Title: Cold Feet
Author: Tracy Chapman
Category: Song Lyrics
The song Cold Feet by Tracy Chapman is an inspirational song about how our wants and needs can drive us to not only success but also to our graves. The song which was released in 1995 describes the story of how one man had everything he could have dreamt for in life, love, a roof over his head and a loving wife. But naturally in the society we live in not only today in the 21st century but also the society that was mid 1990’s, man desire more to satisfy themselves and others around them. Initially he wanted to give himself more to keep him from suffering the hard times in life; the “Cold Feet”. When he met his wife, he naturally wanted to provide her with more of life’s treasures that she currently didn’t have. He wanted to be the provider, he wanted to be a man and leave behind the shadows of his boyhood. He needed to show that he could provide for her, and in order to do so he would work hard and do anything to get what he required. In the end the superficial things that weren't the things that made him the loving, hard-working man he was, would become his undoing. The man, just like many people in today’s world fell into society’s dangerous trap of “Getting Rich quick”; speeding up the process of getting their desires but unfortunately facing no luck and winding up dead. Tracy Chapman artistically describes throughout the song how the dangers of society and our superficial world can lead you to a world six feet under ground.
I highly recommend that Year 12 students listen to this song as it sends out a great warning towards today’s society about how desires can have dangerous effects upon our lives. As the song begins by telling the story of the boy at a young age, I think Year 12 students will be able to relate to this as currently most students would be in similar situations. They will be living at home, where their parents are providing warmth, shelter, food, and love