Time to redress the gender balance here a little. Up to now I think I've only had one female artiste featured here, and that's not because I'm biased against women --- far from it --- but somehow my mind just tends to gravitate towards male artistes. I'll do my best to feature some more ladies, starting with this one.
One of the most accomplished songwriters I've come across, Suzanne Vega often picks odd topics for her songs. Sometimes they're dark and scary, like “Luka” from her “Solitude standing” album, or just weird, like “Small blue thing”, from her debut. But one thing she usually does is weave a story, however unsettling or fractured, around her lyrics, resulting not only in some amazing songs, but some damn fine prose too. This is one of those, taken from that debut, self-titled album that launched her career over a quarter of a century ago and gave her an instant hit with “Marlene on the wall”. This however was not a hit, but is a fine song, almost an adult fairytale, in which nobody gets to live happily ever after!
The queen and the soldier (Suzanne Vega) from “Suzanne Vega”, 1985
Music and lyrics by Suzanne Vega
It tells the story of a soldier who, tired of fighting, climbs the hill to the castle that overlooks the battlefield, demanding an audience with the queen, for whom the armies fight. Declaring he will no longer take part in battles that seem to be for her own personal amusement, he is surprised by how young and beautiful she is and despite his anger at her falls in love with her. He then makes an appeal to the young queen to come with him. She makes as if to agree, but at the last moment she gives the order to have him killed, and so the battles continue, endlessly.
At its heart, of course, it's a parable of the futility of war and, perhaps, the pointlessness in trying to find a reason for it. It's also the tale of an essentially spoiled brat --- worse, a royal spoiled brat --- who can command her subjects to do anything she desires, including die for her, for no reason, and does. And who takes a perverse delight in doing so. It's clear from the song as it goes on that she sees the wisdom in what the young soldier says, and part of her does yearn to leave it all behind and go off with him, but reality asserts itself and she decides she would rather be alone and in command than the wife of some lowly soldier. The young man has uncovered a weakness within her, one she did not know existed and one which, as the queen, she cannot afford, so she makes the decision, tearing it out by the roots, and the
status quo remains.
The first time I heard the song I was shocked by the ending. If you don't know it's coming it's hard to predict, as it really does seem as if the tortured queen has had enough, and is going to give up the pointless wars and leave the castle. When she gives the order, it's almost as if you've been shot yourself; it's that much of a surprise and a twist. And that's what Vega does best; creeps up on you from behind and hits you over the head with an iron bar of shock, leaving you reeling. It's still my favourite song from her.
”The soldier came knocking upon the queen's door
He said, "I am not fighting for you any more".
The queen knew she'd seen his face someplace before
And slowly she let him inside.
He said, "I've watched your palace up here on the hill
And I've wondered who's the woman for whom we all kill?
But I am leaving tomorrow and you can do what you will:
Only first I am asking you why?"
Down in the long narrow hall he was led
Into her rooms with her tapestries red
And she never once took the crown from her head;
She asked him there to sit down.
He said, "I see you now, and you are so very young
But I've seen more battles lost than I have battles won,
And I've got this intuition says it's all for your fun
And now will you tell me why?"
The young queen, she fixed him with an arrogant eye
She said, "You won't understand, and you may as well not try"
But her face was a child's, and he thought she would cry
But she closed herself up like a fan.
And she said, "I've swallowed a secret burning thread;
It cuts me inside, and often I've bled."
He laid his hand then on top of her head
And he bowed her down to the ground.
"Tell me how hungry are you? How weak you must feel
As you are living here alone, and you are never revealed
But I won't march again on your battlefield"
And he took her to the window to see.
And the sun it was gold, though the sky it was gray;
And she wanted more than she ever could say;
But she knew how it frightened her, and she turned away
And would not look at his face again.
And he said, "I want to live as an honest man
To get all I deserve and to give all I can
And to love a young woman who I don't understand:
Your highness, your ways are very strange."
But the crown it had fallen, and she thought she would break
And she stood there, ashamed of the way her heart ached.
She took him to the doorstep and she asked him to wait:
She would only be a moment inside.
Out in the distance her order was heard
And the soldier was killed, still waiting for her word;
And while the queen went on strangling in the solitude she preferred
The battle continued on.”