Suzanne Vega: Tom’s Diner
[purchase]
Sitting at the counter unnoticed even by the man who pours her coffee, she watches the people with whom she is briefly sharing space. The rain outside is pathetic fallacy writ large, but she's trying not to notice because to notice is to remember and if she wanted to do that she would not be distracting herself by watching the people as they come and go. The lovers she pretends not to see aren't helping, but those who are unattached either die unremembered or are too wrapped-up in themselves to connect to anyone. Cathedral bells make an announcement - a wedding perhaps, or just the march of time - and the floodgates open, if only for a moment. Life, of course, continues on unabated and it's time to catch the train.
Forget the DNA remix: it missed the point. A song this lonely can only truly be delivered sparse and unadorned.