Suzanne Vega was born in Santa Monica, CA and moved to New York, New York at a young age. While attending Barnard College she began playing her folk music at clubs throughout Greenwich Village and in 1984 landed her first recording contract. And the rest, as they say, is history. While Vega has never had commercial success of great heights, she has had more than enough to support her career over the past thirty-six years. Vega is most known for her single "Luka" about an abused child which, despite its rather dark subject matter, reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. She is also well known for the DNA remix of her acapella song "Tom's Diner." For her career, Vega has released nine studio albums (one of which hit #11 on the Billboard 200), a four LP set of acoustic material, two compilation albums, and five live albums. She has released 23 singles, but only two of them charted here in the states, though she has had considerable more chart success in the U.K. (so many cool kids in Great Britain!). She has won a pair of Grammy Awards and written a number of songs for movie soundtracks. Vega continues to record (last album in 2016) and tour, and is sometimes joined by her daughter for her live performances.
(Not So) Fun Fact: In 1989, Vega became the first woman to headline the Glastonbury Festival in England. Unfortunately, a crazed fan had threatened her before the show and she had to perform the entire concert while wearing a bulletproof vest.
"Marlene on the Wall" was the first single from Vega's debut album, entitled appropriately enough, Suzanne Vega. The single did not chart here in America, but did reach #21 in the United Kingdom (so many cool...never mind, already hit that number). The album only reached #91, but was listed at #80 on Rolling Stone's list of the hundred best albums of the eighties.
"Marlene on the Wall" tells the story of a young woman who has had a series of lovers move in and out of her life, with the only constant being the stare of a Marlene Dietrich poster from the wall of her abode. Every now and again as I do my half-assed research of my weekly tunes, I find something that I'd never noticed before but makes the song even more special. This week it was how fast Vega delivers her vocals--which fuses with the spinning of her character's life, a life that she's beginning to question (is she actually falling in love with this one?) and the destiny of which she may be changing. It's a nice slice of folk (emaycee fave!), literate without being pretentious, and Vega delivers it with a subtle yet melodic (I never really noticed or had forgotten how marvelous her voice is) overtone. Listening to "Marlene on the Wall" this week was like seeing an old friend who you hadn't seen in a while and couldn't believe you'd almost forgotten about--a fine trip down memory lane for a damn fine song.
Lyric Sheet: "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..."
Enjoy:
Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee
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