Lyrics for Tom's Diner as interpreted by Novartza

Tom's Diner Lyrics
I am sitting
In the morning
At the diner
On the corner

I am waiting
At the counter
For the man
To pour the coffee

And he fills it
Only halfway
And before
I even argue

He is looking
Out the window
At somebody
Coming in

"It is always
Nice to see you"
Says the man
Behind the counter

To the woman
Who has come in
She is shaking
Her umbrella

And I look
The other way
As they are kissing
Their hellos

I'm pretending
Not to see them
And instead
I pour the milk

I open
Up the paper
There's a story
Of an actor

Who had died
While he was drinking
It was no one
I had heard of

And I'm turning
To the horoscope
And looking
For the funnies

When I'm feeling
Someone watching me
And so
I raise my head

There's a woman
On the outside
Looking inside
Does she see me?

No she does not
Really see me
'Cause she sees
Her own reflection

And I'm trying
Not to notice
That she's hitching
Up her skirt

And while she's
Straightening her stockings
Her hair
Has gotten wet

Oh, this rain
It will continue
Through the morning
As I'm listening

To the bells
Of the cathedral
I am thinking
Of your voice...

And of the midnight picnic
Once upon a time
Before the rain began...

I finish up my coffee
It's time to catch the train

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nietzsche_66
05-26-2002

Rated 0 
I love this song. If you ever want to annoy someone, sing the "do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do's". It gets stuck in your head so easily!

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katicus
08-07-2002

Rated 0 
I had this song stuck in my head for, literally, seven years before finding out what it was.

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bandaid
08-23-2002

Rated 0 
omg, i never realized this was suzanne vega.. and i never knew what it was called either.. wow.. i know exactly how katicus feels....thats nifty, i found a song! :P

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kcma
03-05-2003

Rated 0 
me too... add me to that list... they play this song every Thanksgiving/Christmas season... took me a while to finally figure it out......

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darkspot
06-24-2003

Rated 0 
There is no music to this song, just her going "do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do" over and over again, lol... that's what makes it so spiffy. People will probobly say that there's a metaphorical meaning to the song, but, literally, i see a woman going to the diner where she's not well known, where the waiters don't pay attention to what she wants because they're busy with another customer... She reads the paper but it doesn't intrest her, she hears the church bells and is reminded of someone she used to love... *shrugs*

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bellevedette
07-06-2003

Rated +1 
Ok enough of this "OMG!!! COOL Song!!! do-do-do-do-SHUT UP!" This song is apparently WAY too deep for any of you chillins to understand. Its pretty obvious, pretty simple, but pretty meaningful. She is simply talking about being lonely and invisible to the world. One of the first lines, "And he fills it only halfway/and before I even argue/he looking out the window at somebody coming in"---showing how the man didn't really notice her existance. They kiss hellos and she turns her head (a bit of irony, she tries not to notice them when they don't know she's alive) Second example; the actor in the paper is no one she has heard of, only fueling her alienation. Third example; the woman observing her reflection not noticing what's behind the window, again ignoring the existance of another and again, our narrator tries not to notice someone not noticing her. All examples of being nothing in a busy world, passed over without a second glance. Suzanne is attempting to show her pain of being "simply another face in the crowd"

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2M
05-12-2004

Rated 0 
This is just a snapshot of the womas life, I think. A little moment in a cafe before going in to a train. But, it is amazing how it is told, amazing atmosphere.

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lollirot_queen
06-20-2004

Rated 0 
I agree with bellevedette. I always sensed that somewhat existentialist view to the song about being all alone and alienated from everyone. I'm glad someone saw that besides me.

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missy blue
11-19-2004

Rated 0 
this is such a notalgic song for me. i always enjoyed bc i felt like the woman in the song but i never really analysed it. belletc. hit the nail on the head

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numberseven
11-21-2004

Rated 0 
this is such a neat song which isn't very well known. well not as well known as it should be!

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neutro511
04-07-2005

Rated +1 
Wow. What a theory on this great tune. I have a much simplier one. It's about being lonely and focusing on everything going on around you to avoid thinking about how lonely you are.

I think the lines "I am thinking
Of your voice...

And of the midnight picnic
Once upon a time
Before the rain began..."

pretty much sum the whole thing up!

