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Versione 4
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“Nighthawks”, The painting by Edward Hopper, from 1942, inspired by a Greenwich Village locale, with a cheap cigarette brand on the sign, between sharp lines and volumes marked by vivid light, offers a view of a deserted street and some isolated figures inside the diner: a man with his back turned, a bent waiter, a couple reminiscent of Lauren Bacall (wonderful!) and Humphrey Bogart in “The Big Sleep.” The observer is cut off from the scene.
There is certainly no lack of “narrative paintings” in Suzanne Vega's songs, the contrast between interior and exterior, solitude, even within a couple, the daily portraits of people and things, passersby, soldiers, nereids, gypsies, twilights.
The dim light that attracts and drags through weak shades. Simple, fragile words that stumble and ensnare; you cannot help but follow them, longing to catch them.
Her almost unreal delicacy is impetuous.
“Solitude Standing”, in 1987, was my first and immediate approach to singer-songwriter music, I was 14 years old. A lightning strike with verses like:
“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”
(from “Tom’s_Diner).
Of course, she does not cut the observer off from her music, but gradually draws them in, gracefully. A sensation that remains over the years.
The songwriter, whose Folk style inevitably owes a debt to Joni Mitchell, can be compared to Dory Previn, and, as a kindred spirit, to Laura Nyro, takes Leonard Cohen much more as a narrative model than Dylan.
In the mid-80s, the ever-prominent acoustic guitar was also out of fashion, a hapax, not to mention her exacerbated introspection, or that gentle, whispered, not at all virtuosic, at most measured singing. Yet, almost inexplicably, she enjoyed a certain commercial success, so much so that she ended up paving the way for much of the female scene of the 90s. She elevated fragility to an aesthetic category.
Suzanne Vega was born in Santa Monica, California, in 1959, and at two years old, she went to live in New York, in the Spanish Harlem neighborhood, with her mother and adoptive father, Ed Vega, a Puerto Rican writer, who steered her toward literary studies. Setting aside her passion for ballet, she grew artistically in Greenwich venues. Slender and phlegmatic, bohemian with innocence, she immediately seemed like a champion of the ghetto, sincere and believable.
The debut album (“Suzanne Vega”, 1985) and the subsequent “Solitude Standing”, the albums to own, which best represent her, are wisely produced by Lenny Kaye, guitarist for Patti Smith and compiler of the “Nuggets”. Here, instead, we have “Retrospective: The Best of”, A&M 2003, epitomizing a career marked by a cultured and modern folk, which has always maintained a certain poetic aura in the lyrics and a fundamental stylistic coherence, even through disorienting changes. Indeed, since 1992, with the producer Mitchel Froom, soon to be her husband, she will experiment with electro-acoustic blends of urban modernity, venturing into “techno” arrangements, between synths and drum machines, but, fortunately, also aligning significant guests like Richard Thompson and David Hidalgo (Los Lobos). Demonstrating courage, at the very least. “Nine Objects of Desire”, from 1996, pushes that language towards lo-fi. The next step, “Songs of Gray and Red”, marks a return to more conventional Folk.
The collection in question, broader and more exhaustive than the previous best “Tried and True”, but with all the artistic limitations of the case, contains various pearls, presenting them heterogeneously in review. The first to be remembered is “Left Of Center”, brilliant collaboration with Joe Jackson, a flower accidentally fallen into the New Wave and the soundtrack of the film “Pretty in Pink”. It is not found in any studio album. From the debut, they shine, in their unbearable slenderness and beauty, “Cracking”, “Small Blue Thing”, “The Queen and The Soldier (Live, Nyon 1991)” and “Marlene On the Wall”:
“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 the 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”.
The poster of Marlene Dietrich, the blue angel, watches with derision the love of a couple that is the unresolved sum of two solitudes.
From “Solitude Standing”, the album where Vega appeared behind frosted glass, the autobiographical “Luka”, meaning “light”, an emblematic name to talk about child abuse, the most horrible crime in the world. Then the distances shrink to the quiet in “Gypsy” (“We strangers know each other now / As part of the whole design”) and in the ethereal “Calypso”:
“My name is Calypso
And I have lived alone
I live on an island
And I waken to the dawn
A long time ago
I watched him struggle with the sea
I knew that he was drowning
And I brought him into me
Now today
Come morning light
He sails away
After one last night
I let him go”.
