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They have never understood
And no reason that they should
But if anybody could... Mandy Patinkin – Finishing the Hat

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By switching to the plural “they,” George expresses humility by sharing how Dot falls in line with others he has lost. He is highly empathetic, meaning that he understands how he can be a difficult person to love, and that makes it even more devastating that his relationship with Dot didn’t last. This last line shows both the respect he did have for her and the disappointment he feels because it didn’t work.

Now that the closest person to understanding him has left him, he begins to share his perspective on his condition, and this is reflected in the music as the piano riff begins mid-line, signaling the change of tone.

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Yes, she looks for me
Good
Let her look for me to tell me why she left me—
As I always knew she would
I had thought she understood Mandy Patinkin – Finishing the Hat

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At this point, Dot has left George for the baker and has just finished gloating about her new man in the previous song (“Everybody Loves Louis”). George had been caught running away before she entered her song, so he takes this moment after reappearing to gloat, himself. He, however, is already anticipating the conversation that is sure to ensue, and adds conflicting thoughts of fulfilled expectations and disappointing results.

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Finishing the Hat Mandy Patinkin – Finishing the Hat

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After Georges Seurat’s neglected love interest, Dot, gloats about her new lover and the other characters exit the park with their own partners and situations, George reflects on his results from the day and muses about the troubles of being devoted to making art.

The song is often assumed to be autobiographical on composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim’s part, though he has disputed this.

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But the woman who won't wait for you knows
That however you live
There's a part of you always standing by
Mapping out the sky
Finishing a hat
Starting on a hat
Finishing a hat... Mandy Patinkin – Finishing the Hat

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“The woman who won’t wait for you” is how George chooses to identify a romantic connection with another person – a counterpoint to how he negatively viewed “the kind of woman willing to wait” in a previous lyric.

Many things are plainly explained by George: the relegating of watching time pass through a window as you’re “always standing by,” the intense concentration needed for “mapping out the sky,” and the inevitable loss you will gain while you’re “finishing a hat.”

However, what is left unexplained is how the woman who won’t wait for you knows you better than the woman willing to wait. A possible explanation is George’s perspective on what it means to love. This song is one of the few times George acknowledges Dot as his love interest – and even then he can only do it in third person. His art is almost always described in first-person perspective, leading to the conclusion that love, to him, is the process of “finishing a hat,” or creating art. A person who understands that, such as Dot, who recognizes George’s self-mindedness, is a person he respects enough to love, but inevitably can never keep.

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"The woman who won't wait for you" is how George chooses to identify a romantic connection with another person – a counterpoint to how he negatively viewed "the kind of woman willing to wait" in a previous lyric.

Many things are plainly explained by George: the relegating of watching time pass through a window as you're "always standing by," the intense concentration needed for "mapping out the sky," and the inevitable loss you will gain while you're "finishing a hat."

However, what is left unexplained is how the woman who won't wait for you knows you better than the woman willing to wait. A possible explanation is George's perspective on what it means to love. This song is one of the few times George acknowledges Dot as his love interest – and even then he can only do it in third person. His art is almost always described in first-person perspective, leading to the conclusion that love, to him, is the process of "finishing a hat," or creating art. A person who understands that, such as [Dot, who recognizes George's self-mindedness](http://genius.com/Stephen-sondheim-everybody-loves-louis-lyrics), is a person he respects enough to love, but inevitably can never keep.

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JHGFD Genius – Moderator and Staffer Contact Listing

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I’m around, kind of. I mainly take care of the songs that took insane amounts of effort to annotate. If you message me, you’ll definitely hear from me. If you need advice, I’d be happy to give some.

But if you mess with Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” I will find you, and I will reject you. Not playing.

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Luka Suzanne Vega – Luka

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Suzanne Vega already had success overseas with “Marlene on the Wall” from her first album and “Left Of Center” from the Pretty In Pink soundtrack, but “Luka”, the second single from her second album, became her breakthrough hit in North America. It remains her only top 40 hit in the US and Canada (aside from a 1990 remix of “Tom’s Diner” done by the duo DNA).

“Luka” was written about child abuse told from the perspective of nine-year-old Luka – a fictional character that was based on a real child – who talks about the situation to a neighbor:

A few years ago, I used to see this group of children playing in front of my building, and there was one of them, whose name was Luka, who seemed a little bit distinctive from the other children. I always remembered his name, and I always remembered his face, and I didn’t know much about him, but he just seemed set apart from these other children that I would see playing. And I guess his character is what I based the song Luka on. In the song, the boy Luka is an abused child – In real life I don’t think he was. I think he was just different.

In 2016, Vega shared a letter written by Prince back in 1987 where he called this song “the most compelling piece of music I’ve heard in a long time”.

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Suzanne Vega already had success overseas with ["Marlene on the Wall"](https://genius.com/Suzanne-vega-marlene-on-the-wall-lyrics) from her first album and ["Left Of Center"](https://genius.com/Suzanne-vega-left-of-center-lyrics) from the *Pretty In Pink* soundtrack, but "Luka", the second single from her second album, became her breakthrough hit in North America. It remains her only top 40 hit [in the US](https://www.billboard.com/artist/suzanne-vega/) and Canada (aside from a 1990 remix of "Tom's Diner" done by the duo DNA).

