What's new
By:
USCHO Fan Forum

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • The USCHO Fan Forum has migrated to a new plaform, xenForo. Most of the function of the forum should work in familiar ways. Please note that you can switch between light and dark modes by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right of the main menu bar. We are hoping that this new platform will prove to be faster and more reliable. Please feel free to explore its features.

USCHO Music Thread: We All Have A Crush On Shirley Manson

Status
Not open for further replies.
The first time I heard this song (and the band at the same time) I had just become a father. I didn't immediately pick up on the historical/literary references but it was powerful enough on its own to really punch me in the gut upon first listen. One of the rare songs that gets better over time especially with its message. Really, really resonates in 2024. Also an example of how the UK has some musical treasures that the U.S. completely missed out on.

Kep I'll be insulted if you don't give this one a try.

The future teaches you to be alone
The present to be afraid and cold
So if I can shoot rabbits
Then I can shoot fascists

Bullets for your brain today
But well forget it all again
Monuments put from pen to paper
Turns me into a gutless wonder

And if you tolerate this
Then your children will be next
And if you tolerate this
Then your children will be next
Will be next

Gravity keeps my head down
Or is it maybe shame
At being so young and being so vain

Holes in your head today
But Im a pacifist
Ive walked La Ramblas
But not with real intent

And if you tolerate this
Then your children will be next
And if you tolerate this
Then your children will be next
Will be next

Will be next
And on the street tonight an old man plays
With newspaper cuttings of his glory days

And if you tolerate this
Then your children will be next
And if you tolerate this
Then your children will be next
Will be next
 
Last edited:
I think I understand some of the references:
  • "If I can shoot rabbits / I can shoot fascists" -- the perennial slogan for farm boys who become guerillas
  • "Monuments put from pen to paper / Turns me into a gutless wonder" -- leaving your resistance effort in a comment section instead of doing real work
  • "If you tolerate this, your children will be next" -- "First they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist..."
  • "Gravity keeps my head down" -- the German V2s falling on London while civilians cower in the tube in Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow; the lethal danger of the Right always comes down to war and death
  • "I've walked Las Ramblas / But not with real intent" -- the emptiness of radical chic. Las Ramblas is a street where Barcelonan separatists fought Franco's goons, but the singer is strolling down it as political slumming
  • "And on the street tonight an old man plays / With newspaper cuttings of his glory days" -- a final warning the fascists we just barely beat in the 1940s never went away. They will always lurk, and we can't rest on our laurels. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.
End the Right
Save the world
 
Last edited:
Deutsche Gopher Fan said:
I’ll try to find it. Was a rabbit hole I found from someone on socials who was incredulous that some idiot (honestly can’t remember who) was remarking how Tracy was making money off the new version, like she owed him something and it went from there. Guy also said she ruined the song with her live version. *****, the reason that song rocked is because of her unique voice and the persona and the lyrics- doesn’t quite hit the same with the male country star farting out the words. It sounds like every other ****kicker pathetic country tune
Click to expand...
I will say that I respectfully disagree with this take about Combs’ version. It’s pretty obvious that the cover was done with a great deal of respect for Chapman, to the point he never changed the gendered lyrics, and it is perfectly cromulent even with his twangy vocals, no where near the point of “ruining” the song. And honestly, a song like “Fast Car” being at the top of not only the country music charts but the music charts in general is a vast improvement over BS like “Try That In A Small Town” or whatever other panderin’ crap Nashville churns out.

Now, the country a-hats who are freaking out over a black, queer woman being praised and having her talent rewarded by having a new generation of people enjoy her music? Well, f- them.
 
Kepler said:
Some country music before 1960 is actually good.

The genre is almost all f-cking horrible slack-jawed drool, fit for the infantile mentality of the holler or the pew. But there's a couple exceptions.
Click to expand...
Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson are definitely exceptions and I will fight you on this. But yeah, nearly all of the modern stuff is MAGA pandering.
 
The fact that “Fast Car” even became a hit on the country charts is astounding, that kind of lyrical content is usually forbidden on country radio.
 
Jimjamesak said:
The fact that “Fast Car” even became a hit on the country charts is astounding, that kind of lyrical content is usually forbidden on country radio.
Click to expand...

Just adds to the overall incredulity I have that it’s so recently popular. Gay black woman writing lyrics about struggle isn’t generally the fav on that genre but I’m guessing many don’t really listen to lyrics (or think new version is only version). Fast car means vroom vroom
 
Jimjamesak said:
Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson are definitely exceptions and I will fight you on this. But yeah, nearly all of the modern stuff is MAGA pandering.
Click to expand...

