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Suzanne Vega — Songs in Red & Gray
Album: Songs In Red & Gray
Avg rating:
7.2

Your rating:
Total ratings: 1041









Released: 2001
Length: 4:13
Plays (last 30 days): 0
The reproach in your daughter's most beautiful face
made me wonder just how she could know
of that something that happened between you and me
so much more than a long time ago

Her mother, I can see, lives within her still
cause she looked at me with her eyes
though I had only just met her right then
I feel that she peeled back my guilty disguise

Did i break the thread, or did you break the thread?
well at this point we could ask who cares
as for the promises broken and frayed
it's 19 years late for repairs

The grey pewter vase held the deep red rose,
one piece of coral shone white,
by the brass candlestick near your red velvet coat,
is everything I can recall of one night

Will you please tell me why I remember these things
after all of this time, I don't know
i must have left all those feelings inside
cause that year I had no courage to show

Was i the name you could never pronounce?
or did i even figure at all?
all of this happened before she was born
did i shadow her young pencil marks on the wall

Still i am sure i was only but one
of a number who darkened that door
of your home and your hearth and your family and wife
who'd been darkened so often before

Oh, the red leaf looks to the hard gray stone
to each other, they know what they mean
somewhere, their future is still yet to come
in ways that are yet as of now unforeseen
Comments (61)add comment
Up there in the top 10 female singer songwriters.
Ya know...she's been pumping out very good, provocative music for 37 years. 

That's approaching  Dylan and Van status.  
My dyslexia kicked in and I saw "Songs in Red Gravy".
The entire album is amazing. 
 hippiechick wrote:

This song is about meeting her lover's wife, after many years. You can feel the feelings in her words and music.


At least meeting the daughter of a man who was born after she had a one night stand with him 19 years prior.  The man was also frequently unfaithful to his wife back in that day.
No comments in 2 years? I consider this her most profound album. First encountered on RP. And this piece always causes me to pause. And to write comments, sometimes.
such
beauty
in such an animal
as
we
{#Heartkiss}
OK red and grey is an interesting concept that allows surprising depth.  Very human.  I want to hear more. 
Best track on her best album, I think.
The lyrics tell the story deeply and well.  Makes up for too many shallow lines and badly written songs. Thank you, Ms Vega.
fabulous song from a remarkable album.. {#Cheers}
I'm amazed and so glad to see that a lot of people here love this song and the whole album.
It came out when you still could listen to new records/CDs/albums in stores (another time, another space) before buying them... and I very rarely actually bought new albums at the time.
But I listened to the two first songs and bought it right away. And boy didn't I regret it.
My personal favorite from it remains "Maggie May".

Judging from the relatively few comments, songs from "Songs from(!) red and grey" don't get a lot of airplay here.
Bill reigns on this marvelleous radio he created - still, I'll keep hoping he gives this album more room...

The mere fact it gets played at all is just one more testimony to how much RP's DNA is overlapping with mine
Brilliant
The track "Soap and Water" from this effort is stunning...
 gjeeg wrote:
omg.
This is about the most haunting song I have heard in years.
Reading the lyrics afterward, I get the chills.
 
me too
 bitbanger wrote:


What a great comment. Right on the mark!
 



Heartbreaking yes. But the love goes on unbroken in this music as it is in my soul.
"Cause she looked at me with her eyes"

... as opposed to her ears? 

 dogpound wrote:
listening to her is like failing in love and having your heart broken at the same time
 

What a great comment. Right on the mark!
 dogpound wrote:
listening to her is like failing in love and having your heart broken at the same time
 
wow, I can't believe I wrote that. How my life has changed since.
omg.
This is about the most haunting song I have heard in years.
Reading the lyrics afterward, I get the chills.
Somewhere their future is still yet to come
in ways that are yet as of now unforseen.


Classic SV. Awesome! 
Its the daughter of that wife she meets ("her mother's eyes live within her still", the wife is dead now).  Its a song of guilt for the affair... No one found out, no one ever knew, but she feels guilt over the act and wonders wether he feels the guilt she feels over this... she suspects he doesn't.  All this I think I get.  The verse I don't get is this one:

And the red leaf it looks to the hard gray stone
To each other, they know what they mean
Somewhere, their future is still yet to come
In ways that are yet as of now unforeseen 

Somehow I think she's the leaf and he's the hard gray stone... but... not sure.  I always love her imagery. 

 hippiechick wrote:
This song is about meeting her lover's wife, after many years. You can feel the feelings in her words and music.
 

 dogpound wrote:
listening to her is like failing in love and having your heart broken at the same time
 
she smirked goodbye as she sealed me in the vault

Clicking " < click for info & purchase > " now.

awesome

 dogpound wrote:
listening to her is like failing in love and having your heart broken at the same time
 

