Story Behind The Song

This is an Epilogue to Tracy Chapman?s ?Fast Car?; a musing on the American Dream with post- 9/11 New York City as the backdrop. A girl gets in a cab and ?Fast Car? begins to play on the radio. When she tells the cabdriver she loves the song, this Middle Eastern man turns it up to hear what it is, and confesses he too loves the song. The girl begins to wonder about when this man first heard the song, and what he liked about it. Was it the beautiful guitar hook? The lyrics? She begins to think about how the events surrounding 9/11 have affected this man?s American Dream.

Song Description

This is an Epilogue to Tracy Chapman?s ?Fast Car?; a musing on the American Dream with post- 9/11 New York City as the backdrop. A girl gets in a cab and ?Fast Car? begins to play on the radio. When she tells the cabdriver she loves the song, this Middle Eastern man turns it up to hear what it is, and confesses he too loves the song. The girl begins to wonder about when this man first heard the song, and what he liked about it. Was it the beautiful guitar hook? The lyrics? She begins to think about how the events surrounding 9/11 have affected this man?s American Dream.

Lyrics

One day I?m running late
So I cannot take the subway
I hop into a cab
Love what?s on the radio
The driver turns it up
I smile ?cuz he confesses
This Pakistani man
Loves what?s on the radio too

And so we sing together
Speeding down Bleecker Street
?You?ve got a fast cab?
Is it fast enough that I won?t be late?

Taximan, do you feel you belong?
Taximan, does your dream live on?
Taximan, you take good care, all right?
Taximan, keep the change, and keep on keep on keepin? on

?Where are you from?? they ask
And he always dreads the question
He came to NYC
To git with Lady Liberty
And the flag he displays prominently
Shields him from the vigilantes
They don?t know that he sings with Tracy
And he has a dream like you and me

[Repeat Chorus]

Oh and by the way
You have made my day
Even in a small way
I?m forever changed

[Repeat Chorus]