Take That 唱片集及背景资料
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此专集为本站ongod.org在2001年购买.
[img align=F]up/20070901_070626.jpg[/img]
Suzanne Vega 《Songs in Red and Gray》
唱片集详细资料:
Release Date: 9/25/2001
AMG 等级: ****"
流派: Rock
标签: A&M
长度:
Singles: “(I'll Never Be) Your Maggie May”
曲目
1. Penitent
2. Widow's Walk
3. (I'll Never Be) Your Maggie May
4. It Makes Me Wonder
5. Soap and Water
6. Songs in Red and Gray
7. Last Year's Troubles
8. Priscilla
9. If I Were a Weapon
10. Harbor Song
11. Machine Ballerina
12. Solitaire
13. St. Clare (Jack Hardy; Suzanne Vega)
Windows Media Player文件
唱片集评论:
In musical terms, it is less significant that Mitchell Froom is no longer Suzanne Vega's husband than it is that he is no longer her producer. Although Froom's experimental style helped the singer/songwriter fulfill her desire to expand beyond her folk-pop roots on her fourth and fifth albums, 99 F° and Nine Objects of Desire, his approach actually worked against the material, cluttering her intimate, direct songs with inappropriate percussion tracks and various kinds of sound processing. So, listeners who responded strongly to her first three albums but found the Froom discs off-putting (and there were plenty of them) should be alerted that, sonically, Songs in Red and Gray is ready to welcome back old fans. Produced by Rupert Hine, it has the kind of carefully played acoustic guitar work and close-up vocal miking that characterized Suzanne Vega and Solitude Standing. That makes it easier to appreciate Froom's departure from Vega's personal life as well as her professional one, however. This is very much a divorce album, its songs frequently touching on romantic discord and the resulting fall-out. Vega is both precise and artful in describing the situation. She writes by metaphor, unafraid, on "Machine Ballerina," for example, to mix those metaphors and pile them up. That allows her some emotional distance, but never at the expense of meaning. Her concern with the dissolution of her marriage and its impact on her child is apparent in "Soap and Water" when she sings, "Daddy's a dark riddle/Mama's a headful of bees/you are my little kite /carried away in the wayward breeze," even though the lines make up a succession of metaphors. Her calm, hushed, clear singing only emphasizes the emotional torment the songs trace. The result is an album on a par with her best work.
- 由 William Ruhlmann 撰写
Suzanne Vega
苏珊·薇格 Suzanne Vega
苏珊·薇格（Suzanne Vega）1959年8
月12日出生于美国纽约。Suzanne Vega可谓
继Joan Baez 之后最具代表性的美国民谣才
女歌女。她令民谣复兴于80年代流行乐坛，
直到90年代的今天，Suzanne凭籍 Fold Ro-
ck以及火热动感的跳舞音乐仍稳座乐坛举足
轻重之位。
早在少女时代，Suzanne Vega就接触了
诗人歌手Leanard Cohen 及早期的Bob Dyl-
an知性音乐，开始对Folk Rock产生憧憬，
并尝试以一支吉它在纽约城的夜总会自弹自
唱，以简洁明快的手法演绎自己的作品。
1985年，推出了她的首张同名大碟，其
中一首《Marlene One The Wall》冲上美国
流行榜的第21位，这对于初涉乐坛的Suzan-
ne而言不失为一个好的开端。《Cracking》
以清新的木吉它伴奏，无助无依的呢喃将歌
词中的淡淡情愫演绎得纤毫毕现。《The Q-
ueen And The Soldier》则讲述了一个士兵
参见女皇，声明自己不爱战争，只希望做回
自己的故事，反战意识很浓。《Knight Mo-
ves》惯常的Classical Guitar Scaling 作
adlib，使格调倾向于感伤、哀怨的气氛。
1987年推出的《Solitude Outstanding
》成为Suzanne的转折点，这张专辑曲不仅
获得了商业上的成功，更为她指明了音乐发
展的新方向。其中一曲《LUKA》首闯入流行
榜三甲。1990年的《Days of Open Hand 》
中加入了大量的设计，音乐结构上追求更深
的层面， 一如既往的Band sound歌曲如《
Man In A War》依然清新流畅，而许多歌曲
在排编上都十分成熟，巩固了Suzanne 的艺
术定位。1992年的《99·9F》有半数跳舞节
奏的作品， 极具个人风格：“Blood Mdes
Noise”《As a Child》,《Song of Sand》
主打歌《99·9F》听来都令人神怡不已。经
过四年人生大事的安排，Suzanne 终于在96
年完成了新专辑《Nine Object of Desire》
已经成为母亲的她，无论在造型抑或曲风上
都展现出成熟性感的韵味。专辑融合了清新
民谣，Jazz,Bassa, Nova尤其在打击乐的表
现上十分突出。
Suzanne Vega
传记:
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 on through 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, CA; her parents divorced shortly thereafter, and after her mother (a jazz guitarist) remarried to 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 the 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 coffeehouses 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, as well as drawing 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 talents 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, yet 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 1990's 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 latter-day albums by Elvis Costello, Richard Thompson, and Crowded House. Froom applied his trademark approach -- dissonant arrangements, clanging percussion -- to Vega's new 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 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.