These tracks seem like elegies to the rain, songs about dripping vapors along chilled glass.
The ballad “Tired of Sleeping” is another jolt. The usual domestic arrangement here is enriched by the organ:
“Oh Mom, the old man is telling me something
His eyes are wide and his mouth is thin
And I just can't hear what he's saying
Oh Mom, I wonder when I'll be waking
It's just that there's so much to do
And I'm tired of sleeping”.
There is space for the popular Acid Jazz version by D.N.A. of “Tom’s Diner”: initially “unauthorized” it was adopted by her, making the club audience dance to unusual and “aulic” verses. It is taken from the much more enchanting a cappella track that concluded the second LP, included in turn in the bonus CD of the English version of this retrospective, alongside five live tracks and “Anniversary”, the only new track.
Then the collection is bolstered with the so-called “experimental” songs on which “Woman on the Tier” stands out, with its cacophonic percussive elements, reminiscent of Tom Waits from “Bone Machine”. The tinkling piano of the verses of “In Liverpool” has set a standard and, in the refrain, gives way to an imperious and compelling tongue twister. “(I’ll Never Be) Your Maggie May” marks at best the return to classical Folk with a titillating melody.
In short, a tribute to the career of a secluded but important artist in the American singer-songwriter realm, who recently published “Lover, Beloved: Songs From An Evening With Carson McCullers”, her ninth studio album, dedicated to the American writer, who closely resembled her.
Suzanne Vega is somewhat the courage within weakness. A creator of diaphanous, transparent, clean songs. Of beauty that, in the best moments, has only linearity and subtle nuances. Elsewhere vainly hidden.
Tracklist and Lyrics
01 Luka (03:53)
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
And 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
Just don't ask me how I am
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
They only hit until you cry
And 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
03 Marlene on the Wall (03:42)
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 shop 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 fist
And reminded me of the night we kissed
And 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 finger prints 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 fist
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 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
04 Caramel (02:54)
Music & Lyrics by Suzanne Vega
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
how I would live with myself,
what I would give of myself
if you don't go.
It won't do
to dream of caramel,
to think of cinnamon
and long
for you.
06 Tired of Sleeping (04:25)
Oh Mom, the dreams are not so bad
It's just that there's so much to do
And I'm tired of sleeping
Oh Mom, the old man is telling me something
His eyes are wide and his mouth is thin
And I just can't hear what he's saying
Oh Mom, I wonder when I'll be waking
It's just that there's so much to do
And I'm tired of sleeping
Oh Mom, the kids are playing in pennies
They're up to their knees in money
And the dirt of the churchyard steps
Oh Mom, that man he ripped out his lining
He tore out a piece of his body
To show us his "clean quilted heart"
Oh Mom, I wonder when I'll be waking
It's just that there's so much to do
And I'm tired of sleeping
Oh Mom, the bird on the string is hanging
Her bones are twisting and dancing
She's fighting for her small life
Oh Mom, I wonder when I'll be waking
It's just that there's so much to do
And I'm tired of sleeping
Oh Mom, I wonder when I'll be waking
It's just that there's so much to do
And I'm tired of sleeping
07 Small Blue Thing (03:56)
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
08 Blood Makes Noise (02:29)
I'd like to help you doctor
Yes I really really would
But the din in my head
It's too much and it's no good
I'm standing in a windy tunnel
Shouting through the roar
And I'd like to give the information
You're asking for
But blood makes noise
It's a ringing in my ear
Blood makes noise
And I can't really hear you
In the thickening of fear
I think that you might want to know
The details and the facts
But there's something in my blood
Denies the memory of the acts
So just forget it Doc.
I think it's really
Cool that you're concerned
But we'll have to try again
After the silence has returned
Cause blood makes noise
It's a ringing in my ear
Blood makes noise
And I can't really hear you
In the thickening of fear
Blood makes noise...
09 Left of Center (03:31)
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
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
If you want me
You can find me
Left of center, wondering about you
Wondering about you
Wondering about you
10 (I'll Never Be) Your Maggie May (03:48)
I'll never be your Maggie May
The one you loved and left behind
The face you see in light of day
Then you cast away
That isn't me in that bed you'll find
I'd rather take myself away
Be like those ladies in Japan
Rather paint myself a face
Conjure up some grace
Or be the eyes behind a fan
And so you go
No girl could say no
To you
Oh, there's the way I may appear
But that will change from day to night
Would you ever see within?
