If the dominant mood of her early work was political, the overriding impression of this album is more spiritual. But the same cannot be said of her lyrics. I don't have that much time."Ĭhapman's voice remains the most distinguishing feature of the new album, as it is on every one - a distinctive, husky contralto that sits somewhere between Macy Gray and Suzanne Vega. "But I am a musician and a songwriter, rather than an activist. "Part of me says you're right," she told him. A reporter suggested to her that she should have been there instead of in the Caribbean. I don't think artists have a greater responsibility than anyone else."Ĭhapman was in Jamaica, performing at the One Love Bob Marley All Star tribute in Oracabessa, when a new generation of protesters brought Seattle to a standstill in 1999 over globalisation and unfair trade. "That's what everyone should do with their lives," she says, "stand up for what they believe in, or try to do some good in the world. The track's description of a neighbour listening to the domestic violence next door, too jaded to do anything about it, only to see the ambulance coming to take the victim away, is powerfully understated: "And the police said/I'm here to keep the peace/Will the crowd disperse/I think we all could use some sleep."Īs recently as three years ago, Chapman said, "I think it's important, if you are an artist, to use your music to stand up for what you believe in." Today, it's a statement that she would rather qualify she is less keen to single out herself or her profession for any particular political responsibility. Songs such as Chapman's Behind The Wall spoke directly to these popular concerns. Through Live Aid, the Mandela concert and the Amnesty tours, these people - among them Bob Geldof, Sting, Youssou N'Dour, Bruce Springsteen - espoused the return of morality to public discourse when everything seemed to be subordinated to the pursuit of private affluence. With little organised, effective opposition to the reactionary drift in politics on both sides of the Atlantic, musicians became a key mobilising force in countering the greed-is-good consensus that had taken root during the 1980s. For the past three months she has been working on her new album, Let It Rain, in Sausalito, near San Francisco, along with British producer John Parish (who also produces PJ Harvey and the Eels).Ĭhapman emerged at a highly politicised time for pop music. With high cheekbones and smooth, dark skin, you might recognise her in the street, but it would take you a short while to riffle through your mental Rolodex before you matched the face to the name. Today, aged 38, she boasts a mane of hair that comes halfway down the back of her corduroy jacket.
But the rest of us are stuck with a sound and an image of her that dates from the late 1980s: all pert dreads and protest lyrics. Her second album, Crossroads, released just a year after that memorable debut, did well enough, but failed to lodge itself in the collective memory in the same way.įor those who have been following Chapman's career over the past decade, she never went away there have been world tours, four albums and a whole raft of benefit concerts. We carried on listening to her early work even as her face faded from view.
She got there at the right moment with stuff that was good."īut it was a music and a message that managed both to be of their time and to endure beyond it. "People really wanted what she had," said David Kershenbaum, who produced her first, eponymous album. Aged only 24, she produced not just a one-off memorable song, but a body of work - including Fast Car, Behind The Wall and For My Lover - on an album that many of us still play. Performing at Nelson Mandela's 70th birthday concert at Wembley Stadium back in 1988, Chapman seemed to speak for a generation of would-be radicals who came of political age too late for Paris 1968 and too early for Seattle 1999. R emember Tracy Chapman? For a brief while, 14 years ago, she was everywhere - a powerful, clear voice talkin' about a revolution at a time when Reagan, Thatcher, the Berlin Wall and apartheid all appeared indestructible.