In the Eye

“I will not run, I will not turn, I will not hide”

And so, a small lesson from Suzanne Vega on being fearless. I’ve always found this song tremendously inspiring, or empowering as the lingo goes now. Vega has never been the angry activist type, but in her unassuming way she’s been a great role model for growing up feminist. It’s her quiet intelligence and level-headed stance on delicate emotional doings – she’s just the exact sort of intellectual, self contained, artistic, non-crazy person anyone would want to be. And this song of course – an acknowledgement that we live, as women, in the constant shadow of violence and the possibility of being killed at any time, and yet we can live without fear and stand up without blinking to those who would do us harm. I don’t know if that’s what the singer meant, but that’s what I get from it. That being vulnerable doesn’t equal being afraid, and courage is a great, great strength.

In My Movie

Suzanne Vega has a very literary imagination. Meaning that she writes lyrics that look good on paper and make sense without the support of music. If she should decide to write a book, I would be supremely excited. A lot of stars write books, mainly about themselves and the times they’ve lived through, and some of those have strong merit but most don’t. A Suzanne Vega memoir, if there isn’t out there already that I don’t know about, would be a thing of beauty. I also think she could even tackle real writing, like a book of poetry or fiction, if she isn’t doing that already. This song is about imagining movies, a common pastime. Which couldn’t be more literary of itself, it’s one form of entertainment mirroring another in an endless cycle.

In Liverpool

Suzanne Vega has been such a part of my growing up. I think every little girl needs a smart, sensitive red-haired woman for a role model. I’ve had a lot of role models over the years, and I’m not saying all of them were notorious for their drug consumption, but yeah, a lot of them were. There’s a lot to be said for the “Fuck you society imma shoot up and get ugly” school of empowerment, a la Marianne Faithfull or any number of genius lunatics. But there also needs to be some real-life-appropriate inspiration as well, which is where Suzanne Vega comes in, being all smart and articulate and resolutely not insane. Because while I’d love to be that kind of DO ALL THE DRUGS!! kind of person who flies around the world fucking everything that moves, that’s just not a realistic goal for anyone not bearing a death wish, and honestly I – and we all in general – would be better off with the more settled life of a writer or an artist who just watches the world and quietly makes observations.

If I Were A Weapon

Suzanne Vega has written a wry and perceptive commentary on the innate emotional violence of interpersonal relationship, using weaponry and household objects as similes for common human behavior patterns. As she always does, she’s created poetry that is emotionally truthful and revealing without being pessimistic or dark. Vega has a unique talent for writing that show the ordinary problems of life and relationships in a way that makes them special, and in particular for showing those problems from a clearly feminine point of view without falling into the dreaded shrieking-angry-whiny-victim trope. She is a writer of refined subtlety. And with that in mind I apologize profusely for the totally off-the-wall Vega/anime mashup in the video below. Because evidently there are a lot of people in Internet World who are literally incapable of enjoying anything without the presence of scantily clad saucer-eyed ninja-lolitas.

Headshots

Beautiful Suzanne Vega. I love how she takes something random – a poster on a wall, not for the first time – as a starting point and works it into a love song. That’s poetry for you; building emotion out of words without stating the obvious. Vega often uses descriptive imagery in her songs. She’s got an eye for detail and notices little things that matter. Feelings don’t exist in a vacuum. They cling to everyday stuff, so that any little thing can become a talisman. That’s why gifts matter – they carry the feelings of the people who give and receive them. That’s why pictures are important. It’s as though our emotions were so strong we must place them in objects for fear of becoming overwhelmed. For the same reason we have songs and poetry. To remind to hold on to our emotions, or let go of them, as the need be.