Steve Huey
Suzanne at age 8, Alyson and Matthew
(Photo by Eric Maristany)
Suzanne's Childhood Poems 她小时候的日记:
By Myself
I stand by myself
Not lonely at all.
I listen to the little birds
Beckon and call.
I stand by myself
By the pond, with the fish
And now I don't even
Have one little wish
Except to be by myself
Each and every day
And come down to the woods
Where the little deer play.
(Age 9)
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The Wind Fairies
The wind fairies laugh and sing and dance
They come out every time they get a chance.
When the wind fairies come out they really have a ball
And they come at the Wind Queen's each and every call.
(Age 9)
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The Rain Sweeps...
THE RAIN SWEEPS across the windowpane
The muddy green trees blow with the wind
And a cloud of gloom settles everywhere.
But I don't feel the gloom, oh, no
Only the drama of the rain.
And peace.
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Secret
It is a secret
A secret, an unspoken
Vow between silent friends.
I can never speak of this again
And so, you will never know.
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Ocean
Waves
Pounding high
The white foam
Gliding
Then silence
So sudden
It shocks me
And all it still...
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Ocean
Grey, white
Pounding, rising, pulling
Excitement, rhythm, fear, bravery
Ocean
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Haiku
Peace is part of love
But love is not all peaceful
It can be quite fierce.
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I Like...
I LIKE him a lot
As a matter of fact, yes,
I almost love him.
We are friends, yet something more
It can hardly be put into words.
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Can My...
CAN MY words express
The way I feel about you
Gentle, soft, yet strong
Willing to fight for you and with you
Can it be called love?
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I Look...
I LOOK outside
Darkness answers.
White snowflakes drift
Aimlessly, towards nowhere.
Rich white
Velvet black
Completes the night.
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I Think Of My Dog...
I THINK OF MY DOG
As I lie on the grass in the rain
And I wish that he
Were alive again and here
My adorable, cute dog.
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To Barry McLean
Do you know
What I've been through
Trying to reach
And get through to you?
I like you a lot
So let's be friends
But let's stop there
Before that ends.
If we get closer
Like we are now
You get sort of mean
I can't really say how.
Not really mean
You just ignore
Me and my feelings
Not like before.
So let's break up
(Going steady, I mean)
From Suzanne Vega
To Barry McLean.
(Late Spring 1971 - Age 11)
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Written After A Triumphant Fight
I'm the baddest girl in the world
I'm as bad as Super Fly
and I don't need coke to get me high.
I can beat you, Jack
and you better get back
when the Vega's come around.
We'll kick your ass, and make it last,
I got evil eye, and you sure gotta try
to put me on the ground.
I don't play, hey, you know what I say
when I say it or pay.
I can stare you down,
make you crawl on the ground.
I'm action, no talk, when I say to you walk, I'm not the kind you can knock.
I use only my hands, no bottles for me
But I got plans, and you won't go home free.
When I don't smile, you know you're in trouble
'cause I can get wild, I ain't got no double.
I can make you cry, I can make you wanna die.
No one beat me yet, and they ain't gonna get the chance.
I can take mine and the little folks at the same time.
I'm the baddest girl in the world.
(December, 1972 - Age 13)
"The Songwriter's Exchange" by Suzanne Vega
1982
Of particular interest to the songwriters in the Village is the Monday night songwriters exchange, which has been going on for five years now at the Cornelia Street Cafe.
Every Monday night, beginning at about 7 P.M., songwriters gather and sign up to sing a song they have written the previous week. The rules of the workshop are simple. You are asked to attend one Monday night without participating, just to observe, if you are here for the first time. After that you can sign up to sing every Monday night if you like, as long as your song was written, or at least revised in the previous week. Each week someone volunteers to be the next week's host. The workshop runs no later than 9:30, usually with two or three sets in the evening.
