In a different voice

On "Fast Car" and cultural appropriation.

Dear friends,

If you grew up in the 1980s, like me, you can probably recognize Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” from the first few notes: da-da-da-DAH, up and down and up again. When Chapman’s contralto comes in, it’s so rich and deep that the first time I heard it, I couldn’t tell if the singer was a man or a woman. But even before the line about working as a…