"Luka" was [written about](https://www.songfacts.com/facts/suzanne-vega/luka) child abuse told from the perspective of nine-year-old Luka – a fictional character that was [based on a real child]((http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNDc0NDYwMTMy.html) – who talks about the situation to a neighbor:
> A few years ago, I used to see this group of children playing in front of my building, and there was one of them, whose name was Luka, who seemed a little bit distinctive from the other children. I always remembered his name, and I always remembered his face, and I didn't know much about him, but he just seemed set apart from these other children that I would see playing. And I guess his character is what I based the song Luka on. In the song, the boy Luka is an abused child - In real life I don't think he was. I think he was just different.

In 2016, Vega shared a letter [written by Prince](https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/7341897/suzanne-vega-prince-handwritten-letter-luka) back in 1987 where he called this song "the most compelling piece of music I've heard in a long time".

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266

10 months

I 🙏 that “Luka” brought the MUCH NEEDED ATTENTION that this scourge so DESPERATELY Needs!😢

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For text fields, there is a choice of “Minimal” and “All”. For fields used to categorize, such as a type field with a value list of “Individual” and “Group”, choose “Minimal”. For fields with longer strings of words, like “Street Address”, choose “All”. For text fields used in relationships, set the index to “Minimal”. All fields used in relationships (key fields) must have indexing turned on, or you will not be able to view related records in a por... FileMaker Indexing – There can be too much of a good thing

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9 years

It is absolutely advised to set “Minimal” for any fields that contain values from a value list, because a lot of entries will be exact matches. However, for fields that include different information per record or can contain long strings of text, set “All.”

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...dexes will be created as soon as a Find is performed on that field. Instead of leaving the defaults on all fields, consider setting all fields to “None” and unchecking “Automatically create indexes”. Then turn on indexing only for fields that need to be searched, and key fields. FileMaker Indexing – There can be too much of a good thing

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The reason why only these fields should be indexed is because indexing only helps with speed in the case of searching, not simply browsing records.

Keep in mind, calculations are a separate process, and should be stored whenever possible.

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And he's up there, what's that? Hawaiian noises?
He's banging on the bongos like a chimpanzee Dire Straits – Money for Nothing

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In the 1980s a growing influence of international music (or “worldbeat”) would make its way into rock and pop songs of the era and Dire Straits has been known to incorporate many different styles themselves, which would partly involve bongos played by drummer Pick Withers.

Additionally, hair metal drummers, especially in music videos, have a tendency to over-accentuate their performances in the spirit of their glam-rock roots, hence the connection to acting like a chimpanzee, but given the bigoted viewpoints of the narrator expressed earlier in the song the former point is more likely what was intended.

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1 year

I don’t think that the act the narrator is watching necessarily has a world-beat influence: I think it’s more likely that he’s just watching a percussionist playing a Latin or Latin-influenced hand-percussion set of the kind that was pretty common in US pop music since at least the ‘70s. So the narrator sees Latin American/African hand percussion, associates it with supposedly-Polynesian-influenced tiki music which can also feature hand percussion, and comes out with “what’s that? Hawaiian noises?” Again the narrator is demonstrating his ignorance and his flippant, superior attitude towards the music and the musicians: he doesn’t understand the difference and/or doesn’t much care.

Also, notice that the narrator doesn’t actually finish saying ‘chimpanzee’: he gets as far as ‘chimpan’ then drops off with a laugh. (I’ve submitted a lyrics change request about this.) This is another sign that he’s intentionally delivering a racist insult connecting black people (or maybe Latinos or Pacific islanders), African-style hand percussion, and non-human apes. He knows how offensive it is, so he coyly stops short with a laugh. (This doesn’t necessarily imply that the percussionist in the music video the narrator is watching is himself black.)

I don't think that the act the narrator is watching necessarily has a world-beat influence: I think it's more likely that he's just watching a percussionist playing a Latin or Latin-influenced hand-percussion set of the kind that was pretty common in US pop music since at least the '70s. So the narrator sees Latin American/African hand percussion, associates it with supposedly-Polynesian-influenced [tiki music](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiki_culture) which can also feature hand percussion, and comes out with "what's that? Hawaiian noises?" Again the narrator is demonstrating his ignorance and his flippant, superior attitude towards the music and the musicians: he doesn't understand the difference and/or doesn't much care.

Also, notice that the narrator doesn't actually finish saying 'chimpanzee': he gets as far as 'chimpan' then drops off with a laugh. (I've submitted a lyrics change request about this.) This is another sign that he's intentionally delivering a racist insult connecting black people (or maybe Latinos or Pacific islanders), African-style hand percussion, and non-human apes. He knows how offensive it is, so he coyly stops short with a laugh. (This doesn't necessarily imply that the percussionist in the music video the narrator is watching is himself black.)

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