Suzanne Vega
Alt-folk, techno-folk, neo-folk, contemporary folk, indie folk.
Songs on the acoustic guitar that mix with the technology of the day.
Suzanne Nadine Vega (born July 11, 1959) is an American songwriter and singer known for her eclectic folk-inspired music.
Suzanne Vega was the first major figure in the bumper crop of female singer/songwriters who rose to prominence during the late '80s and '90s. Her hushed, restrained folk-pop and highly literate lyrics (inspired chiefly by Leonard Cohen, as well as Lou Reed and Bob Dylan) laid the initial musical groundwork for what later became the trademark sound of Lilith Fair (a tour on which she was a regular). Moreover, her left-field hit single "Luka" helped convince record companies that folk-styled singer/songwriters were not a thing of the past after all, paving the way for breakthroughs by Tracy Chapman, Michelle Shocked, Shawn Colvin, Edie Brickell, the Indigo Girls, Sinéad O'Connor, and a host of others throughout the '90s. Vega's early commercial success helped open doors for a wealth of talent, and even if she couldn't sustain the level of popularity she reached in 1987 with "Luka" and the platinum Solitude Standing, she maintained a strong and dedicated cult following. Her association with -- and marriage to -- experimental producer Mitchell Froom during the '90s resulted in two intriguing but uneven albums; however, following their painful divorce, Vega returned in 2001 with her first album in five years, Songs in Red and Gray, which was greeted with her strongest reviews in a decade.
Suzanne Vega was born July 11, 1959, in Santa Monica, California; her parents divorced shortly thereafter, and after her mother (a jazz guitarist) remarried the Puerto Rican novelist Ed Vega, the family moved to Manhattan. A shy and quiet child, Suzanne nonetheless learned to take care of herself growing up in the tough neighborhoods of Spanish Harlem. Her parents often sang folk songs around the house, and when she began playing guitar at age 11, she found herself attracted to the poetry of singer/songwriter music (Dylan, Cohen), and found a refuge from New York's chaos in traditional folk (Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Judy Collins, Joan Baez). At age 14, she made her first attempts at writing songs; however, when she attended the High School for the Performing Arts as a teenager, it was to study dance, not music. She subsequently enrolled at Barnard College as a literature major, and during this time, she began playing at coffee houses and folk festivals on the West Side and near Columbia University; she soon moved up to the Lower East Side/Greenwich Village folk clubs, including the famed Folk City club where Bob Dylan started out. In 1979, Vega attended a Lou Reed concert, and the effect was a revelation: here was an artist chronicling the harsh urban world Vega knew, with the detail and literacy of a folk artist. Vega discovered a new voice and sense of possibility for her original material, and her writing grew rapidly.
Vega graduated from college in 1982 and held down several low-level day jobs while quickly becoming the Greenwich Village folk scene's brightest hope. Record companies were reluctant to take a chance on a singer/songwriter steeped in folk music, however, since they saw little chance of any commercial returns. After three years of rejections, Vega and her managers Ron Fierstein and Steve Addabbo finally convinced A&M (which had turned her down twice) to give her a shot, and she signed a contract in 1983. Former Patti Smith Group guitarist Lenny Kaye was brought in to co-produce the debut with Addabbo and lend it a smoother, more contemporary flavor.
Titled simply Suzanne Vega, it was released in 1985 to much critical applause. Thanks in part to the single "Marlene on the Wall," the album was a genuine hit in Britain, where it eventually went platinum; while it didn't duplicate that success in America, the album's sales of 200,000 strong still came as a shock to A&M (and Vega). For the 1987 follow-up, Vega overcame writer's block to craft an eclectic batch of new material, and drew upon a backlog of songs that hadn't fit the debut. Again produced by Kaye and Addabbo, Solitude Standing was Vega's finest achievement; the richness and variety of its compositions were complemented by the lusher full-band arrangements and more accessible (albeit less folky) production. The album's lead single, "Luka," was a haunting first-person account of child abuse, whose terse (and fictional) lyrics struck a chord with American radio listeners. As a result, the album was an instant hit on both sides of the Atlantic; it debuted at number two in the U.K. and went gold within three months in the U.S., peaking at number 11 and eventually going platinum. "Luka" hit number three on the American pop charts -- unheard of for a singer/songwriter in the '80s prior to Vega -- and was nominated for three Grammys. As record companies rushed to fill a market niche they hadn't known existed (and uncovering some major talent in the process), Vega spent almost a year on the road touring in support of the record; exhausted, she returned to New York to take some time off, and also tracked down her biological father for the first time.
