The first song on the album Solitude Standing is called Tom's Diner. When it was released in 1987 no one had any idea how influential this small two minute piece would become. "I originally heard it with piano in back, but I don't play the piano, so it's a cappella. People write to me saying: Oh, we've bought your album Solitude Standing, but they forgot to put the music on it." (2)
In Tom's Diner, the narrator describes the impressions he has while he is sitting in the morning at the counter of a restaurant located on Broadway/ 112th street.
Throughout the song a number of people appear who are watched by or who are watching the narrator, but nevertheless there is a certain distance and anonymity which is not lifted. The people who appear have no names, they are referred to only as "the man", "the woman", "an actor" etc. But since those are only brief encounters, the names are not important anyway. They disappear as fast as they appeared and there is no communication or interaction. The only thing which has a name (ironically) is the building: Tom's Diner.
The narrator depicts several small scenes which change very quickly. That the pace of the city is sometimes even too fast for the narrator is expressed in the line "And before I even argue..."
Throughout the song there is a permanent tension between the "inside" and the "outside". People are looking out of the window, people are coming into the building and people are on the outside and they are looking inside.
The text is full of verbs which describe the concept of "seeing": "to notice" is mentioned once, so is "to watch", "to look" appears four times and "to see" five times. But actually one does not seem to be supposed to watch - the text suggests that watching, looking, staring at other people is something which is considered to be too personal, which seems to destroy the anonymity. The narrator "look[s] the other way" and is "trying not to notice". And he seems to be uncomfortable with the thought that someone might be watching him. "Does she see me?".
The atmosphere is rather cool, impersonal. Intimacy and personal feelings seem to be embarrassing. When the man and the woman are kissing, the narrator is "pretending not to see them", and when the woman arranges her stockings the narrator again is "trying not to notice...". The interaction between the people is minimal. There is even a physical barrier between the people and the narrator. The man is "behind the counter", the actor is in the paper, the woman is behind the windowpane. There is no communication, the narrator does not even manage to argue with the man serving him coffee. The only direct speech is the line: "It is always nice to see you." Now in my opinion this is a cliché par excellence and almost ironical if one considers what value "seeing" has in this text. Because, actually, the characters do not see each other at all. When the narrator wonders whether the woman on the outside is watching him, he states almost with relief: "No she does not really see me/ cause she sees her own reflection." In this song, people do not really see each other, they are only concerned with themselves.
But this does not seem to be a negative aspect, it seems to protect the inhabitants of a large city from the profusion of impressions and lures.
The impressions and scenes which the narrator records are enumerated and linked with nine "and"s (in the sung version even more). In the last four stanzas of the song, the narrator shifts from one theme to the other by association. From "wet" he gets to "rain", from "listening" to "bell" to "thinking of your voice". He has now shifted from perception by the eyes to perception by the ears. He listens to the bells and remembers the sound of a voice. Then suddenly there is a line which surprises the listener: "Once upon a time". For a moment the narrator has left the hectic New York world and is lost in his memories of a romantic night. But not for long. The last two lines bring him back to his place in the diner and to the hurry and rush of the city: "I finish up my coffee (and) it's time to catch the train."
In Tom's Diner, Suzanne Vega illustrates the profusion of perception in the city and how one deals with it. The characters are only concerned with themselves, they have no real interest in each other, they do not really see each other. But there is no need for close interaction, because the encounters are only brief ones. The anonymity and the distance is a form of protection.
The song fades out with the famous "da da da da..." which has become the chorus of the Tom's Diner Remix by the British Producers DNA that became a No.1 hit in most European countries in 1991 to the surprise of many. But this was not the only remix. A whole album of different versions has been released. Artists from Germany, Sweden and Jamaica picked up the melody or translated the lyrics.

There are several other songs by Suzanne Vega in which the narrator is a witness to events without being involved in them. The window always plays a great role, since it functions as a frame in which one sees what happens, like in a picture or a movie. In The Rent Song, the narrator is sitting at her window, looking outside and watching the seasons go by ("I am sitting by my window/ I am thinking of my rent") Here the window is the connection between the private, intimate room and the 'wide world'. ("But when I look out my window/ I pretend that I'm in France"). The window is the threshold and holds the possibility to get in contact with the outside world. ("When I am sitting by my window/ I can hear the little birds sing").
But more frequent are the situations when the narrator is looking inside a room to describe what she sees. As for example in Straight Lines, in which the narrator describes the story of a young woman. "And you can see/ if you look in her window." The reader is a voyeur and a witness, the window opens the view to see into the personal and intimate room, sometimes even into the soul and feelings of the character. But still there is an odd atmosphere of anonymity, since the listener cannot really get close to the character, who stays impersonal, is only called "the woman" and is finally inaccessible "behind straight lines".
Room off the Street confronts the listener with a similar situation. The narrator says explicitly that "you can see every breath that she takes", "You can hear everything that they say". The reader is the unnoticed witness and sees everything that goes on, although he cannot always be sure to know or understand what exactly happens. ("Something's begun like a war/ or a family or a frienship/ or a fast love affair.")
The view through the window allows the listener to witness actions and stories and lives which are hidden in private. It creates the illusion to see the unadulterated, true events. But at the same time the reader is at a secure distance from the occurrences. He finds himself in the same situation as a spectator or audience member in a cinema or theater. Thus, by looking through the window, the room in the city becomes a stage where the listener can witness what usually is hidden in the anonymity of the back streets and houses of the city.

[The image of acting and actors can also be found in the songs Marlene on the Wall, in which Marlene Dietrich appears, Freeze Tag ("We play that we're actors on a movie screen/ I'll be Dietrich and you can be Dean") and the 1992 song If You Were in My Movie, in which the narrator assigns different roles and parts (doctor, gangster, detective) to the listener.]