There are many types of songwriters who meet here: intellectual songwriters with intricate lyrics; jazz- influenced guitar players with less complicated lyrics; basic old-fashioned folk-song writers, and song-singers with no music accompaniment at all. The cafe is a forum; a place to hear what people are thinking about and being influenced by; a place to meet other writers and talk and listen to them. Some people come once or a few times and never return; others come faithfully for years. If a person comes consistently and works hard, they are not overlooked.
It has been nearly two years now since I came to my first Cornelia Street Monday night. At first the idea of getting up and singing a newborn song to a group of other possibly more talented and critical songwriters was enough to keep me away for months I felt sick when I finally attempted it but it's not really like that. The songwriters exchange is meant to be non-competitive; you don't get criticism unless you specifically ask for it (usually from your friends), although people will comment if they particularly like a song. The worst that can happen is no reaction at all. This is not a hoot; this is not the place to come and try to impress the management with a high-powered rendition of one of the latest top 40 hits. (The woman upstairs will pound like hell if you do. She pounds anyway.) It is not performance-oriented , but is aimed at providing an atmosphere in which to perfect your craft of songwriting.
The cafe was started in 1977 by Robin Hirsch, who is responsible for the performing at the cafe; Raphaela Pivetta, who is responsible for the art; and Charles McKenna. Robin Hirsch came here fourteen years ago from London, with a background in English and Theater.
Since its opening, the cafe has been a success. It is open seven days a week, between 8 A.M. and 2 A.M. It's a great place to work in small and atmospheric with white brick walls, and it is an art space as well, which means there are usually interesting paintings, sculptures, drawings, or photographs for sale on the walls. It was expanded recently, and now has a separate room for special Sunday night performances and the Monday night workshops.
As I write this, there is piano music in the background from the radio, and people talking as they wait for this Sunday night's performance to begin. In February, there was a prose reading, a bawdy puppet show, comedy, and the latest version of a new play.
And there is food. Bread and butter with jam is a dollar, a glass of wine is $1.25; there are quiches and croissants and cafe au lait and mulled wine and fruit. Also cheese, and soup... I could go on. It's a little expensive, but very, very nice.
Playing here on a Monday night won't help you get a gig at Folk City or the Other End or the Bottom Line, but it is an important part of this supportive community important to the spirit and souls of people who are trying to create and not just repeat what has been done. The songs and singers are not always polished, and the material is usually highly personal. I don't know of any other place like it anywhere. It has the atmosphere of the local meeting place of an old tribe or village, a gathering place for those with a song in their veins that they must express. And everyone is welcome.
[img align=F]up/diaryLg.jpg[/img]
Suzanne's Diary Pages - Sunday, April 29, 1990
Notebook pages written In Liverpool
by Suzanne Vega
...the bells are clanging and clamouring from what appears to be a church now they have stopped, ring twice -- now the ceremony is over -- it had gone on for a good five or ten minutes. two clocks look into my hotel room and from the window I see a small river -- is this the river Mersey that Andy once told me about? I thought of him today as the bus rolled into town -- how homesick he was for Liverpool, for the big clock that always told the same time -- where is it? for the river Mersey which, if this is it, is much smaller and browner than the Hudson which I am homesick for right now -- the light is pale and thin here like the inhabitants of this country -- a pale watery light not unpleasant but not substantial -- Here the bells have started again -- it begins at the top of the scale and hurls itself down in a mad clamor over and over again in an uneven rhythm
there must be some mad boy in the belfry hurling himself across the ropes like a hunchback. perhaps he loves someone who doesn't love him. perhaps he is remembering an old lost love . now the scale is confused and is sounds like a carnival of bells, a dull peculiar melody, with a lilt but no reason to it. now it returns to the scale from the beginning over and over from the top down to the bottom the low notes hitting with a dark clanging resonance the top bells more cheerful -- besides this banging and clamouring there is no other sound, no shouts, traffic, people, nothing except the stone, the pale sunlight, the small brown river and the bells on Sunday afternoon.
This morning I lay awake from four am to 730 am. a long treacherous stretch of time to think things over again. Unfortunately lately I fall into idle daydreams about his brown skin, open generosity, blunt...
注释: 本站ongod.org音乐资料均为购买CD 专集收藏. 未经本站授权同意,禁止下载转载.
