“Luka” sounds so sweet, with Suzanne Vega’s chirp-whisper mildly drawing the listener along through a perky guitar and frisky beat. I didn’t really get the story of the song until I’d heard it multiple times. “Please don’t ask me what it was,” I would sing. “Please don’t ask me — wait, what what was? Some kind of trouble, some kind of fight? What’s going on here?”
I read recently an editor of an anthology of folk songs responding to criticism of the subject matter of folk songs, especially the disjoint between the happy-sounding tunes and the tragedy in the lyrics. The editor said music serves a few different purposes — entertaining and sharing the news don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Puts me in mind, too, of norteno music, where telling thrilling and terrible stories about contemporary Mexico is part of the project, getting people to dance being the rest.
I primarily knew “Luka” through the radio. Back in the day I caught the video on a video compilation show like Friday Night Videos, I think, being as I didn’t have MTV. Have to say, I’m not particularly fond of the video. But it did change how I saw the song. I thought Luka was a woman. The line about walking into a door was familiar from TV dramas about abused women. No, nobody beat me. I walked into a door. Works for a child being abused too, I guess.
The lyrics are pretty easy to understand, as Suzanne Vega enunciates clearly, and takes them at an even pace.
Like the previous two songs I’ve done a post for, “Luka” earworms readily. It’s catchy. Sing along. “You just don’t argue anymore. You just don’t argue — anymore!”
source: Live 105's Cool 105.3 for 1987
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