When the time came to record her third album in 1989, Vega decided to co-produce it herself with her keyboardist/boyfriend Anton Sanko (longtime bassist Michael Visceglia also had input). Vega began to experiment with her lyrics, pushing beyond the narrative story-songs that dominated her first two records, and had minimalist composer Philip Glass contribute a string arrangement. The result, Days of Open Hand, was released in 1990, but it didn't produce another hit single and was somewhat lost in the shuffle of new female singer/songwriters; though it did sell respectably, reviews were somewhat mixed. Even though the album didn't recapture Vega's 1987 popularity, she was still -- indirectly -- involved in one of '90s most bizarre hit singles. Two British dance producers working under the alias DNA took the a cappella Solitude Standing track "Tom's Diner" and set it to an electronic dance beat, releasing the result as a bootleg single called "Oh Suzanne." When A&M discovered the piracy, Vega decided to allow the single's official release under its original title, and it became a substantial hit in the U.S., U.K., and elsewhere. The following year, Vega gathered a number of other unsolicited versions of the song and compiled them as Tom's Album.
Intrigued by the success of "Tom's Diner," Vega began looking for ways to open up her musical approach. She hooked up with producer Mitchell Froom, best known for his work on '90s albums by Elvis Costello, Richard Thompson, and Crowded House. Froom applied his trademark approach -- dissonant arrangements, clanging percussion -- to Vega's 1992 album, and while 99.9 F° didn't reinvent her as a dance artist (as some expected), the synth-centered sound of the record was unlike any of her previous work. Froom and Vega began dating several months after the record's completion, and they wound up marrying; their daughter, Ruby, was born in 1994, and Vega naturally took some time off from music. She returned in 1996 with Nine Objects of Desire, again with Froom in the producer's chair, though his approach was somewhat less radical this time out; in terms of Vega's subject matter, there was a newfound physical sensuality borne of her marriage and childbirth experiences
All was not well for long, however; Froom began seeing Ally McBeal singer Vonda Shepard, and he and Vega split up in August 1998. In 1999, Vega released the best-of retrospective Tried and True, taking stock of her past career (she had also split with longtime manager Ron Fierstein); she also published her first book, The Passionate Eye, a collection of poems, lyrics, essays, journalistic pieces, and the like. Vega began playing shows with bassist Michael Visceglia again, and worked on material addressing the breakup of her marriage. Songs in Red and Gray was released in the fall of 2001 and marked a return to the more direct sound of Suzanne Vega and Solitude Standing; it also garnered her the best reviews since those records. Retrospective: The Best of Suzanne Vega arrived in 2003, followed by the Live at Montreux 2004 DVD/CD in 2006 and the all-new Beauty & Crime in 2007. In 2010, Vega released Close Up, Vol. 1 and Close Up, Vol. 2 -- the first half of a proposed four-volume collection of re-recorded versions of songs from her catalog, all featuring stripped-down, unadorned arrangements that highlight the lyrics and melodies -- and followed the first two installments of the series with Close Up, Vol. 3 in 2011. The final release in the sequence, Close Up, Vol. 4: Songs of Family, appeared a year later in 2012 and included two previously unheard tracks -- "The Silver Lady" and "Brother Mine" -- which had been written by Vega over 30 years earlier. In early 2013 she demoed new material with the help of Gerry Leonard, her live musical director. This resulted in the album Tales from the Realm of the Queen of Pentacles, which was released in February 2014.
In 2011, Vega staged a one-woman theater piece in which she performed a song cycle about the life and work of novelist Carson McCullers, written in collaboration with Duncan Sheik. In 2016, as the show was being revived in Los Angeles, Vega released an album of its songs, Lover, Beloved: Songs from an Evening with Carson McCullers. The album was released through Vega's own label, Amanuensis Productions.
