-rock tune. It will brighten your day. 😉
Mr. Hunter, I’ve been reading you for a number of years, to be honest I’m not sure where I got your postings but this one here……..You’ve managed to get about ALL of it in a nut shell, operations, consistent tactics that even the NYT should eye roll over. Brilliant piece right here, thank you.
Copying somebodies music is the highest form of flattery and the Rolling Stones first Album was covers of black Americans great music, much of The Beatles early stuff also as that’s where Rock N Roll came out of, so no doubt Tracy Chapman is honored that anybody would cover her music as she gets the Royalties plus the gathering of new Fans who may find out the origin of the song and so discover her version of the song but dont ya just love it when silly white snowflakes always step up to defend black people because they seem to think blacks are way to stupid to defend themselves.
Those that scream from the rooftops about how anti racist they are normally are THE most racist people around, otherwise why mention that to everybody.
Mz Chapman lived in my neighborhood in San Francisco in the 1980s and I often seen her with her girlfriend at our local Health Food Store… Nice couple of females and I say that as white straight guy.