Gypsy

Suzanne Vega once said that she quit ballet when she realized that she’d never be good enough to get out of the chorus. I wonder if she takes the same attitude towards the imagery of pop stardom. Seeing her in this video, gorgeous but primly dressed and looking a little uncomfortable, makes me wonder that. She tried doing the soft-focus pretty-girl video think to promote her breakout album Solitude Standing, but maybe she had the realization that she’d never be fully at home lip syncing and acting sexy in videos, so she stopped trying to make herself appear glamorous and focused on what she is the best at – writing songs and singing. I’m not denigrating Vega’s looks – she is a beautiful woman – and I know that she’s make plenty of videos in her career and been photographed wearing pretty clothes. But never been her main focus. She’s chosen not to be an image-focused artist. She could have allowed herself to be promoted as a wistfully romantic folk singer who gazes longingly at the rain, as tears go by and whatnot. She could have been a sexy video girl – she spent all those years learning ballet, so we know she can dance if she wanted to. She’d probably have made a lot of money that way. She chose instead to let her music stand on its own merits, without using her looks to sell an image. Her songwriting and her voice create all the image she needs. She’s a poet, not a pop star. I think Vega is one of the greatest rock’n'roll poets, which are the only kind of poets that still matter. Choosing to be an artist first, and not letting image get in the way of creativity was an act of supreme intelligence, and also defiance in the face on an industry that always wants to market to the lowest common denominator. I always appreciate artistic integrity like that.

Frank & Ava

“It’s not enough to be in love”

Suzanne Vega’s most recent album Beauty & Crime is a tribute to the glamour of old New York. Vega has paid tribute to her hometown in many songs over the years, but this is as close as she’s gotten to making  a concept album. With songs like Ludlow Street and New York Is A Woman, this is Vega’s love letter to the city she’s always lived in. Nor does she abandon her other favored themes; the ups and downs of love, and of desire. The song Frank & Ava is inspired by the tumultuous relationship of Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner, but it speaks to any couple who find that love isn’t enough to keep them together. Passion can be destructive, passionate love is just down the road from passionate hate. Affairs that begin in passionate love will sometimes end in passionate drinking and fighting. Maybe it’s a lesson not to pursue impassioned attraction, to lead with the head and hope the hormones will follow, but that would be a cold and sad way to live. I don’t know of any way to love except through magnetic pull and electric currents, taking the gamble of a bad end.

Fifty-Fifty Chance

Back online, everybody! With a depressing-ass song, of course. It’s about somebody dying in a hospital, possibly, or recovering from a suicide attempt. This is one of those songs that I know are good, but I will skip over every time it pops up, just because it makes me sad. I think lately I’ve lost a lot of my taste for sad music. I used to really get a vicarious kick out of it, but now I gravitate more and more towards cheerfulness. Which means a lot more dance music on my playlist at the expense of old crying companions like Suzanne Vega. I’m not sure if that means I’ve become healthier mentally or just gotten more mindless through too much drug and internet use. I mean, everybody knows that looking at rage comics all day long dumbs you down, right? On the other hand, I’m on here writing every day, so it’s a creative outlet and that can’t be all bad. So, uh, I was talking about what now?

Fat Man & Dancing Girl

Who knew Suzanne Vega would be inspired by house music, or that it would fit her so well? 99.9F° may have come as a surprise to anyone who pigeonholed Vega as a folk singer with a softly strumming guitar but anyone who’d been paying close attention wasn’t shocked. Vega started out as a coffeeshop folkie but she was always open to new ways of creating a sonic impression. The jungly drums of 99.9F° suited her very well, and it holds as her most upbeat pop album. Nobody needs to be pigeonholed, especially such a creative force as Vega.

Casual Match

The appeal of Suzanne Vega is her thoughtful intelligence. She’s inspired and influenced a generation of female singer/songwriters, but few of them have even come close. Vega writes intimate lyrics about love and emotion and often about the hardships of desire, and she makes those things seem profound. In that sense she has more in common with her hero Leonard Cohen than with someone like Tori Amos. And although her songs are heartfelt and touching she likes to take a cool journalistic perspective. I particularly admire that although hers is unmistakably a woman’s perspective, she expresses herself in a way that is totally universal. She writes about heartbreak and longing without a hint of anger or self-pity. Too many women singers play the gender card, feeling for whatever reason that they have something to be righteous about just because they happen to be female, and thus alienating at least 50% of their potential audience. Some do this brilliantly, like Amos, who’s written terrifyingly about being a victim of violence. Most are just shrill. Suzanne Vega never writes with anger, and her coolness allows a deeper insight of the heart.