This was probably the springboard song for me to get into listening to Suzanne Vega. It aroused my curiosity to 15 years later borrow Nine Objects of Desire from the library, which aroused my desire to attend the show at The Egg and request "World Before Columbus" from the front row, which aroused her desire to play it and my desire to read her book and eventually get all of her albums, which aroused my desire to go see her at the Bowery Ballroom.
Which aroused my desire to write this.

This song is so very powerful. because there is a diference from being alone and being with yourself.
you can be alone in a crowd, you can be alone in your mind and you can be alone physically. but to be with yourself, in solitude, you have to face yourself.
and that is very hard to do for some of us, because when you face yourself, you think of what has happend where you are at and how you got there and its a scary road to go down that will often leave you frusterated, but we all must heal.

Actually, Alese, that's exactly what's been happening to me the last few months. Reflecting on all of the woulda-coulda-shoulda-but-didn't (or vice versa) scenarios and being frustrated about where I'm not instead of where i am.
But as another songwriter, I also find that having time to yourself is also the best time to crank out song lyrics. I imagine you have found this to be true also.

"But as another songwriter, I also find that having time to yourself is also the best time to crank out song lyrics"

I'm not sure I agree. I usually get the best ideas when I talk to people, you know, like someone says something which makes you think of a line you could use. Maybe someone just mentions a word and you think: "Hey, THAT's the word I was looking for but that just didn't come to me!" Sometimes I get an idea while thinking of something completely different. And yes - on rare occasions I get ideas when I'm by myself.

Anyway - I'm sorry if this is totally off-topic (this post should be in the Songwriter's Forum really...) but that were my spontaneous thoughts to what you said. But speaking of the Songwriter's Forum - why don't you come and join us, Will?

To remain on-topic: I only discovered Solitude Standing a while ago and I agree with you, Alese. It IS a very powerful song. I'm not sure I can get through to the meaning a 100% but I can relate to it in one way or another.
The reason is that I couldn't figure out whether this song speaks of loneliness/solitude or being with yourself. I agree there's a difference, but then I'm not very good at being with myself. I feel alone very quickly.

Cheers,
Annika

"I'm not sure I agree".

Wow. I don't think you easily agree with anything. I LOVE THAT! MARRY ME.

I believe Suz wrote Solitude Standing when she moved somewhere, and she met her new roommate...solitude...

Spikey

"I don't think you easily agree with anything."

I never thought about this before really....but it's true I like making up my own mind!

Cheers,
Annika

So you just agreed with that you do not easily agree...

agreed

Annika,

People sometimes are a help when it comes to writing, but mostly they help me write song parodies of colleagues. But the lyrics I have been writing lately are very introspective, and in trying to connect to that, people are more of a distraction to me than anything else.
So on the topic of solitude, it's actually a good opportunity, as Alese was describing the concept of solitude, to be able to connect with that "being alone with yourself" feeling where you take inventory, etc. Where you are, where you're going, any woulda-coulda-shoulda roads, etc.
I don't know. Anyway.....

"But the lyrics I have been writing lately are very introspective, and in trying to connect to that, people are more of a distraction to me than anything else. "

I guess it depends on many things, on the situation, on the mood and on the way you feel most comfortable with. Every songwriter has his /her own way of songwriting.
To me it's different, but that's a LONG story!!


"So on the topic of solitude, it's actually a good opportunity, as Alese was describing the concept of solitude, to be able to connect with that "being alone with yourself" feeling where you take inventory, etc. Where you are, where you're going, any woulda-coulda-shoulda roads, etc.
I don't know. "

Me neither...!
But anyway - it's not good for me to be alone too much. But that's me - it's part of my personal background. Whenever I'm with myself too long, I cannot think clearly, you know...I used to get all these scary images in my head, just to find out it wasn't going to be THAT bad after all.
I always need some kind of opposite, a friend or relative to calm down. That's why I was saying I'm not good at being with myself.

Cheers,
Annika

Annika,

Thank you for inviting me to join the Songwriter's Forum (2 months ago as seen above). At the time, I was in a transition period and felt i needed "solitude" to deal with some heavy sh*t that was happening in my life (most notably failure, renovation, geographical separation).
One of my biggest mentors, David Crosby, once said: "We write a lot of our songs just out of..what goes on..to us..about people that we love and stuff and things that happen to us - because that's what you have to write about if you get down to stuff that means anything to you" (CSNY 4 Way Street - prior to singing "Triad")

Taking direction from that, in conjunction with studying Suzanne's material and seeing how honest and open she is with her life experiences in her writing, my writing became really heavy and really personal - to the point where i was uneasy sharing it with people. The highly introspective nature of it made me feel like I'd come off as too self-centered. Although, it was a time when i needed to be, given all that was going on. So you might say my writing actually drew me into "solitude".
Ultimately, it turned out that there was one person that I wanted and needed to be as my target audience. For me, it became necessary to perform the art of "giving back" in terms of sharing (in the way that you would donate money to a school that helped get you where you are). Someone who i thought could appreciate my convoluted writing, and perhaps derive something positive from it. Give it music, give it life, throw it in the appropriate waste receptacle if it IS trash - whatever the chosen destiny would be.

And I am thrilled to say that not only did I succeed in achieving my objective of sharing my material with that one person, but the 2 big things that i had been working toward over the last several months came to fruition.
Having gotten through it all, perhaps I'll take you up on your invite to join you in the Songwriter's Forum at some point. Heeding what Cros said, I did recently start writing a song called "Tears In The Airport" which begins with one emotional parting and ends with another...Don't know when I'll get back to working on it....

CHEERS !
WFOX

Hi Will,

that's an interesting story. Really, I mean it.

So you might say my writing actually drew me into "solitude".

Yeah, that happened to me as well once. But on the other hand you need time for yourself to get over things, I guess.

I did recently start writing a song called "Tears In The Airport" which begins with one emotional parting and ends with another

Sounds very emotional. I'd love to hear it one day!

David Crosby, once said: "We write a lot of our songs just out of..what goes on..to us..about people that we love and stuff and things that happen to us - because that's what you have to write about if you get down to stuff that means anything to you"

I absolutely LOVE this quote! It's exactly what I would say if I were asked what I write about. Every song begins with an experience or an emotion (in most cases both!) that you feel you WANT to write about.

I hope you keep going.

Cheers,
Annika

Annika,

Since we pretty much brought closure to the concept of "solitude", we can pick this conversation up in the Songwriter's Forum under a new thread i just created, called "From Air Guitar to ..."

woot for solitude, suits my situation very nicely right now.

Excuse me if I am posting wrong.....

I was just wondering if anyone knows if the cover art of Solitude Standing CD has changed from the original? I think I used to have this CD and lost it, and never replaced it, but want to now, but the cover looks different. Any thoughts?