(Artist Biography by Steve Huey)
Main article: Suzanne Vega discography:
ΠΗΓΗ:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzanne_Vega_discography
Studio albums
Suzanne Vega (1985)
Solitude Standing (1987)
Days of Open Hand (1990)
99.9F° (1992)
Nine Objects of Desire (1996)
Songs in Red and Gray (2001)
Beauty & Crime (2007)
Tales from the Realm of the Queen of Pentacles (2014)
Lover, Beloved: Songs from an Evening with Carson McCullers (2016)
ΠΗΓΗ:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzanne_Vega_discography
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http://www.suzannevega.com/
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https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Suzanne+Vega
YOU TUBE - VIDEOS
Suzanne Vega -''Gypsy'' '
Album: ''Solitude Standing''
You come from far away
With pictures in your eyes
Of coffeeshops and morning streets
In the blue and silent sunrise
But night is the cathedral
Where we recognized the sign
We strangers know each other now
As part of the whole design
Oh, hold me like a baby
That will not fall asleep
Curl me up inside you
And let me hear you through the heat
You are the jester of this courtyard
With a smile like a girl's
Distracted by the women
With the dimples and the curls
By the pretty and the mischievous
By the timid and the blessed
By the blowing skirts of ladies
Who promise to gather you to their breast
Oh, hold me like a baby
That will not fall asleep
Curl me up inside you
And let me hear you through the heat
You have hands of raining water
And that earring in your ear
The wisdom on your face
Denies the number of your years
With the fingers of the potter
And the laughing tale of the fool
The arranger of disorder
With your strange and simple rules
Yes now I've met me another spinner
Of strange and gauzy threads
With a long and slender body
And a bump upon the head
Oh, hold me like a baby
That will not fall asleep
Curl me up inside you
And let me hear you through the heat
With a long and slender body
And the sweetest softest hands
And we'll blow away forever soon
And go on to different lands
And please do not ever look for me
But with me you will stay
And you will hear yourself in song
Blowing by one day
Oh, hold me like a baby
That will not fall asleep
Curl me up inside you
And let me hear you through the heat
agustigula4
Suzanne Vega - Luka
(Live JuleShow 2010)
Canal de chiqui20
SUZANNE VEGA -"Caramel"
It won't do
to dream of caramel,
to think of cinnamon
and long for you.
It won't do
to stir a deep desire,
to fan a hidden fire
that can never burn true.
I know your name,
I know your skin,
I know the way
these things begin;
But I don't know
how I would live with myself,
what I'd forgive of myself
if you don't go.
So goodbye,
sweet appetite,
no single bite
could satisfy...
I know your name,
I know your skin,
I know the way
these things begin;
But I don't know
what I would give of myself,
how I would live with myself
if you don't go.
It won't do
to dream of caramel,
to think of cinnamon
and long
for you.
GooGrean
Suzanne Vega-''99.9 F''
99.9 Fahrenheit degrees
Stable now, with rising possibilities
It could be normal but it isn't quite
Could make you want to stay awake at night
You seem to me like a man
0n the verge of burnin'
99.9 Fahrenheit degrees
Pale as a candle
And your face is hot
And if I touch you
I might get what you've got
You seem to me like a man
On the verge of runnin'
99.9 Fahrenheit degrees
Something cool against the skin
Is what you could be
Something cool against the skin
Is what you could be needing
99.9 Fahrenheit degrees
You seem to me like a man
On the verge of burnin'
99.9 Fahrenheit degrees
Something cool against the skin
Is what you could be
Something cool against the skin
Is what you could be needing
99.9 Fahrenheit degrees
99.9 Fahrenheit degrees
salriiight
SUZANNE VEGA -"Small Blue Thing"
Today I am
A small blue thing
Like a marble
Or an eye
With my knees against my mouth
I am perfectly round
I am watching you
I am cold against your skin
You are perfectly reflected
I am lost inside your pocket
I am lost against
Your fingers
I am falling down the stairs
I am skipping on the sidewalk
I am thrown against the sky
I am raining down in pieces
I am scattering like light
Scattering like light
Scattering like light
Today I am
A small blue thing
Made of china
Made of glass
I am cool and smooth and curious
I never blink
I am turning in your hand
Turning in your hand
Small blue thing
GooGrean
Suzanne Vega --''Bound''
The way of the world
Has taken its toll
Ravaged my body
And bitten my soul
I am ruined by rain
Weathered by wind
Been invaded
Without and within
And I ask, I am asking you
Asking you if you might still want me
And I ask, asking you
Asking you if you might still want me
Once you said
I'm made of fine stuff
I've been corrupted
And taken enough
Now you appear
Making your claim
Inside my heart
Is the sign of your name
And I ask, I am asking you
Asking you if you might still want me
And I ask, asking you
Asking you if you might still want me
All these words
Like darling and angel
And dear crowd my mouth
In a path to your ear
The way of the world
Is taking it's toll
Ravaged my body
And bitten my soul
And I ask, I am asking you
Asking you if you might still want me
And I ask, asking you
Asking you if you might still want me
When I said I am bound to you forever
Here's what I meant, I am bound to you forever
GooGrean
Suzanne Vega - ''Harbor Song''
i dreamed you were a rich man
and that i had no place to go
i came to you to see if you would take me in
through golden curtains you told me you'd let me know.
well, you drink for ten and you smoke for twenty
and your fickle heart will never be true
but still i feel the wind in from the harbor
thats when i know the longing for you
when i know the old longing for you.
i saw you in my mind's eye
you were laid out on your final day
i stood in line to see that handsome face once more
it had been so dear to me, and i kissed you as you lay
you were so dear, i kissed you as you lay.
now, whenever i do travel
if to portugal, england, or spain
as i do walk by the shipyards and the harbors
i smell the salt, and the bay rum of your ghost again
i know the salt, and the bay rum, you beside me again.
