Speed Racer

I've gone back and forth about writing a post for "Speed Racer" so close to the start of this blog, but the elephant in the room must be dealt with. Inasmuch as Vic Chesnutt has a singular, iconic song, it's "Speed Racer".

"Speed Racer" is the climactic song on Chesnutt's first album, 1990's Little, and much of its attendant love has to do with its autobiographical nature and unflinching confessional tone. A 1992 PBS documentary on Chesnutt took the title, and even for those who have followed his every move, the song looms large over his entire canon. Which is not to say that "Speed Racer" is his best song, but it does contain all of the songwriting and performance elements that make him unique, while directly dealing with a personal event that for some fans, and certainly the media, is defining.

In 1983, at the age of 18, Chesnutt was left partially paralyzed after a car accident. In the trailer for Peter Sillen's film, Chesnutt says (submerged in a bathtub and doodling a picture of himself in his wheelchair on the wall tiles) that he gets asked why he doesn't write songs about his chair, then submits that maybe they're all about it. "Speed Racer" doesn't reference his car accident or wheelchair confinement explicitly, but it's a declaration of attitude and world-view that serves as an answer to people's questions about it. "I used to watch Speed Racer with that hyper attitude / That carried me here to this fluorescent enlightenment!" he sings, which prefigures the hospital room of "Supernatural" (another enormously beloved Chesnutt song concerning the crash).

I once read in an interview (at least I think I did, I can't seem to find the damn thing) that after the accident, some people's reactions were it was destiny, part of God's plan, somehow meant to be "for a reason". "Speed Racer" is defiantly opposed to this, and in a powerful chorus, Chesnutt yowls:

I'm not a victim!

I'm not a victim!

No, I am intelligent, I am intelligent!

I'm not a victim!

I'm not a victim!

No, I am an atheist, I am an atheist!

A brave sentiment anywhere, but particularly in the deep South. He then elaborates, "The idea of divine order is essentially crazy / The laws of action and reaction are the closest thing to truth in the universe." Imagine allowing yourself to write such bold lines, then imagine trying to sing them with a semblance of fluidity.

Music fans love to know the stories behind their favorite songs, and love to believe that every song is an autobiographical one, even if they're not. That "Speed Racer" alludes to the question on everyone's mind when they see him perform in his wheelchair ("How'd he get there?") feeds into that sensationalist/curious corner of our imaginations. At one of the shows I saw Vic perform at the Iron Horse in Northampton, Massachusetts, a fellow audience member shouted out his request for "Speed Racer", to which he replied something to the effect of, "No, that one's too difficult." The concert-goer persisted with, "But it's my birthday!" Vic squinted his eyes and leveled them right at the guy. "You lyin' motherfucker." Then he played it.