Welcome to the Rusted Pipe Web Site
index
news
contact
links
menu begins here
menu alphabetical index
menu album songs
menu soundtrack songs
menu other songs

The Rent Song

I am sitting by my window;
I am thinking of my rent.
I am looking through my pockets,
and I'm wondering where it went.
I am feeling like the Devil,
maybe like the Devil's wife.
I am singing for my supper.
I am singing for my life.

Things go up and things go down,
and we have all these highs and lows,
but are we even in the end,
I don't think anybody knows,
but when I look from my window
I pretend that I'm in France.
You know I never have been there
but I might jump at the chance.

Tell me what do you do
with a troubled mind?
Do you sing? Do you cry?
Do you wait for a better time?
Do you think about tomorrow
when you're living in today?
And can you stop this tide against you,
make it go the other way?

And when I look from my window
I can hear the little bird sing;
And I like to hear those little birds
because then I know it's Spring.
And Spring comes after Winter,
surely all of this we know.
And Spring is really coming,
it's just so god damn slow.

I am sitting by my window;
I am thinking of my rent.
I am looking through my pockets
and I am wondering where it went.
I am feeling like the Devil,
maybe like the Devil's wife.
I am singing for my supper.
I am singing for my life.

Lyrics : Suzanne Vega
Copyright : © 1981 by Suzanne Vega
Notes:

"The Rent Song was an old song that I had written about how difficult it was to pay my rent which it was at that time. I am sitting by my window/I am thinking of my rent..I don't sing it anymore for obvious reasons. I guess I just didn't think it was a great song." Suzanne Vega at The Learning Annex - TranscriptLearning Annex Discussion January 1995 http://www.suzannevega.com/about/1995/lannex1.htm

"...So one comment he made [Suzanne's friend Brian Rose] was that he thought I only wrote about two things, those things being romance and mental health. Couldn't I livin' it up a little? So I thought about it and said, well... this song is called The Rent Song... I was think of what else is there?... But I've been told since then that this is really a mental health song. So it doesn't qualify..."
In Concert: London School of Economics, October 24, 1985