the interpretation of poetry

[metaphortunate]

Suzanne Vega's Solitude Standing was one of the key albums of my adolescence. I remember a really impassioned conversation sometime around midnight in a parking lot outside of a diner (no, not Tom's diner…this is real life we're talking about here) with a couple of classmates about how "Tom's Diner" is a metaphor, man. I think it was a metaphor for alienation. Probably. High school was a while ago.

The song "Gypsy" features the line, which at the time I thought was romantic and evocative, "Oh, hold me like a baby that will not fall asleep." At the time I did not realize that Vega was exhorting her lover to hold her while bouncing vigorously on a yoga ball, sticking a finger in her mouth, and alternating between SHUSHing loudly in her ear and murmuring "Go to sleep, go to sleep, you tiny motherfucker" to the tune of Brahms' Lullaby.

Comments

[sara]

I remember one night when I sang as much of the Beatles' oevure as I could remember to a fussy baby.

I know a lot of Beatles songs.

[kate_nepveu]

Like a sleeping baby, maybe, but yeah, not like one who won't fall asleep . . .

[thistleingrey]

:))

[metaphortunate]

Yeeep. Sleeping babies are warm and so very relaxing!

[metaphortunate]

I end up singing a lot of Simon & Garfunkel and also Leonard Cohen.

[rachelmanija]

HA HA. You realize that you have now ruined the song for me. ;) I will henceforth sing it as "hold me like a baby that's fallen asleep."

[merielle]

I laughed so hard I kermitflailed. You crack my shit up.

[metaphortunate]

Much more accurate!