This month, I’m jumping into the #APlaceInTheSong challenge from @JukeboxJohnny2. Great songs have that special ability to describe places in a way that makes us feel like we’re right there. Each day, I’ll pick a track that I think accomplishes that feat.

Purists choose the Suzanne Vega original off of Solitude Standing, but the remix with DNA is my favorite version of the song by far. Rarely do I think the remix collab formula beats the original. But it does happen. One of the other few exceptions I can think of is the Aerosmith / RUN D.M.C. version of “Walk This Way”. The blend of sound and genres was a case where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. And that’s the case here with “Tom’s Diner”.

What I love most about the song is that it describes a real restaurant that Suzanne Vega ate at frequently when she was a student at Barnard. It’s a real place conjuring real memories with real people. “Tom’s Diner” is real life, not fiction, captured so vividly in Vega’s monotonous, repetitive vocals, each verse flanked by a series of irreplaceable doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doos. DNA’s bass and drum machine assure us there is rhythm and energy in the monotony of morning coffee at the diner.

“Does she see me? No she does not Really see me 'Cause she sees Her own reflection.”