最后编辑： liuxyon 编辑于02/16/2008 16:12
[img align=F]up/20070901_070626.jpg[/img]
Suzanne Vega 《Songs in Red and Gray》
唱片集详细资料:
Release Date: 9/25/2001
AMG 等级: ****"
流派: Rock
标签: A&M
长度:
Singles: “(I'll Never Be) Your Maggie May”
曲目
1. Penitent
2. Widow's Walk
3. (I'll Never Be) Your Maggie May
4. It Makes Me Wonder
5. Soap and Water
6. Songs in Red and Gray
7. Last Year's Troubles
8. Priscilla
9. If I Were a Weapon
10. Harbor Song
11. Machine Ballerina
12. Solitaire
13. St. Clare (Jack Hardy; Suzanne Vega)
Windows Media Player文件唱片集评论:
In musical terms, it is less significant that Mitchell Froom is no longer Suzanne Vega's husband than it is that he is no longer her producer. Although Froom's experimental style helped the singer/songwriter fulfill her desire to expand beyond her folk-pop roots on her fourth and fifth albums, 99 F° and Nine Objects of Desire, his approach actually worked against the material, cluttering her intimate, direct songs with inappropriate percussion tracks and various kinds of sound processing. So, listeners who responded strongly to her first three albums but found the Froom discs off-putting (and there were plenty of them) should be alerted that, sonically, Songs in Red and Gray is ready to welcome back old fans. Produced by Rupert Hine, it has the kind of carefully played acoustic guitar work and close-up vocal miking that characterized Suzanne Vega and Solitude Standing. That makes it easier to appreciate Froom's departure from Vega's personal life as well as her professional one, however. This is very much a divorce album, its songs frequently touching on romantic discord and the resulting fall-out. Vega is both precise and artful in describing the situation. She writes by metaphor, unafraid, on "Machine Ballerina," for example, to mix those metaphors and pile them up. That allows her some emotional distance, but never at the expense of meaning. Her concern with the dissolution of her marriage and its impact on her child is apparent in "Soap and Water" when she sings, "Daddy's a dark riddle/Mama's a headful of bees/you are my little kite /carried away in the wayward breeze," even though the lines make up a succession of metaphors. Her calm, hushed, clear singing only emphasizes the emotional torment the songs trace. The result is an album on a par with her best work.
- 由 William Ruhlmann 撰写
Suzanne Vega
苏珊·薇格 Suzanne Vega
苏珊·薇格（Suzanne Vega）1959年8
月12日出生于美国纽约。Suzanne Vega可谓
继Joan Baez 之后最具代表性的美国民谣才
女歌女。她令民谣复兴于80年代流行乐坛，
直到90年代的今天，Suzanne凭籍 Fold Ro-
ck以及火热动感的跳舞音乐仍稳座乐坛举足
轻重之位。
早在少女时代，Suzanne Vega就接触了
诗人歌手Leanard Cohen 及早期的Bob Dyl-
an知性音乐，开始对Folk Rock产生憧憬，
并尝试以一支吉它在纽约城的夜总会自弹自
唱，以简洁明快的手法演绎自己的作品。
1985年，推出了她的首张同名大碟，其
中一首《Marlene One The Wall》冲上美国
流行榜的第21位，这对于初涉乐坛的Suzan-
ne而言不失为一个好的开端。《Cracking》
以清新的木吉它伴奏，无助无依的呢喃将歌
词中的淡淡情愫演绎得纤毫毕现。《The Q-
ueen And The Soldier》则讲述了一个士兵
参见女皇，声明自己不爱战争，只希望做回
自己的故事，反战意识很浓。《Knight Mo-
ves》惯常的Classical Guitar Scaling 作
adlib，使格调倾向于感伤、哀怨的气氛。
1987年推出的《Solitude Outstanding
》成为Suzanne的转折点，这张专辑曲不仅
获得了商业上的成功，更为她指明了音乐发
展的新方向。其中一曲《LUKA》首闯入流行
榜三甲。1990年的《Days of Open Hand 》
中加入了大量的设计，音乐结构上追求更深
的层面， 一如既往的Band sound歌曲如《
Man In A War》依然清新流畅，而许多歌曲
在排编上都十分成熟，巩固了Suzanne 的艺
术定位。1992年的《99·9F》有半数跳舞节
奏的作品， 极具个人风格：“Blood Mdes
Noise”《As a Child》,《Song of Sand》
主打歌《99·9F》听来都令人神怡不已。经
过四年人生大事的安排，Suzanne 终于在96
年完成了新专辑《Nine Object of Desire》
已经成为母亲的她，无论在造型抑或曲风上
都展现出成熟性感的韵味。专辑融合了清新
民谣，Jazz,Bassa, Nova尤其在打击乐的表
现上十分突出。
Suzanne Vega
传记:
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 on through 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, CA; her parents divorced shortly thereafter, and after her mother (a jazz guitarist) remarried to 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 the 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 coffeehouses 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, as well as drawing 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 talents 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, yet 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 1990's 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 latter-day albums by Elvis Costello, Richard Thompson, and Crowded House. Froom applied his trademark approach -- dissonant arrangements, clanging percussion -- to Vega's new 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 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.
