It was in that surprise second set that she played “Fast Car.” Just before Stevie Wonder was supposed to perform, a piece of his sound equipment went missing, and he refused to go on stage. But then, as the legend goes, serendipity gave the world another glimpse of this commanding artist. “Behind the Wall” was the second of what was supposed to be a three-song set. And as she sang with that magnetic calm, she built an atmosphere as intimate as each listener’s childhood bedroom. Within five years, she would perform it for a television audience of 600 million in a packed Wembley Stadium for Nelson Mandela’s 70th birthday benefit concert.Īlone on that massive stage, guitar in hand, she allowed the echoing mic and screaming crowd to amplify the quiet of the song. Chapman wrote the song in 1983, while she was still a student at Tufts University and busking in Boston for distracted passersby. The last lines-“The police/Always come late/If they come at all”-ring off into nothing. Between verses, she lets the air settle into silence before charging into the dark scene once again.
Her trembling contralto soars and then, just as quickly, falls into a whisper.
A spotlight comes up on Tracy Chapman as she moves into the a capella song “Behind the Wall.” She sings from the point of view of a neighbor hearing a woman screaming in the apartment next door.
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