Talkin' Bout a Revolution

Chapman wrote this song when she was 16 and a student at Wooster, a boarding school in Danbury, Connecticut. She grew up in Cleveland but ended up at Wooster because she landed a scholarship. She grew up in a working-class neighborhood, so Chapman wasn't used to this privileged class and the transition was difficult. "I found that people at the school didn't really have that much interest," she said in 1986. "I was really angry about that, and that's where the song 'Talkin' 'Bout A Revolution' came from. Meaning that a lot of them thought that. They didn't think that people's lives - people who didn't have money or who were working class - their lives weren't very significant and they also somehow couldn't make a change. But I feel that's where change comes from, that's where people are in most need."

"Fast Car" is Tracy Chapman's most popular song, "Talkin' 'Bout A Revolution" is probably her signature, played at just about all of her shows and one she's clearly proud of. It's no coincidence that it's the first song on her debut album, a fitting introduction.

Looking back on this song in a 2000 interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Chapman said: "I don't feel that far removed from the sentiments behind that song. I'm still thinking and hoping there's an opportunity for people to have better lives and that significant change can occur."