Steve Huey
Suzanne at age 8, Alyson and Matthew
(Photo by Eric Maristany)
Suzanne's Childhood Poems 她小时候的日记:
By Myself
I stand by myself
Not lonely at all.
I listen to the little birds
Beckon and call.
I stand by myself
By the pond, with the fish
And now I don't even
Have one little wish
Except to be by myself
Each and every day
And come down to the woods
Where the little deer play.
(Age 9)
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The Wind Fairies
The wind fairies laugh and sing and dance
They come out every time they get a chance.
When the wind fairies come out they really have a ball
And they come at the Wind Queen's each and every call.
(Age 9)
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The Rain Sweeps...
THE RAIN SWEEPS across the windowpane
The muddy green trees blow with the wind
And a cloud of gloom settles everywhere.
But I don't feel the gloom, oh, no
Only the drama of the rain.
And peace.
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Secret
It is a secret
A secret, an unspoken
Vow between silent friends.
I can never speak of this again
And so, you will never know.
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Ocean
Waves
Pounding high
The white foam
Gliding
Then silence
So sudden
It shocks me
And all it still...
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Ocean
Grey, white
Pounding, rising, pulling
Excitement, rhythm, fear, bravery
Ocean
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Haiku
Peace is part of love
But love is not all peaceful
It can be quite fierce.
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I Like...
I LIKE him a lot
As a matter of fact, yes,
I almost love him.
We are friends, yet something more
It can hardly be put into words.
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Can My...
CAN MY words express
The way I feel about you
Gentle, soft, yet strong
Willing to fight for you and with you
Can it be called love?
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I Look...
I LOOK outside
Darkness answers.
White snowflakes drift
Aimlessly, towards nowhere.
Rich white
Velvet black
Completes the night.
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I Think Of My Dog...
I THINK OF MY DOG
As I lie on the grass in the rain
And I wish that he
Were alive again and here
My adorable, cute dog.
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To Barry McLean
Do you know
What I've been through
Trying to reach
And get through to you?
I like you a lot
So let's be friends
But let's stop there
Before that ends.
If we get closer
Like we are now
You get sort of mean
I can't really say how.
Not really mean
You just ignore
Me and my feelings
Not like before.
So let's break up
(Going steady, I mean)
From Suzanne Vega
To Barry McLean.
(Late Spring 1971 - Age 11)
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Written After A Triumphant Fight
I'm the baddest girl in the world
I'm as bad as Super Fly
and I don't need coke to get me high.
I can beat you, Jack
and you better get back
when the Vega's come around.
We'll kick your ass, and make it last,
I got evil eye, and you sure gotta try
to put me on the ground.
I don't play, hey, you know what I say
when I say it or pay.
I can stare you down,
make you crawl on the ground.
I'm action, no talk, when I say to you walk, I'm not the kind you can knock.
I use only my hands, no bottles for me
But I got plans, and you won't go home free.
When I don't smile, you know you're in trouble
'cause I can get wild, I ain't got no double.
I can make you cry, I can make you wanna die.
No one beat me yet, and they ain't gonna get the chance.
I can take mine and the little folks at the same time.
I'm the baddest girl in the world.
(December, 1972 - Age 13)
"The Songwriter's Exchange" by Suzanne Vega
1982
Of particular interest to the songwriters in the Village is the Monday night songwriters exchange, which has been going on for five years now at the Cornelia Street Cafe.
Every Monday night, beginning at about 7 P.M., songwriters gather and sign up to sing a song they have written the previous week. The rules of the workshop are simple. You are asked to attend one Monday night without participating, just to observe, if you are here for the first time. After that you can sign up to sing every Monday night if you like, as long as your song was written, or at least revised in the previous week. Each week someone volunteers to be the next week's host. The workshop runs no later than 9:30, usually with two or three sets in the evening.