Underneath the skin?
Could I believe you had that sight?
And so you go
No girl could say no
To you
I'll never be your Maggie May
The one you loved and then forgot
I'll love you first and let you go
Because it must be so
And you'll forgive or you will not
And so a woman leaves a man
And so a world turns on it's end
So I'll see your face in dreams
Where nothing's what it seems
Still you appear some kind of friend
And so you go
No girl could say no
To you
11 In Liverpool (04:45)
In Liverpool
On Sunday
No traffic
On the avenue
The light is pale and thin
Like you
No sound, down
In this part of town
Except for the boy in the belfry
He's crazy, he's throwing himself
Down from the top of the tower
Like a hunchback in heaven
He's ringing the bells in the church
For the last half an hour
He sounds like he's missing something
Or someone that he knows he can't
Have now and if he isn't
I certainly am
Homesick for a clock
That told the same time
sometimes you made no sense to me
if you lie on the ground
in somebody's arms
you'll probably swallow some of their history
And the boy in the belfry
He's crazy, he's throwing himself
Down from the top of the tower
Like a hunchback in heaven
He's ringing the bells in the church
For the last half an hour
He sounds like he's missing something
Or someone that he knows he can't
Have now and if he isn't
I certainly am
I'll be the girl who sings for my supper
You'll be the monk whose forehead is high
He'll be the man who's already working
Spreading a memory all through the sky
In Liverpool
On Sunday
No reason to even remember you now
Except for the boy in the belfry
He's crazy, he's throwing himself
Down from the top of the tower
Like a hunchback in heaven
He's ringing the bells in the church
For the last half an hour
He sounds like he's missing something
Or someone that he knows he can't
Have now and if he isn't
I certainly am
In Liverpool
In Liverpool
12 Gypsy (04:04)
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
13 Book of Dreams (03:25)
In my book of dreams
In my book of dreams
In my book of dreams
I took your urgent whisper
Stole the arc of a white wing
Rode like foam on the river of pity
Turned its tide to strength
Healed the hole that ripped in living
In my book of dreams
In my book of dreams
In my book of dreams
The spine is bound to last a life
Tough enough to take the pounding
Pages made of days of open hand
In my book of dreams
In my book of dreams
In my book of dreams
Number every page in silver
Underline in magic marker
Take the name of every prisoner
Yours is there my word of honor
I took your urgent whisper
Stole the arc of a white wing
Rode like foam on the river of pity
Healed the hole that ripped in living
In my book of dreams
In my book of dreams
In my book of dreams
14 No Cheap Thrill (03:10)
Music & Lyrics by Suzanne Vega
Ante up. And don't be shy.
Who is that man who is catching my eye?
What's underneath all of the deadpan face?
Sitting so pretty with a criminal grace?
Lamebrain Pete wants to Spit in the Sea.
He's got a cool hand but it isn't for me.
Butcher Boy thinks he'll be splitting the pot.
But I've seen what he's got and it isn't a lot.
(When deuces are wild you can follow the queen.
I'd go too except I know where she's been.)
I'll see you, I'll call you, I'll raise you
But it's no cheap thrill
It will cost you, cost you, cost you
Anything you have to pay.
I limit the straddles, and you shuffle and deal.
When will the dealer reveal how he feels?
Is the lucky beginner just a five-card stud?
Is this winning streak going to be nipped in the bud?
I'll see you, I'll call you, I'll raise you
But it's no cheap thrill
It will cost you, cost you, cost you
Anything you have to pay.
I'll match you, I'll bet you, I'll play you,
But it's no cheap thrill
It will cost you, cost you, cost you
Anything you have to pay.
