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Knight Moves

Watch while the queen
In one false move
Turns herself into a pawn
Sleepy and shaken
And watching while the blury night
Turns into a very clear dawn
Do you love any, do you love none,
Do you love many, can you love one,
Do you love me?
One false move
And a secret prophecy
Well, if you hold it against her,
First hold it up and see
That it's one side stone
One side fire
Standing alone among all men's desire
They want to know
Do you love any, do you love none,
Do you love many, can you love one,
Do you love me?
Do you love any , do you love one
Do you love twenty, can you love on,
Do you love me?
And if you wonder
What I am doing
As I am heading
For the sink
I am spitting out all the bitterness
Along with half of my last drink
I am thinking
Of your woman
Who is crying in the hall
It's like drinking gasoline
To quench a thirst
Until there's nothing there left at all
"Walk on the blind side"?
Was the answer to the joke
It's said there isn't a political bone
In her body
She would rather be a riddle
But she keeps challenging the future
With a profound lack of history
And watch while the queen
In one false move
Turns herself into a pawn
Sleepy and shaken
And watching while the blury night
Turns into a very clear dawn
Do you love me?

single cover
Single Release : 1985
Lyrics : Suzanne Vega
Copyright : © 1985 Waifersongs Ltd. / AGF Music Ltd.
Album : Suzanne Vega

"Suzanne Vega" - tracklist :

Notes:

Suzanne explaing the meaning of the title "Knight Moves":
"The next song [Knight Moves] [...] is called like that because the person I was writing it for was behaving in such a way that he was taking one step forward and then he'd take two to the side, and then he'd take one step back and then he'd take two to the side..."
In concert, London School of Economics, England, October 24, 1985

About the line "there isn't a political bone in her body":
"Some of the things that Brian Rose [see the Boulevardiers] said are in the song "Knight Moves". The line about not having a 'political bone in her body', was Brian saying that about me and it made me angry, so I put it in the song. A lot of the songs from the first record are about Jack Hardy or Brian, and they mirror that sort of atmosphere between friends where there's always romance in the air, that grows up and then dies. It was a very happy time for me, though."
Interview with Fátima Castro Silva in "Urgent Whispers" (http://watermarks.vega.net/urgent_whispers/index.htm)

""Knight Moves" was stolen from bits of conversations."
Interview with Paul Zollo in Song Talk, Vol. 2, #17, Spring 1992, also published in "Language", 5:1 August 1992, (http://www.vega.net/songtal2.htm) trancription by Steve Zwanger

"I don't like writing about political issues because I really don't think it's my place as a songwriter to inflict my opinions on people -- especially since opinions are so changing and I've seen people I know go through wide varieties of opinions in their lifetime. I don't really feel that it's my job as a songwriter to inflict my opinions on an audience. I also think that's the kind of thing that will date you immediately if you insist on doing that."
Generation Magazine, December 9 1986, Suzanne Vega Interview, by Allan Rousselle