Artists
Musicians featured in this piece are:
Linda Ronstadt – lead vocals
Kronos Quartet – strings
Philip Glass Ensemble – performance
Michael Riesman – conductor
Music by Philip Glass, lyrics by Suzanne Vega. Produced by Kurt Munkacsi, recorded at The Living Room, New York, and The Complex, Los Angeles, 1985–86. Released as the third track on Songs from Liquid Days (CBS Records, 1986).
“Freezing” is the second of two Suzanne Vega–penned tracks on the album, paired here with a striking vocal performance from Linda Ronstadt, a departure from her more familiar pop and country work. It’s also one of two songs on the record (alongside “Forgetting”) to feature the Kronos Quartet, whose avant-garde string arrangements stand apart from the fuller orchestral scoring used on tracks like “Changing Opinion” and “Lightning.”
Philip Glass – Freezing Lyrics
If you had no name
If you had no history
If you had no words
If you had no family
If it were only you
Naked on the grass
Would you be then?
This is what he asked
And I said I wasn’t really sure
But I would probably be
Cold
And now I’m freezing
Freezing
To listen to other songs from the Teleskop 14 program and the full program, click here.