mercredi 6 Mai 2009, 13h58m

is flipping mind-blowingly, amazingly great. seriously.

i had always heard "fast car" and "give me one reason" among another or two growing up, thanks to my mom. i'd always loved them. even when i was a kid and had no idea what she was really saying. then i got a little older and some of the things she said resonated with me. then i got a little older even and kind of forgot about her. yeah, stupid, huh? totally. so then, i got even older and decided to delve in again, this time fully. entire discography in hand, i got tracy-fied.

so basically, long story short - tracy chapman is AMAZING.
only, i feel like "amazing" doesn't really even begin to cover it. normally i would look up another word that i felt was proper, but it really doesn't matter. because no matter the word, it's not going to do tracy chapman justice. there is no word for this. i am drop dead so serious.

point #1: HER LYRICS!!!!!
the more i listen to her, the more i wonder if there could be a better songwriter. probably. i mean, it's pretty ridiculous to say someone is the best ever. but i've got to be honest with you all, this woman is tops. absolute tops. if you don't want to listen her, just look up some lyrics really quickly. hell, start with "fast car" or "talkin' bout a revolution" or "crossroads" or "subcity" or anything politically and socially related. she has beautiful, beautiful, beautiful songs, slightly softer about love and relationships ("the promise"!) and whatnot as well, but the commentary on our world's way of things impresses me more, personally.

point #2: the melodies, the sounds, the comforting guitar strums…
tracy has a sound about her. it's a warm, welcoming, nostalgic, lively, noticeable, even at many times recognizable sound. her sound reminds me of good things, of good memories, of good times. it just makes me happy to hear her. it's not a personal thing though, not really. anyone could feel it. it's something she creates, not something that was already there. it makes me feel pretty lame to describe it this way, but honestly, the sound i'm envisioning and referring to would be the equivalent of a warm summer day just before the sun sets, when you don't really have a care in the world and yet you are realizing that somehow, for whatever reason… you are totally, inexplicably happy. which is actually rather humorous as her songs often invoke disrupting thoughts and make your mind wander and start to function again. anyway…

point #3: she's beautiful, too.
yeah, i know. nothing to do with the tunes. so sue me. but this is point #3, not #1. it adds a delicious bonus when i'm listening to her work and picking my jaw up off the floor at the realization of her words only to glance over at her and see such a beautiful person. and i don't just mean "wow, she's nice to look at!" beautiful. i do mean that, but i mean it more so. i mean not only is she easy on a set of eyes, but she has a rare beauty to her. when you look at her smiling, it's not just a facial movement. it's felt somewhere from in there, where we can't see. and that tells me that she's beautiful in there, too. and that's just… beautiful! ha. and wonderful. and i love it.

gosh darn, i didn't mean to write a novel on tracy chapman. but you know what? i'm glad i did. because i am feeling her deeply this morning, as i have been much this week and quite a lot over the last twenty years. well, maybe not a full twenty, but we won't get technical…

so here are my final words: listen to tracy chapman.

i leave you with this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Orv_F2HV4gk

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