15 Calypso (04:13)
My name is Calypso and I have lived alone
I live on an island and I waken to the dawn
A long time ago I watched him struggle with the sea
I knew that he was drowning and I brought him into me
Now today come morning light
He sails away after one last night
I let him go
My name is Calypso
My garden overflows
Thick and wild and hidden is the sweetness there that grows
My hair blows long as I sing into the wind
I tell of nights where I could taste the salt on his skin
Salt of the waves and of tears
And while he pulled away
I kept him here for years
Now I let him go
My name is Calypso
I have let him go
In the dawn he sails away to be gone forever more
And the waves will take him in again
But he'll know their ways now
I will stand upon the shore
With a clean heart and my song in the wind
The sand may sting my feet and the sky will burn
It's a lonely time ahead
I do not ask him to return
I let him go
I let him go
16 World Before Columbus (03:27)
Music & Lyrics by Suzanne Vega
If your love were taken from me
Every color would be black and white
It would be as flat as the world before Columbus
That's the day that I lose half my sight
If your life were taken from me
All the trees would freeze in this cold ground
It would be as cruel as the world before Columbus
Sail to the edge and I'd be there looking down
Those men who lust for land
And for riches strange and new
Who love those trinkets of desire
Oh they never will have you
And they'll never know the gold
Or the copper in your hair
How could they weigh the worth
Of you so rare
If your love were taken from me
Every light that's bright would soon go dim
It would be as dark as the world before Columbus
Down the waterfall and I'd swim over the brim
Those men who lust for land
And for riches strange and new
Who love those trinkets of desire
Oh they will never have you
And they'll never know the gold
Or the copper in your hair
How could they weigh the worth
Of you so rare
17 Solitude Standing (04:40)
Solitude stands by the window
She turns her head as I walk in the room
I can see by her eyes she's been waiting
Standing in the slant of the late afternoon
And she turns to me with her hand extended
Her palm is split with a flower with a flame
Solitude stands in the doorway
And I'm struck once again by her black silhouette
By her long cool stare and her silence
I suddenly remember each time we've met
And she turns to me with her hand extended
Her palm is split with a flower with a flame
And she says "I've come to set a twisted thing straight"
And she says "I've come to lighten this dark heart"
And she takes my wrist, I feel her imprint of fear
And I say "I've never thought of finding you here"
I turn to the crowd as they're watching
They're sitting all together in the dark in the warm
I wanted to be in there among them
I see how their eyes are gathered into one
And then she turns to me with her hand extended
Her palm is split with a flower with a flame
And she says "I've come to set a twisted thing straight"
And she says "I've come to lighten this dark heart"
And she takes my wrist, I feel her imprint of fear
And I say "I've never thought of finding you here"
Solitude stands in the doorway
And I'm struck once again by her black silhouette
By her long cool stare and her silence
I suddenly remember each time we've met
And she turns to me with her hand extended
Her palm is split with a flower with a flame
18 Penitent (04:19)
Once I stood alone so proud
Held myself above the crowd
And now I'm low on the ground
From here I look around to see
What avenues belong to me
I can't tell what I've found
Now what would you have me do?
I ask you please
I wait to hear
The mother and the matador
The mystic, each were here before
Like me to stare you down
You appear without a face
Disappear but leave your trace
I feel your unseen frown
Now what would you have me do?
I ask you please
I wait to hear
Your voice
The word
You say
I wait
To see your sign
Would I
Obey?
I look for you in heathered moor
The desert and the ocean floor
How low does one heart go?
Looking for your fingerprints
I find them in coincidence
And make my faith to grow
Forgive me all my blindnesses
My weakness and unkindnesses
As yet unbending still
Struggling so hard to see
My fist against eternity
And will you break my will?
Now what would you have me do?
I ask you please
I wait to hear
Your voice
The word
You say
I wait
To see your sign
Would I
Obey?
Now what would you have me do?
I ask you, please.
I wait to hear
Your voice
The word
You say
I wait
To see your sign
Could I
Obey?
19 Rosemary (02:44)
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.
21 Woman on the Tier (I'll See You Through) (02:27)
Too hot. No air.
Loud fan and a big tin can.
Wait here. Steer clear.
They've gone to get your man.
10 AM.
Through gate 3 with picture ID.
This old billfold
Experiences security.
I hear the click. These men are hard.
I'll see your face through bar and guard.
You're new to me. I'm new to you.
I see your fate. I'll see you
You through.
Ice within.
And it's all cement in the government.
Approved? Then move
To the plywood booth where the prisoner's sent.
You read in red
The letters on the door and you know what they're for.
You feel unreal.
And the rattling chain's coming over the floor.
I hear the clock. These walls are green.
I see your face through tin and screen.
You're new to me. I'm new to you.
I see your fate. I'll see you
You through.
Too hot. No air.
Loud fan and a big tin can.
Wait here. Steer clear.
They've gone to get your man.
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