YMMV / Suzanne Vega

• Anvilicious: "Luka" teaches us about child abuse and how no one should ignore the plight of the children enduring it. The Lyrical Dissonance makes the song even more explicit when people pay attention to the lyrics, and so they should.
• Awesome Music: Just being the voice of the groundbreaking MP3 format with her a capella version of "Tom's Diner."
• Eclipsed by the Remix: The original version of "Tom's Diner" doesn't have any kind of musical accompaniment. It was originally sung acapella. The hit version of the song is the DNA 12" remix.
• Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory: Vega says "The Queen and the Soldier" is about power, but it can and has been interpreted as just about any subject where someone supresses their wants for the good of others.
• Newer Than They Think/Older Than They Think: After the Real Life Tom's Restaurant became Suzanne Vega's "Tom's Diner" it famously became "Monk's Café" on Seinfeld. Before "Tom's Diner", it was briefly seen in a 1978 episode of The Bionic Woman.
• Refrain from Assuming:
  • Her most famous song is not "My Name Is Luka"; it's just "Luka".
  • "Tom's Diner" is not called "Do-Do-Do-Da-Do-Do-Do-Da-Do-Da-Duh-Duh-Da-Duh-Duh-Duh".
• Retroactive Recognition: The music video for Luka features a young Jason Cerbone (Jackie Aprile Jr. from The Sopranos) as the titular character.
• Sampled Up: The Pop Punk generation knows "Tom's Diner" as the bridge of "Centuries".
• Signature Song: "Luka" and "Tom's Diner".
• Tear Jerker:
  • "The Queen And The Soldier”. Not-conventionally-saccharine female vocals, well-meaning protagonist desperately trying to end a senseless waste of life, the feeling that just once they'll listen to reason and everything'll be okay, but no.
  • "Luka" also fits into this category. It's about child abuse.
  • As could "In Liverpool", with the lines "The boy in the belfry he's crazy/He's throwing himself down from the top of the tower...it sounds like he's missing something or someone that he knows he can't have now/And if he isn't, I certainly am". Could easily be interpreted that the boy throwing himself off the tower to his death is someone that the narrator knows well.
  • "Bad Wisdom" falls firmly here too, being a chronicle of a young girl who's been raped finding no support no matter where she turns— her doctor, her friends, the law, her own mother. The plaintive calliope in the background really drives home her loneliness.

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