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The Queen & The Soldier: The Secret Burning Thread

Last post Tue, Jun 05 2007, 2:41 PM by lefty. 50 replies.
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  • Re: The Queen & The Soldier: The Secret Burning Thread
    12512 in reply to 12467

    Not Ranked
    Joined on 04-25-2006
     Wed, Jun 29 2005, 8:33 PM
    Hey All,
    1st post, yah. I was wondering something. I plan to start guitar lessons in a few weeks and would love to learn to play "The Queen and the Soldier." Does anyone know if there's a way I could buy sheet music for this song, especially along with other Vega music? Thanks in advance.

    Jonathan
  • Re: The Queen & The Soldier: The Secret Burning Thread
    17246 in reply to 12481

    Not Ranked
    Joined on 04-01-2007
     Sat, Mar 31 2007, 10:37 PM

    So this brings up a question my family argues about: the soldier says he wants "to love a young woman I don't understand," and the queen "wanted more than she ever could say." I see those two as unconnected, and the soldier's love as for the queen, but nationalistic (not romantic), part of his "please tell me why." My friend thinks he's talking about an unconnected woman at home, but I think that's kind of random. My parents think the queen and the soldier are attracted to each other, an aspect of the song that doesn't seem to fit.

     I don't think the "bleeding" is menstrual, or sexual, but connected with "strangling in the solitude she preferred," and specifically the battle going on, which she is weirdly invested in and removed from.

  • Re: The Queen & The Soldier: The Secret Burning Thread
    17464 in reply to 17246

    Top 10 Contributor
    Joined on 04-25-2006
    Florida
     Sat, Apr 14 2007, 4:30 AM

    Great questions. The wonderful thing about this song is the seemingly infinite number of ways you can interpret it. Are these even two separate people at all, or are they two sides of one psyche warring with each other? Are you the queen today, or are you the soldier? Were you playing the opposite role yesterday?

    I believe the standard interpretation, at least as Suzanne has told it, is that the queen is indeed drawn to the soldier, which is why she has to kill him -- surrendering to her desire means surrendering her power and ending up like the victimized queen in "Knight Moves," which she refuses to do. On the other hand, this is apparently the first time they've met, so I think you're onto something in suspecting that what she "wanted more than she ever could say" is about more than just this young man in uniform. 

    And how much, if at all, did the soldier really love the queen? I've always thought his statement about wanting to love a young woman he doesn't understand was professing his love for her (in a wonderfully oblique way). Then again, he doesn't say he loves her -- just that he *wants* to. If indeed he's talking about her. Maybe he just pities her, seeing how alone she is. Maybe he's surprised she's so young. Maybe he wants to rescue her, or maybe he just sees her as an easy mark (mistakenly, it turns out). He seems to embody many of the qualities Suzanne says she admires (courage, honesty, straightforwardness), but one female Towie once remarked that he seemed like an overbearing jerk telling the queen how to live her life. Who's to say?

    As for the bleeding, Suzanne has said the image came from a cat of hers bleeding internally after swallowing a thread (something cats do with alarming frequency). But what does it mean in this song? I had thought it might be menstrual : Perhaps she's the lone woman surrounded by militaristic men, confused by this thing her body is doing that nobody else's seems to be doing, and maybe the bleeding is one more thing that separates her from the people around her. Attributing the bleeding to a "secret" thread could just be a sign of how little she knows her own inner anatomy. Or maybe she's bleeding internally from the struggle within her. Maybe she secretly cuts herself in the bathroom when nobody else is around.

  • Re: The Queen & The Soldier: The Secret Burning Thread
    17465 in reply to 17464

    Top 10 Contributor
    Joined on 04-25-2006
    Florida
     Sat, Apr 14 2007, 5:10 AM
    By the way, I think it's really cool you're in a family that has arguments about the meaning of Suzanne Vega songs. You're lucky!
  • Re: The Queen & The Soldier: The Secret Burning Thread
    17484 in reply to 17464

    Top 500 Contributor
    Male
    Joined on 04-07-2007
    Metairie, LA, U.S.A.
     Sun, Apr 15 2007, 4:05 AM

    I have personally interpreted the "secret burning thread" to represent the inner turmoil or even physical inner pain she suffers from her longings. It makes sense to me since the queen preferred solitude. She was a most lonely creature.

    Bobby


    check out my favorite band from New Orleans I think a lot of you will enjoy them:
    www.myspace.com/peabodymusic
  • Re: The Queen & The Soldier: The Secret Burning Thread
    18127 in reply to 17484

    Top 25 Contributor
    Male
    Joined on 04-25-2006
    Germany
     Tue, Jun 05 2007, 2:41 PM
    Last night when I was dying of food poisoning, I dreamt that I was a male scorpion contentedly tying a burning thread around my sting when I was suddenly swallowed whole by a female scorpion humming "Frank and Ava" to herself.

    Lefty

    "...when the armies of emotion
    go out to fight..."
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