Andiaphora: Fast Car

The other day I heard a great song from my past: Fast Car by Tracy Chapman (video). It was released in 1988, but came back in popularity again while I was in college.

It is a depressing song, looking at how bad situations can perpetuate; the vicious cycle of poverty.

Also depressing is how much the narrator of the song sees the car as the solution. The car can take her away from her drunken father and her run down life and into some fantasy life just across the border. The car can provide entertainment for cruising, even while living in the shelter. The car can take away the good-for-nothing spouse. And maybe worse (or maybe I am reading too much into it), the car relates to the feeling of self-actualization:

I had a feeling that I belonged
I had a feeling I could be someone, be someone, be someone

How will the future generations see this song? I suspect it will be seen as a sign of the times it was written in. The deception of fixing problems by running away is just as great as the deception that the car can cure the ills. Maybe the concept that the poor could own and operate a car will even seem absurd, just as today the it seems absurd that at one time it was doctors that had cars so that they could drive to patients (because their patients didn't have cars to drive and see them).