There are many types of songwriters who meet here: intellectual songwriters with intricate lyrics; jazz- influenced guitar players with less complicated lyrics; basic old-fashioned folk-song writers, and song-singers with no music accompaniment at all. The cafe is a forum; a place to hear what people are thinking about and being influenced by; a place to meet other writers and talk and listen to them. Some people come once or a few times and never return; others come faithfully for years. If a person comes consistently and works hard, they are not overlooked.
It has been nearly two years now since I came to my first Cornelia Street Monday night. At first the idea of getting up and singing a newborn song to a group of other possibly more talented and critical songwriters was enough to keep me away for months I felt sick when I finally attempted it but it's not really like that. The songwriters exchange is meant to be non-competitive; you don't get criticism unless you specifically ask for it (usually from your friends), although people will comment if they particularly like a song. The worst that can happen is no reaction at all. This is not a hoot; this is not the place to come and try to impress the management with a high-powered rendition of one of the latest top 40 hits. (The woman upstairs will pound like hell if you do. She pounds anyway.) It is not performance-oriented , but is aimed at providing an atmosphere in which to perfect your craft of songwriting.
The cafe was started in 1977 by Robin Hirsch, who is responsible for the performing at the cafe; Raphaela Pivetta, who is responsible for the art; and Charles McKenna. Robin Hirsch came here fourteen years ago from London, with a background in English and Theater.
Since its opening, the cafe has been a success. It is open seven days a week, between 8 A.M. and 2 A.M. It's a great place to work in small and atmospheric with white brick walls, and it is an art space as well, which means there are usually interesting paintings, sculptures, drawings, or photographs for sale on the walls. It was expanded recently, and now has a separate room for special Sunday night performances and the Monday night workshops.
As I write this, there is piano music in the background from the radio, and people talking as they wait for this Sunday night's performance to begin. In February, there was a prose reading, a bawdy puppet show, comedy, and the latest version of a new play.
And there is food. Bread and butter with jam is a dollar, a glass of wine is $1.25; there are quiches and croissants and cafe au lait and mulled wine and fruit. Also cheese, and soup... I could go on. It's a little expensive, but very, very nice.
Playing here on a Monday night won't help you get a gig at Folk City or the Other End or the Bottom Line, but it is an important part of this supportive community important to the spirit and souls of people who are trying to create and not just repeat what has been done. The songs and singers are not always polished, and the material is usually highly personal. I don't know of any other place like it anywhere. It has the atmosphere of the local meeting place of an old tribe or village, a gathering place for those with a song in their veins that they must express. And everyone is welcome.
[img align=F]up/diaryLg.jpg[/img]
Suzanne's Diary Pages - Sunday, April 29, 1990
Notebook pages written In Liverpool
by Suzanne Vega
...the bells are clanging and clamouring from what appears to be a church now they have stopped, ring twice -- now the ceremony is over -- it had gone on for a good five or ten minutes. two clocks look into my hotel room and from the window I see a small river -- is this the river Mersey that Andy once told me about? I thought of him today as the bus rolled into town -- how homesick he was for Liverpool, for the big clock that always told the same time -- where is it? for the river Mersey which, if this is it, is much smaller and browner than the Hudson which I am homesick for right now -- the light is pale and thin here like the inhabitants of this country -- a pale watery light not unpleasant but not substantial -- Here the bells have started again -- it begins at the top of the scale and hurls itself down in a mad clamor over and over again in an uneven rhythm
there must be some mad boy in the belfry hurling himself across the ropes like a hunchback. perhaps he loves someone who doesn't love him. perhaps he is remembering an old lost love . now the scale is confused and is sounds like a carnival of bells, a dull peculiar melody, with a lilt but no reason to it. now it returns to the scale from the beginning over and over from the top down to the bottom the low notes hitting with a dark clanging resonance the top bells more cheerful -- besides this banging and clamouring there is no other sound, no shouts, traffic, people, nothing except the stone, the pale sunlight, the small brown river and the bells on Sunday afternoon.
This morning I lay awake from four am to 730 am. a long treacherous stretch of time to think things over again. Unfortunately lately I fall into idle daydreams about his brown skin, open generosity, blunt...
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最后编辑： liuxyon 编辑于02/16/2008 16:12