CitizenOfThePlanet95's channel
Suzanne Vega - Τhe Queen and the Soldier
13Fenris13
SUZANNE VEGA -"Cracking"
It's a one time thing
It just happens
A lot
Walk with me
And we will see
What we have got
Ah...
My footsteps are ticking
Like water dripping from a tree
Walking a harline
And stepping very carefully
Ah...
My heart is broken
It is worn out at the knees
Hearing muffled
Seeing blind
Soon it will hit the Deep Freeze
And something is cracking
I don't know where
Ice on the sidewalk
Brittle braches
In the air
The sun
Is blinding
Dizzy golden, dancing green
Through the park in the afternoon
Wondering where the hell
I have been
Ah...
The Suzanne Vega Galaxy
SUZANNE VEGA -"Undertow"
I believe right now if I could
I would swallow you whole
I would leave only bones and teeth
We could see what was underneath
And you would be free then
Once I thought only tears could make us free
Salt wearing down to the bone
Like sand against the stone
Against the shoreline
I am friend to the undertow
I take you in, I don't let go
And now I have you
I wanted to learn all the secrets
From the edge of a knife
From the point of a needle
From a diamond
From a bullet in flight
I would be free then
I am friend to the undertow
I take you in, I don't let go
And now I have you
I wanted to see how it would feel
To be that sleek
And instead I find this hunger's
Made me weak
I believe right now if I could
I would swallow you whole
I would leave only bones and teeth
We could see what was underneath
And you would be free then
I am friend to the undertow
I take you in, I don't let go
And now I have you
I am friend to the undertow
I take you in, I don't let go
And now I have you
The Suzanne Vega Galaxy
SUZANNE VEGA -"Luka"
My name is Luka
I live on the second floor
I live upstairs from you
Yes I think you've seen me before
If you hear something late at night
Some kind of trouble. some kind of fight
Just don't ask me what it was
Just don't ask me what it was
Just don't ask me what it was
I think it's because I'm clumsy
I try not to talk too loud
Maybe it's because I'm crazy
I try not to act too proud
They only hit until you cry
After that you don't ask why
You just don't argue anymore
You just don't argue anymore
You just don't argue anymore
Yes I think I'm okay
I walked into the door again
Well, if you ask that's what I'll say
And it's not your business anyway
I guess I'd like to be alone
With nothing broken, nothing thrown
Just don't ask me how I am [X3]
My name is Luka
I live on the second floor
I live upstairs from you
Yes I think you've seen me before
If you hear something late at night
Some kind of trouble, some kind of fight
Just don't ask me what it was
Just don't ask me what it was
Just don't ask me what it was
And they only hit until you cry
After that, you don't ask why
You just don't argue anymore
You just don't argue anymore
You just don't argue anymore
SuzanneVegaVEVO
Suzanne Vega -''Left of Center''
If you want me you can find me
Left of center off of the strip
In the outskirts and in the fringes
In the corner out of the grip
If you want me you can find me
Left of center off of the strip
In the outskirts and in the fringes
In the corner out of the grip
When they ask me, "What are you looking at?"
I always answer, "Nothing much, not much"
I think they know that, I'm looking at them
I think they think I must be out of touch
But I'm only in the outskirts and in the fringes
On the edge and off the avenue
And if you want me you can find me
Left of center wondering about you
I think that somehow, somewhere inside of us
We must be similar if not the same
So I continue to be wanting you
Left of center against the grain
And if you want me you can find me
Left of center off of the strip
In the outskirts and in the fringes
In the corner out of the grip
And when they ask me, "What are you looking at?"