What a wonderful description - I love it.
odd style   -   8.
radiojunkie wrote:
Suzanne Vega can do no wrong in my book.
Nor in mine.
listening to her is like failing in love and having your heart broken at the same time
This song is about meeting her lover's wife, after many years. You can feel the feelings in her words and music.
pretty
brandog wrote:
I'm just saying that the negativity that bears such fruit gets tiring after awhile. It sucks to see the poet slowly die, alone, in the rain, of her own free will. Suzanne, on the other hand, seems to be in the same old rut of loss and less.
Obviously, I can relate heart and soul to this.. Edit:How can you say to see her die slowly? This CD is a masterpiece of her experience at the time!
Footbiscuit wrote:
She's playing in Prague tonight and I'm dog-sitting... oops. Ah well, she's been here twice this year, but it's nice little theatre she's playing in. Maybe next year.
I can't convey the envy. Oh how I miss Praha.
Ah, poetry in motion! excellent stuff!
This song is pure Vega all the way. The final lines are my favorite: "Somewhere, their future is still yet to come/ in ways that are yet, as of now, unforeseen." Who else could write a lyric like that?
Shesdifferent wrote:
However, Alanis did what all of two albums and now she is doing Jagged Little Pill Unplugged 10 years later? Come on....I don't consider that growing away from it. That's more like creative crash with no burn.
...I have agree whole-heatedly with that Alanis is in the category of industry created caricature (with IMHO no great talent to speak of) where-as Vega is at least a bonafide artist exploring and writing and performing and still occasionally producing great work.
She's playing in Prague tonight and I'm dog-sitting... oops. Ah well, she's been here twice this year, but it's nice little theatre she's playing in. Maybe next year.
Top of the mark for this song....she's brilliant
I knew that this was her the moment I first heard the song, right away and sounds very excellent.
A bit too annoyingly Sean Colvin.
This song always moves me, even if I don't listen to the words. SV is a real poet.
I don't get the people complaining that Suzanne's always gloomy - did you listen to "Nine Objects Of Desire"? There's plenty of sweet and non-gloomy music on that one. And after a messy divorce I think she can be forgiven for some angst and gloom. :P
This is the most poetic description of the feelings of "the other woman" that I've ever heard. The line about being a shadow of the child's writing on the wall...damn. Garrison Keillor would do well to read this stuff instead of poems about garden hoses on his Writer's Almanac.
Roverfish wrote:
Likeable tune, and the album is probably her best work since Solitude Standing. P.S. I see no comparison to Alanis. Suzanne's a legitimate singer song-writer.
Exactly right.
I like it. Very recognizable. Don't know weather I like her early works better or her later stuff. In the early days it was realy new, now it is comfortable.
Phew..all very profound.. Can I just say... I like it? :nodhead:
Good discussion. Interesting note: Mitchell Froom, the ex-hubby who ran off with Vonda Shepard, not only produced Suzanne on 99.9'F and Nine Objects but also Crowded House (Neil Finn follows this tune). This album marked her first original work post-divorce and a number of other personal changes/events. As to the gloomy music, she was a folk-influenced singer with an urban upbringing who saw Lou Reed in concert and knew that's what she wanted to do. I don't think it's so much that she flew the red flag of fatalism or self-pity as she wrote songs about tragic subjects (e.g. "Luka" about child abuse). Don't shoot the messenger. Likeable tune, and the album is probably her best work since Solitude Standing. P.S. I see no comparison to Alanis. Suzanne's a legitimate singer song-writer.
brandog wrote:
I'm just saying that the negativity that bears such fruit gets tiring after awhile. It sucks to see the poet slowly die, alone, in the rain, of her own free will. I'll go out on a limb here and compare Suzanne to Alanis Morisette in that Alanis' earlier writing was pretty sad and or angry, but she grew up, got therapy, smoked pot, whatever, and grew from it. Suzanne, on the other hand, seems to be in the same old rut of loss and less. I am lamenting this for her sake - a bit of compassion for a beautiful human spirit and an artist I deeply respect.
Well, I understand your point but I don't really see it as negativity, I see it as observance, and introspection in relevance to understanding. That's sort of what poets do, they suffer a bit because they see through things. As for Alanis, she was great when she was angry and it fueled her creativity, much like Fiona Apple. However, Alanis did what all of two albums and now she is doing Jagged Little Pill Unplugged 10 years later? Come on....I don't consider that growing away from it. That's more like creative crash with no burn.
brandog wrote:
I've always thought Suzanne a wonderful performer / songwriter. I would probably have fallen in love with her if the red flags of despair and self-martyrdom did not fly so high through her lyrics - besides, she sounds like she's still complaining, 15 years, and she's no less unsatisfied... Poor Suzanne.
Well if you had listened to this album it appears to be about the break up of her marriage-a complaint worth hearing in such poetic and wonderful melodies in my opinion!!!!!!! radiojunkie wrote:
Suzanne Vega can do no wrong in my book.
I whole heartedly agree!! This CD that this song comes from is a masterpiece!
Suzanne Vega can do no wrong in my book.
Thanks RP to help me discovering Suzanne Vega... Now, I'm fan !
brandog wrote:
I've always thought Suzanne a wonderful performer / songwriter. I would probably have fallen in love with her if the red flags of despair and self-martyrdom did not fly so high through her lyrics - besides, she sounds like she's still complaining, 15 years, and she's no less unsatisfied... Poor Suzanne.
:-({|= :-({|=
great imagery in this song
Pretty vocals, but too damn gloomy. And I'd probably like it more if it didn't remind me of the sadder aspects of a past relationship. :(
jdorn1 wrote:
Thanks for playing this. This eminds me what a great songwriter she is and what a smooth voice she has!
Great song, it really Wowed me
I used to listen to Suzanne Vega a lot, but haven't lately. This has prompted me to pull out a CD or two again. Sweet.
Thanks for playing this. This eminds me what a great songwriter she is and what a smooth voice she has!
Sweet tune, but maybe not among the best on this excellent disk.