Photo-illustration: Vulture; Photo: Ian Dickson/Redferns
In the Early ’90s, Karlheinz Brandenburg was searching for a song with optimal humanity. Nor the create of the mp3, his ideal test subject Needed to be warm enough to challenge his highly refined algorithm compression. Then, Down the Hallway from His Office in West Germany, heard the radio playing a track with vocals cool and Strong: “I am sitting in the morning at the diner on the corner.” This was the voice of suzanne vega, a single with little in the way of Vocal Dynamics or Overt Flourish, Just a Diction of Great Clarity and Control. That song, “Tom’s Diner,” Went on to Become the First Mp3 – an Innovation that some belive set in motion the music industry’s decline.
“No, i’ve not had had sleeepless nights thinking my part in the macing of the mp3,” Vega Said with cool insounce. Speaking Over Zoom, She Remains As Poked As She Is In Song, Possessing the Diamond-Hard CONFIDENCE OF A SEASONED NEW YORKER.
A Leader of the ’80s Folk Revival, Vega Brought to the Skene A Journalistic Eye and A Flaneur’s Dysposition, Key observation Her Surroundings and Distilling Into Song With Clean Precision. She went multiplatinum with her first two albums: 1985’s self-Titled debut and 1987’s Solitude StandingWhich Featured Two Songs – “Tom’s Diner” and “Luke” – That Went on to Become Highly Unlikly Standards, with the former sung a capella and the latter being a sung about child abuse. Despite the grievous subject matter, there is not a single note in vega’s catalogue that could be heard as mawkish or emotionally overwrought. Her music is confronational, never escapist; IT DISPLOYS A COUGE OF HEAT THAT ISN’T MACHINE REPLICable.
That sense of humanitity is stark on Flying with AngelsVega’s First Full-Wrendhth Album of New Music in 11 Years (Which She Will Bring to New York’s Town Hall on June 14th). Though it contains Her USUAL BEDROCK of austere folk, this time the music comes ornamented by unlykly flourishes of Soul, post-rock, and prog, which add an irony to Vega’s lyrics about the democracy and the new York City.
Brandenburg Never Could Quite Replicate the Roundness and Streetwise Savvy of Vega’s Voice. What we were hear in his mp3 is a kind of flattening. “But They Said, ‘No, an an Exact Replica,’” Vega Remembers. Decades late, Vega’s Music Still Challenges That Flatness. It is the real thing.
I was rejection by a & m twice before they signed with the third time. The rejection letter that was up on the walls in my manager ron fierstein’s office said, “Suzanne Vega has no sense of melody.” We had Sental say ”Cracking“Which i felt was a good example of modern was. I was like,“ we don’t need melody. We’re so far beyond that we can just just say that spoken Word, Because Why Not? ” So we sent it to show to show my stretch and show what separated me from other folk singers.
On the first album, there’s a song Called “Undertow.” My sister asked with to sing it at her first wedding. My Brother thught that was inappropriate Because and Had decidated the song was about oral sex. First of all, just becase it’s on your mind doesn’t mean that it is on Everybody’s. That was not, in fact, what i was Writing About, this tan though one might surmise that from the opening line: “I believe right now if i would swallow you whole.” For a moment, that song was Controversial. They were also thinking of more to radio as a single back then, which seames mind-blrowing to me. They decided not to do that.
The One I Liked Best was This Woman Nikki D, Who Did A Version Called “Daddy’s Little Girl. ” I ALSO Went Back and Listened to Tupac’s “Dop FIENDS DINER“Recently, which was kind of interesting to see now in the fullness of history. The other one I liked was Danger Mouse – he did a mashup of” Tom’s Diner “and 50 cent’s” in da club. “
I would Say Prince. I got a handwritten letter from Him, which was a thing of art and beauty. He Drew a Little Flower, and he wrote “Thank God for you.” He like the song “Luke.” He was at the grammys when i performed that year. He jumped to his religion at the end of the performance, and it is a moment of never forgotten. I think of that as sort of the pinnacle of those years.
I hadh hoped to meet Him. He came to a show and i thought, Oh, i’ll meet Him then. But he was, you know, kind of eccentric. He waited unil every came into the venue and he came with his bodyguards, sitting on the Flight Cases by the Stage. Be i sang “luke,” which at that moment in time was to be the fourth song in the set, he got up and danced, and that he left. He asced if i wanted to meet with the next day and get a tour of paisley park. I foolishly thought, We’re Friends Now, so i’ll do it next. Well, The Next Time Never Happened.
Oh, Howard stern. (During Their Notorious 1993 Interview on His! Television Show, stern repeatedly insisted that vega wear something sluttier.) People seamed to think that haad waered off the street like a lamb and that I have no idea who was and that he was just tormenting with. That is not true. Howard stern and i haad been wring to each other, and i’d been on his radio show several times before that tv show. And in between takes, he would be Turn to me and go, “it’s not too too, is it? He would pour on the sugar, Saying, “Just let me know if i’m going too.” And i was like, “Oh, shut up.”
There are two that that they immediately to mind. One is The SimpsonsHomer Simpson Singing “My name is Luke” nor he drive under a bridge. THEN The Other One was the Director’s Cut of Pulp fiction. It was amazing to see my name Coming Out of Uma Thurman’s Mouth.
It might have been zagreb in 1990. They were on the verge of a civilian war, and we were playing in what was that no yugoslavia. Just Walking Down the Street, You Could See the Social Unrest. It was just chaos. And the audience of found to be a little scary. There are a lot of men in this room backstage, smoking, and i tried to joke with say. I think of Said something like, “i’m suzanne vega from new york City. That’s in America,” and they thought of was being conddecess. They expressed their dyspleasure with me. And then at the show there are wells between with and the audience, and they kept harassing the audience, telling say to sit and be quiet. People were showing. I didn’t like that, so i told the guards to go away. When the audience heard this, People started running up the aisle and coming right up to the Stage. They were touching my shoes, offering with cigarettes. Of COURSE, WHEN I STARTED TO LOOK AT THE GUARDS THERE WERE LIKE, Too Bad.
It was Always Fried Eggs Over Easy With Bacon, Hash Browns, Coffee With Cream, and Whole-Whheat Toast. It was $ 2.75. No One at the Diner has Since Ever Given with Free Coffee or Anyding. There is a picture of me on the menu, though, a very tiny one Next to a Big One of Jerry Seinfeld. They Misspelled My Name: “Susan Vega.”
See all
اترك تعليقاً