I always answer, "Nothing much, not much"
I think they know that, I'm looking at them
I think they think I must be out of touch
But I'm only in the outskirts and in the fringes
On the edge and off the avenue
And if you want me you can find me
Left of center wondering about you
If you want me you can find me
Left of center wondering about you
If you want me you can find me
Left of center wondering about you
Wondering about you, wondering about you
If you want me you can find me
Left of center wondering about you
If you want me you can find me
Left of center wondering about you
Wondering about you, wondering about you
SuzanneVegaVEVO
I am sitting
In the morning
At the diner
On the corner
I am waiting
At the counter
For the man
To pour the coffee
And he fills it
Only halfway
And before
I even argue
He is looking
Out the window
At somebody
Coming in
"It is always
Nice to see you"
Says the man
Behind the counter
To the woman
Who has come in
She is shaking
Her umbrella
And I look
The other way
As they are kissing
Their hellos
I'm pretending
Not to see them
Instead
I pour the milk
I open
Up the paper
There's a story
Of an actor
Who had died
While he was drinking
It was no one
I had heard of
And I'm turning
To the horoscope
And looking
For the funnies
When I'm feeling
Someone watching me
And so
I raise my head
There's a woman
On the outside
Looking inside
Does she see me?
No she does not
Really see me
Cause she sees
Her own reflection
And I'm trying
Not to notice
That she's hitching
Up her skirt
And while she's
Straightening her stockings
Her hair
Has gotten wet
Oh, this rain
It will continue
Through the morning
As I'm listening
To the bells
Of the cathedral
I am thinking
Of your voice...
And of the midnight picnic
Once upon a time
Before the rain began...
I finish up my coffee
It's time to catch the train
#1 AL EAST TEAM - NY YANKEES
SUZANNE VEGA-"Rosemary"
Do you remember how you walked with me
down the street into the square?
How the women selling rosemary
pressed the branches to your chest,
promised luck and all the rest,
and put their fingers in your hair?
I had met you just the day before,
like an accident of fate,
in the window there behind your door.
How I wanted to break in
to that room beneath your skin,
but all that would have to wait.
In the Carmen of the Martyrs,
with the statues in the courtyard
whose heads and hands were taken,
in the burden of the sun;
I had come to meet you
with a question in my footsteps.
I was going up the hillside
and the journey just begun.
My sister says she never dreams at night
there are days when I know why;
those possibilities within her sight,
with no way of coming true.
Some things just don't get through
into this world , although they try.
In the Carmen of the Martyrs
with the statues in the courtyard
whose heads and hands were taken,
in the burden of the sun;
I had come to meet you
with a question in my footsteps.
I was going up the hillside
and the journey just begun.
All I know of you
is in my memory
All I ask is you
Remember me.
duplanelson
SUZANNE VEGA-"Jacob and the Angel''
Jacob and the Angel
The angel came to Jacob
The room began to glow
Jacob asked the angel
Are you friend or are you foe?
The angel never answered
But smote him on the thigh
They wrestled through the darkness
Till morning filled the sky
This thing between us, has wings, it has teeth
It has got horns and feathers, and sinews beneath
Angel or demon, to the truth I am bound, and so
This thing between us must be wrestled down
Jacob held on to the angel,
Who turned to fly, and to flee
He said I must have your blessing
Before I let you leave me
The angel never answered
But smote him on the thigh
They wrestled through the darkness
Till morning filled the sky
And in the light
He knew another name
As he struggled and surrendered
To the next part of the game
This thing between us, has wings, it has teeth
It has got horns and feathers, and sinews beneath
Angel or demon, to the truth I am bound, and so
This thing between us must be wrestled down
This thing between us, has wings, it has teeth
It has got horns and feathers, and sinews beneath
Angel or demon to the truth I am bound and so
This thing between us must be wrestled down.
comfy akerman
SUZANNE VEGA-"I Never Wear White"
I never wear white
White is for virgins
Children in summer
Brides in the park.
My color is black black black
Black is for secrets
Outlaws and dancers
For the poet of the dark.
Black is the truth
Of my situation.
And for those of my station
In life. All other colors
Lie.
I never wear white
White is too blinding
Always reminding
Of the innocent who fall
My color is black black black
For the crone, and the bastard
The schoolgirl in uniform
The servant in the hall.
Black is the truth
Of my situation,
And for those of my station
In life. All other colors
Lie.
My color is black black black
Like the gangster and widow
It’s the shade and the shadow
It’s the depth into your eye
My color is black black black black black
69FM-TV
Suzanne Vega - "Annemarie" (Live at WFUV)
WFUV Public Radio
Suzanne Vega - "Harper Lee" (Live at WFUV)
WFUV Public Radio
Suzanne Vega-We Of Me [Official Video]
Suzanne Vega
Suzanne Vega-99 9 F
Juntapuchos TV 2Suzanne Vega - In Liverpool
SuzanneVegaVEVO
Suzanne Vega-When heroes go down (hq)
SGGTEDITION