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bartoshek
04-09-2005

Rated 0 
I also agree with bellevedette. This song has more levels than simply the plot - it symbolizes the feelings of lonely person in modern society. The structure of the song is also meaningful - for example, when she sais "Does she see me?" in the end of one verse, leaving hope that someone is actually looking for her, but immidiately afterwards denies that hope. Or when the man behind he counter says "it is always nice to see you", but only in the next verse we are dissapointed to find out he is really saying it to the woman who had come in.

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Necrophagus2Coming
09-08-2005

Rated 0 
Tom's diner is a Diner on the upper west side of New York that was popular shooting for the Tv show Seinfeld. Vega has admitted to writing this song while she was eating at the establishment. The song is just about her time spent in there.

Thats all it means. I've also met Suzeanne Vega personally, and this song has gone through an interesting turn of events. It was bootlegged by DNA without her permssion, she originally wrote it as an acapella.

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1 Reply
Ryucotsa
02-18-2006

Rated 0 
The song is written as a simple first person vignette of a man stopping at an unnamed diner for a cup of coffee. He notes the newspaper he is reading, and the women who come and go in the diner, outside in the rain. The ringing of bells at a nearby cathedral cause him to reminisce on an unnamed companion with whom he had picnicked previously. Finishing his coffee, he hurries from the diner to catch a train.

Vega wrote the song based on a comment by her friend Brian Rose, a photographer, who mentioned that in his work, he sometimes felt as if "he saw his whole life through a pane of glass, and [...] like he was the witness to a lot of things, but was never really involved in them."

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Aurore
03-07-2006

Rated 0 
Of course bellevedette is right!! It is obvious that in this song she is trying to express her feeling of loneliness, and that she not only fells lonely, but in addition nobody pays attention to her presence, or to her existence at all.
Above all the song is filled with a feeling of overwhelming sadness, which is expressed by the constant rain. It is raining in herself. I've heard that this sadness is linked to the death of her father or someone close to her : the sadness comes and you have the impression that it will never stop raining. "Before the rain began" quite obviously to the time the person was not dead or gone.

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FilibusterMan
03-19-2006

Rated 0 
The woman is lonely, but the last few verses ring of hope to me. The memories of her companion bring her comfort and a little bit of sunshine through the rain.

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Prometeo
04-17-2006

Rated 0 
On a side note, the lyrics 'I open up the paper/there's a story of an actor/who died while he was drinking/he was no one I had heard of' refer to William Holden, whose death was indeed reported in the New York Post on November 18, 1981, when the song was written.

He died from a laceration to his forehead, which was caused by hitting his head during a bout of heavy drinking. He apparently remained conscious for half an hour or so after the injury but never realized he should phone for help. Had he done so, he would surely have lived.

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clouds
07-28-2006

Rated 0 
yeah...in ym versin of this there the last two verses aren't there...
am i deaf or something?

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stoolhardy
08-04-2006

Rated 0 
This song is kind of funny. The melody, beat, and lyrics are very simple. If you asked me to pull some song lyrics out of my ass, this is the sort of thing I might write. It's just way too straightforward. Yes, it's about feeling alone in the world, but that doesn't make it deep. I bet she wrote the song in 5 minutes :-)

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AubergineDrea7s
03-03-2007

Rated 0 
i love how she's like, monotone? haha it's awesome. this song kinda freaks me out since it's at the end of the movie stir of echoes [ if you haven't seen it, you should.] it's really good. with kevin bacon. = ]

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xFaith
03-23-2007

Rated 0 
I remember watching a TV show on VH1 mentioning that the song was about isolation.
If you wanna look at it deeply, it seems to be expressing the loneliness, isolation, and alienation the narrarator experiences in modern society in the day to day grind.
But if you want it on a simple level, it's about someone in a coffee shop (obviously).
Everyone has a different interpretation.

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Ad^Vocate
05-30-2007

Rated 0 
i prefer the "clear" edition of this song, w/o drums and verse - it sounds much more integrity.

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majoron
10-05-2007

Rated 0 
Suzanne Vega talented at cover her deep lyrics on a catchy pop music.
spacial.

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RSATORI
04-18-2008

Rated +1 
I always thought of it as a song about a woman who is distracting herself in life, talking about everything she notices. At the end of the song she gives note to church bells and someone familiar. The whole chorus itself of dooo dooo dooo doo kind of shows she's keeping herself busy. She may also be a sad and lonely person too, which I wouldn't doubt.

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1 Reply
!@#$%^&*()
10-03-2008

Rated 0 
spot on bellevedette

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