Suzanne Vega

Suzanne Nadine Vega (born July 11, 1959) is an American songwriter and singer known for her poetic lyrics and eclectic folk-inspired music.

Biography

Suzanne Vega was born in Santa Monica, California, but, at the age of 2 and a half moved with her mother (a computer systems analyst) and her stepfather (a writer from Puerto Rico) to New York City, where she grew up in a socially problematic area (Spanish Harlem and the Upper West Side). At the age of nine she began to write poems; she wrote her first song at age 14. Later she attended the New York City High School of the Performing Arts (the school seen in the feature film musical Fame), where she studied modern dance.

While majoring in English literature at Columbia University's Barnard College, she performed in small venues in Greenwich Village, where she was a regular contributor to the Monday night songwriters group at the Cornelia Street Cafe. In 1984, she received a major label record contract.

Vega's debut album, Suzanne Vega, was released in 1985 and was well received by critics in the US; it reached platinum status in Britain. Produced by Lenny Kaye and Steve Addabbo, the songs feature Vega's acoustic guitar in straightforward arrangements. Vega's writing often featured vignettes of characters and even inanimate objects, such as in "Small Blue Thing". A video was released for the album's song "Marlene on the Wall", which went into MTV and VH1's rotations.

Her next effort, Solitude Standing (1987), garnered critical and commercial success including two hit singles: "Tom's Diner", and "Luka." "Luka" is written about and from the point of view of a battered child—at the time an uncommon subject for a pop hit¹. While continuing a focus on Vega's acoustic guitar, the music is more strongly pop-oriented and features fuller more sensual arrangements. The a capella "Tom's Diner" was later a hit again, remixed by two British dance producers under the name DNA.

Vega's third album, Days of Open Hand (1990) signified a change in style: the music became more experimental, and the lyrics expressed greater emotion.

In 1992 she released the album 99.9F° ("ninety-nine point nine Fahrenheit degrees "). It consists of an eclectic mixture of folk music, dance beats and industrial music.

Her fifth album, Nine Objects of Desire, was released in 1996. The music varies between a frugal, simple style and the industrial production of 99.9F°. This album contains "Caramel", featured in the movie The Truth About Cats and Dogs and, later, the trailer for the movie Closer. A song not included on that album, "Woman on the Tier," was featured on the soundtrack of the movie Dead Man Walking.

September 2001 saw the release of a new album, Songs In Red and Gray. Three songs deal with Vega's divorce from record producer Mitchell Froom.

At the memorial concert for her brother Timothy Vega in December 2002, she began as the long-term subject of a direct cinema documentary, Some Journey, by director Christopher Seufert of Mooncusser Films.

In 2003, the 21-song greatest hits compilation The Best of Suzanne Vega was released. (The UK version of Retrospective included an eight-song bonus CD as well as a DVD containing twelve songs.) In the same year she was invited by Grammy Award-winning jazz guitarist Bill Frisell to play at the Century of Song concerts at the famed RuhrTriennale in Germany.

She signed with Blue Note Records in the spring of 2006. She plans to go into the recording studios in the fall of 2006, with the aim of releasing a new studio album in early 2007.^*

Vega has a daughter, Ruby Froom. The band Soul Coughing's Ruby Vroom album took its name from her, with Suzanne's approval, though she requested a slight change.^*

On February 11, 2006, Vega married Paul Mills, a lawyer and a poet. They originally met each other at Folk City on West 4th Street in 1981. In their own humorous words, Mr. Mills proposed to Miss Vega in May, 1983, and she accepted his proposal on Christmas Day, 2005.

Discography

Albums

Suzanne Vega, 1985 - UK #11, US #91
Solitude Standing, 1987 - UK #2, US #11
Days of Open Hand, 1990 - UK #7, US #50
99.9F°, 1992 - UK #20, US #86
Nine Objects of Desire, 1996 - UK #43, US #92
Tried & True: The Best of Suzanne Vega, 1998 - UK #46
Songs in Red and Gray, 2001 - US #178
Retrospective: The Best of Suzanne Vega, 2003 - UK #27

Singles

"Marlene On The Wall", 1985 - UK #83
"Small Blue Thing", 1985 - UK #66
"Knight Moves", 1985
"Marlene On The Wall" second release, 1986 - UK #21, AUS #39
"Left Of Centre", 1986 - UK #32, AUS #35
"Gypsy", 1986 - UK #77
"Luka", 1987 - UK #23, US #3, AUS #21
"Tom's Diner", 1987 - UK #58
"Solitude Standing", 1987 - UK #79, US #94, AUS #91
"Book Of Dreams", 1990 - UK #66
"Tired of Sleeping", 1990
"Men in a War", 1990
"Tom's Diner (DNA remix)", 1990 - UK #2, US #5, AUS #8
"Rusted Pipe (DNA remixes)", promotional, 1991
"In Liverpool", 1992 - UK #52
"99.9F°", 1992 - UK #46
"Blood Makes Noise", 1992 - UK #60, AUS #61
"When Heroes Go Down", 1993 - UK #58
"Caramel", 1996
"No Cheap Thrill", 1996 - UK #40
"Birth-day", promotional, 1997
"World before Columbus", 1997
"Headshots", promotional, 1997
"Book & a Cover", 1998
"Rosemary / Remember me", 1999
"Widow's Walk", promotional, 2001
"Last Year's Troubles", promotional, 2001
"Penitent", promotional, 2001
"(I'll never be) Your Maggie May", promotional, 2002

Trivia

In computing circles, Suzanne Vega is known for her song "Tom's Diner", which was used as the reference track in an early trial of the MP3 compression system (earning her the distinction of being "The Mother of the MP3"). ^*
"Tom's Diner" takes place in Tom's Restaurant at 112th Street and Broadway in New York City. Exterior shots of the same restaurant appear in the television sitcom Seinfeld as the eatery where Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer hang out. ^*
In a deleted scene from the 1994 feature film Pulp Fiction, the character Vincent Vega mentions when queried by Mia Wallace if he is related to Suzanne Vega, that he does have a cousin by the same name, but that he is unaware of her being a folk singer. ^*.
Suzanne Vega auditioned for the role eventually given to Madonna in the 1985 feature film Desperately Seeking Susan.^*
The hip hop music duo Felt have a song entitled Suzanne Vega on their first album.
Her hit single Luka is sung by Homer Simpson whilst driving in the episode Realty Bites of The Simpsons

Selected quotes

¹ On a 1987 Swedish television special, Suzanne Vega said this about the song "Luka" :

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 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.^*

Also, in an ASCAP interview, she responded to a question about "Luka":

Interviewer: When you can touch so many people with songs like "Luka," it must be pretty rewarding.'''
Vega: Yeah. It’s an amazing feeling. Especially since that particular song is a very special song. It’s a song about child abuse, so therefore it does touch a lot of people in a different way than if it were, say, a love song or some other kind of song. ^*

External links

SuzanneVega.com — Suzanne Vega's official website
Vega.net Fansitescollective hosted by Suzanne herself