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aguales
Deinonychus
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21 Sep 2009, 2:13 pm

Anyone a fan of Suzanne Vega? I posted a youtube performance of hers on a thread but I wanted to get comments about a particular song so I'm posting this as a topic.

The reason I chose this song is that it speaks of a possible understanding of autistic perception. Am I merely psychologically projecting or is this a finely-crafted song about autistic sensory experiences?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBFG372HsW8[/youtube]

Today I am
A small blue thing
Like a marble
Or an eye

With my knees against my mouth
I am perfectly round
I am watching you

I am cold against your skin
You are perfectly reflected
I am lost inside your pocket
I am lost against
Your fingers

I am falling down the stairs
I am skipping on the sidewalk
I am thrown against the sky

I am raining down in pieces
I am scattering like light
Scattering like light
Scattering like light

Today I am
A small blue thing
Made of china
Made of glass

I am cool and smooth and curious
I never blink
I am turning in your hand
Turning in your hand
Small blue thing



whitetiger
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21 Sep 2009, 3:50 pm

I love that song and the album it came from is one of my favorites for all time. I've been looking for it on bit torrent. The whole album sounds autistic to me, in a very good way.


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ThatRedHairedGrrl
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21 Sep 2009, 3:55 pm

I love Suzanne Vega. She's gotten a lot more sophisticated in her later work, but that first album had what I'd call a rather childlike feel to it. A sort of shy innocence that you get to feel might be hiding something.

I don't listen to that one too often, though, because it brings back bad memories of the guy who introduced me to her music. Which is kind of sad, because I do really like it.

And yes, I think 'Small Blue Thing' has autistic overtones. At any rate it's about someone watching the world, and people, from the outside even while being in it.


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aguales
Deinonychus
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28 Sep 2009, 8:04 pm

Yeah it does have that distinct melancholy coming from feeling so seperate from the world :| Thanks for the responses from both of you :thumleft:



Ambivalence
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29 Sep 2009, 4:08 am

I've only got "Songs in Red and Gray", but I like that album - "Last Year's Troubles" and "If I Were a Weapon" are my favourites from it. There's a discrete quality to her songs, I think; she has a stop-start sort of style.
...must visit Amazon now. :lol:


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ThatRedHairedGrrl
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01 Oct 2009, 4:04 pm

Check out the lyrics of "Left of Center" as well...this always felt like my life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZNCnfS5 ... re=channel


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saywhatyamean
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17 Oct 2009, 12:59 am

OH Wow Suzanna Vega that brings back memories. I used to listen to specific songs and lines in those songs on her earlier albums over and over again. They were so tragic and sad I could not get over them. I think she may have related, if not to being ASD then being an outsider of some kind, very intensely.

What about "The soldier and the queen" I used to think the sentiments in that song were just so typical of real life........tragic. Also "My name is Luka" brings me down just thinking about her music. Might go and check them out on youtube now. LOL

I was introduced to Suzanna Vega by an aquiantance I had from school. My aquaintence only lived a block away from us during childhood. I knew her from preschool, through primary, through high school, through college. Only started to spend some time with her before I went off to Uni. Deep thinker, funny, brilliant academically a good athlete, attractive, seemed to be popular, seemed to have it all , but I later relised her to be very Melancholic. At the time I thought she also be gay and having trouble accepting it. Now that I know better when I think about her I think she may have been somewhere on the spectrum and perhaps connecting to the deep disconnectedness to the rest of the world I also felt then and feel now. We were friendly but she (as was I) was not the type you ever got to know very well.........I have not seen her for years and often wonder what happened to her.

It would be quite easy to find out about her but I have the sneeking suspicion that something tragic has happened to her or I would not like what I would find if I did find her. Although I can relate, this much pain in people, especially over time, scares the living daylights out of me. Me thinks sometimes it's better not to know.

Cheers

Off to youtube now LOL