Suzanne Vega fought things she couldn't see with the emotional undertow of this literate urban folk. Growing up in Spanish Harlem, Vega began writing poetry in her early teens, and by the age of sixteen was performing her own songs on the in small clubs. Vega looks back: "It was great… I had a lot of songs and I was writing steadily – a song every few months – and I could try them out at a leisurely pace. I was with friends who had high standards for writing, and so it was good to try to meet them...The record deal came after a great review in the New York Times. We’d made a demo tape and my manager had already submitted it to A&M Records twice. However, after this particular review they came running…"
The sessions for her eponymous debut featured Suzanne Vega on vocals and acoustic guitar; Steve Addabbo on background vocals, synclavier guitar, 12-string acoustic guitar, and electric guitar; Darol Anger on electric violin; Frank Christian on acoustic guitar and electric slide guitar; Paul Dugan on bass and vertical bass; Sue Evans on drums and percussion; Jon Gordon on electric guitar; Peter Gordon on string arrangement; Frank Gravis on bass; Shem Guibbory on violin; Mark Isham on synthesizers; John Mahoney on synclavier programming; Maxine Neuman on cello; C.P. Roth on synthesizers, piano, and organ; and Roger Squitero on percussion. Vega admits: "If they'd say, 'Come out and sing it again,' I'd say, 'I don't want to, I sang it alright the last time,' or 'You sing it yourself.' Steve (producer Steve Addabbo) has told me there were times he wanted to really throttle me, but then I never would have sung again."
'Suzanne Vega' went to number ninety-one in the US, fifty-four in Germay, forty-two in Sweden, eleven in the Netherlands and the UK, and number nine in New Zealand. Vega would express at the time: "People who are expecting a folk album are surprised and people who are expecting a rock album don't quite get it...I like contemporary music and I like old-fashioned music, so I take things that I like from each of those and mix them all together. I suppose it confuses some people, but I like it...It's a little frustrating to go into a record store in New York and see that it's in the folk section, which is always either way in the back or upstairs or buried somewhere down some hole. I feel a little bad about that. I don't want it to be misrepresented, but I still want it to be what it is...Some people say 'I just can't understand' or 'Who wants folk music back?' and that's a mistake. Some people just don't want to think or make judgment for themselves. People want things to be clear for them...There's a lot I don't know about my songs. What I have to say is not always clear. I think I speak for a lot of people, I'm just not sure who they are yet."
http://www.suzannevega.com/
"Marlene on the Wall"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHZV7NOqEY4
Even if I am in love with you
All this to say, what's it to you
Observe the blood, the rose tattoo
Of the fingerprints, on me from you
Other evidence has shown that
You and I are still alone we
Skirt around the danger zone
And don't talk about it later
Marlene watches from the wall
Her mocking smile says it all
As she records the rise and fall
Of every soldier passing
But the only soldier now is me
I'm fighting things I cannot see
I think it's called my destiny
That I am changing
Marlene on the wall
Well I walk to your house in the afternoon
By the butcher shot, with the sawdust strewn
Don't give away the goods too soon
Is what she might have told me
And I tried so hard, to resist
When you held me in your handsome first
And reminded me, of the night we kissed
And of why I should be leaving
Marlene watches from the wall
Her mocking smile says it all
As she records the rise and fall
Of every soldier passing
But the only soldier now is me
I'm fighting things I cannot see
I think it's called my destiny
That I am changing
Marlene on the wall
Marlene watches from the wall
Her mocking smile says it all
As she records the rise and fall
Of every soldier passing
But the only soldier now is me
I'm fighting things I cannot see
I think it's called my destiny
That I am changing
Marlene on the wall
And even if I am in love with you
All this to say, what's it to you
Observe the blood, the rose tattoo
Of the fingerprints, on me from you
Other evidence has shown that
You and I are still alone we
Skirt around the danger zone
And don't talk about it later
And I tried so hard, to resist
When you held me in your handsome first
And reminded me, of the night we kissed
And of why I should be leaving
Marlene watches from the wall
Her mocking smile says it all
As the records the rise and fall
Of every man who's been here
But the only one here now is me
I'm fighting things I cannot see
I think it's called my destiny
That I am changing, changing, changing, changing, changing
Marlene watches from the wall
Her mocking smile says it all
As she records the rise and fall
Of every soldier passing
But the only soldier now is me
I'm fighting things I cannot see
I think it's called my destiny
That I am changing
Marlene on the wall
"Small Blue Thing"
"That day, I felt like a small blue thing and I said, OK, no one has ever said that before, so I would like to give this thing a voice."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z7VlOToPKs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oclv-EqJbvY
"Neighborhood Girls"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Oia4UTcbSw
'Suzanne Vega'
full album:
https://myspace.com/suzannevega/music/album/suzanne-vega-8340554
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4C6B1A79513F1313
All songs written by Suzanne Vega.
"Cracking" – 2:49
"Freeze Tag" – 2:36
"Marlene on the Wall" – 3:40
"Small Blue Thing" – 3:54
"Straight Lines" – 3:49
"Undertow" – 3:26
"Some Journey" – 3:38
"The Queen and the Soldier" – 4:48
"Knight Moves" – 3:36
"Neighborhood Girls" – 3:21
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