The songwriter Neil Young said was the only one that had “it”
It almost goes without saying that Neil Young knows his stuff when it comes to being the arbiter of good taste, so if you get his seal of approval, then you’re evidently doing something right.
One of the most creative songwriters to have ever lived, Young barely ever had barren periods where his abilities seemed to dwindle. The spark has been glowing for Young for decades, and that’s something that ultimately gives him the right and the authority to keep commenting on the ability of others, given that he’s clearly not past his sell-by date.
The 1980s are, arguably, the decade in which Young entered one of his low points as an artist, and no matter how much he tried his best to keep being an innovator during the decade, much like many of his contemporaries, he lost a little bit of his stock in terms of how well he was perceived by others. Despite this, towards the end of this decade, he stumbled upon the work of an emerging songwriter who blew him away, and who could reasonably be credited with helping him find the inspiration to come back as strong as ever.
Ohio-born Tracy Chapman was only 24 years of age when she emerged with her self-titled debut album, but the amount of maturity on display was unanimously seen to be far beyond what someone of her age is usually expected to deliver. The accolades received by the album, its lead single, ‘Fast Car’, and Chapman herself, saw her rise to fame in an instant, and while there were clearly plenty of people singing her praises, none were more impressed than Young.
In an interview with Spin shortly after the release of Tracy Chapman, Young commented on how staggeringly good her debut album was, and how she was a rare talent in an age where traditional songwriting was becoming favoured less and less in the mainstream. “She’s got the light,” he proclaimed. “I was saying to Elliot Roberts [Young’s manager at the time] that I want to take her on the road with me because she’s got the light, an inspiration, she’s carrying it.”
He later went on to acknowledge that having this “light” is something that you have to try and clutch onto for the rest of your career, and it doesn’t come to many people. “She’s the only one who’s got it right now. You can have it and then it’s gone, you know, you don’t know why. It gets snuffed out and then somebody else has got it. You might get it again but there is no way to keep it. It’s not in your control and she has it.”
These words of affirmation from Young would lead to Chapman eventually working and touring alongside Young, something that the Canadian had clearly campaigned in favour of. Her second album, Crossroads, arrived only a year after her debut, and featured Young playing guitar and piano of ‘All That You Have Is Your Soul’, partially as a result of Roberts assuming management of Chapman as well as Young.
While her career may not have continued as strongly as her debut did, she had no expectations for that level of success in the first place, and while the “light” may have gone for her, at least she can claim to have had it.