I'll say something that deserves to get me punched out: Dolly Parton is an American treasure and a great human being and she should replace Jackson on the twenty, but almost all of her music is awful. She suffers from Linda Ronstadt Disease: an incredible voice and persona and just swill songs.

Nelson can write a song, I'll give you that. And Cash is a GOAT, although I think his best work is Gospel.
 
Deutsche Gopher Fan said:
Just adds to the overall incredulity I have that it’s so recently popular. Gay black woman writing lyrics about struggle isn’t generally the fav on that genre but I’m guessing many don’t really listen to lyrics (or think new version is only version). Fast car means vroom vroom
Click to expand...
Meh, Chapman’s version is apparently #1 on the iTunes chart right now and looks to be charting again on the Billboard ones so there’s a new appreciation it seems l. Anecdotally, my teenage daughter is listening to it and has said she detests the Combs version but loves Chapman’s version so… *shrug*.

In the end, Chapman’s version is being appreciated as it should and she’s making money. If some country idiots completely miss the point of the original who cares? I think “bless your heart” is a good response.
 
Jimjamesak said:
Meh, Chapman’s version is apparently #1 on the iTunes chart right now and looks to be charting again on the Billboard ones so there’s a new appreciation it seems l. Anecdotally, my teenage daughter is listening to it and has said she detests the Combs version but loves Chapman’s version so… *shrug*.

In the end, Chapman’s version is being appreciated as it should and she’s making money. If some country idiots completely miss the point of the original who cares? I think “bless your heart” is a good response.
Click to expand...

Oh I def don’t care, I think it’s hilarious which is why I posted about it in the first place.

I knew it would all lead to some new people discovering her version so that’s the best part.
 
Deutsche Gopher Fan said:
My issue is that she’s been lending it out like a taxi to others, and flying them around empty. She flies to nyc weekly for dinner with her friends and then often back to kc. It’s not like she’s using them just to tour

that’s what the kid exposed and why she’s ****ed
Click to expand...

Yeah even I have a problem with her use of jets.
 
Deutsche Gopher Fan said:
Also, if she wanted to remain private, she shouldn’t have become a literal billionaire on the back of being famous. She’s literally saying I’m gonna do what I want but I don’t want anyone to know because it invades my “privacy” well that’s her choice. She’s literally doing what Elmo did, and that’s not a position you want to be in.
Click to expand...

Actually she can request a private transponder. Four the like of me i don't understand why she doesn't
 
Kepler said:
I'll say something that deserves to get me punched out: Dolly Parton is an American treasure and a great human being and she should replace Jackson on the twenty, but almost all of her music is awful. She suffers from Linda Ronstadt Disease: an incredible voice and persona and just swill songs.

Nelson can write a song, I'll give you that. And Cash is a GOAT, although I think his best work is Gospel.
Click to expand...

I completely agree. I can't stand her music. She's a brilliant person though.
 
Jimjamesak said:
Meh, Chapman’s version is apparently #1 on the iTunes chart right now and looks to be charting again on the Billboard ones so there’s a new appreciation it seems l. Anecdotally, my teenage daughter is listening to it and has said she detests the Combs version but loves Chapman’s version so… *shrug*.

In the end, Chapman’s version is being appreciated as it should and she’s making money. If some country idiots completely miss the point of the original who cares? I think “bless your heart” is a good response.
Click to expand...

I still remember the first time I heard Fast Car. We had an old antenna TV and if I could get the antennas placed JUST right, I could get The Box channel 13 to come in (I'll bet most of you MN folks don't know we had a channel 13 back in the day)

anyways. They were playing that song a couple times a day and whenever it came on I was thinking I was hearing greatness.
 
I was 23 the first time I heard Fast Car, in the T station at Harvard Square, through which I commuted every day. I heard one of the first public performances she ever gave of it; potentially even the first. Chapman busked there every day in the same place. She was quite popular and her case was ever overflowing. She interacted well and held the crowd.

After a few weeks, I had learned the patter and the songs got tiresome. But it went on and on and on, and is inextricably linked with early mornings, work logistics irritability, and the general grossness of Bostonians, idiocy of tourists, and stultifying feyness of Cantabridgian subway socialists (the Workers World dude was right next to her).

None of that is her fault, but I feel like I toured with Chapman for a year, and if I never hear her again I will be happy. I can't imagine how bored artists get of their own material. If I were the Stones with a 2500 song catalog, I would go entire tours never repeating the same tune.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top