The video of the Tracy Chapman/Luke Combs Grammys duet performance of Chapman’s “Fast Car” that circulated on X has been removed. The video conveyed a moving performance of a moving song. I found it yesterday reposted on Tracy Chapman’s own X account. Now it’s been jacked by the copyright owner, if that’s not a contradiction in terms. It’s a sad postscript to a happy event.
Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs – Fast Car#GRAMMYs pic.twitter.com/WWztcov2tJ
— Craig R. Brittain (@RealBrittain) February 5, 2024
Below is the silent GIF that has passed muster with the copyright owner, whoever it may be. This too has also been reposted on Tracy’s own X account.
Perfect duo does exist! #GRAMMYs pic.twitter.com/sOYNCjztLn
— Recording Academy / GRAMMYs (@RecordingAcad) February 5, 2024
“Fast Car” is a song that mixes hope and despair in a story that could be plucked from life. It condenses so much adversity, pain, and disappointment along with the striving for a better life against the odds — there must be something with which everyone can identify in one way or another. That great line in the chorus resonates: “I had a feeling that I could be someone.”
Among the surviving videos are the official one of the hit Combs recording that returned Chapman’s song to the airwaves last year, one of the official video of Combs’s live performance of the song this past May at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, and one of Tracy’s original recording of the song. I posted all three along with the jacked video here yesterday. The copyright owner thinks it’s okay if you watch the official video of Chapman’s original version of the song posted on the Tracy Chapman YouTube channel, now number 1 on the iTunes list of top songs 36 years after its release. That is the happy postscript to a happy event.
UPDATE: The Recording Academy has posted the video of the Chapman/Combs performance of “Fast Car” at the Grammys. It is posted here in a form that seems to be unembeddable.
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