Some articles from the local newspaper. I did the translations
(Find the german version here).
The copyright will be owned by the respective newspaper, I guess.
The first article is from the
from Tuesday November 26th 1996:
Suzanne Vega, the Brave
Suzanne Vega was the figurehead of the women-wave of the 80's.
But too often people reduced her to the folk-commercial-success
"Luka" and overlooked that the Lady with the page-boy cut has
a lot more to offer. Also with "Nine Objects Of Desire" Vega
energetically protests againts the image of campfire romantics.
The New Yorker spins a silky red thread through 12 songs who
offer something for everyone. The fan of quiet moments gets his
money's worth as well as those who are fed up with the uniformity
of the pop charts. Vega also dares to break new ground. She
constantly expands her musical horizon knowing that she will loose
the one fan or the other from older days. This courage to take
risks has made her incomparable.
The next article is from the
from Friday May 30th 1997:
About life with all its facettes
(Songwriter: Suzanne Vega wants to tell stories of the everydays
life to her audience)
,,I love it to present the audience the life from different points
of view'', says Suzanne Vega, ,,sometimes with things the people don't
want to hear, sometimes with things they didn't know before, sometimes
with things they knew before, but never really thought about''
The new album ,,Nine objects of desire'' confirmes once more Suzanne
Vega's position as a storyteller of everydays life with all its
facettes, perfidies, grief, pain, hate and love. The recordings for
this album, taking place in New York, lasted for more than a year.
Nine different forms of desires and wishes are the content of this
rhythmic diversive album: from nostalgic remembrances like
,,Headshots'' via erotic relations (,,Stockings'') to matriarchalic
concepts (,,Birthday'' or ,,World before Columbus'').
She was described as ,,one of the strongest and most determined
songwriter of the last years'' from the renowned ,,New York Times''
in 1985 as she made her dabut. Suzanne Vega, grown up in Spanish
Harlem and the Upper West Side of New York, loved and learned within
a multiculturel background: ,,My babysitters listened to Motown,
my parents preferred 60's jazz and Bossa Nova, Astrud Gilberto for
example had a strong influence on me. I for myself loved the Beatles
and folk-singers like Pete Seeger. Later I liked to listen to Santana,
War and Shaft'' With the album ,,Solitude Standing'' and the hit
,,Luka'' Suzanne Vega became established as a huge singer/songwriter
of the 80's.
The next two articles are from the
from Tuesday June 3rd 1997:
I have to organize my time in a better way
(Interview: Suzanne Vega talks about ,,Luka'', women in music
and her role as young mother)
Suzanne Vega watches her surroundings very carefully. Therefore in her
songs one always finds the topics that move her. We met the New Yorker
before her show in Linz for an interview:
Q: During the last three years your life has changed a lot. You got
married and became a mother. How did that effect your working with
music? A: Nothing is as it was before. Before that I was only a songwriter
and could write in the night when I was in the mood. Now I have to
show consideration for my daughter Ruby. But this didn't change
a lot with respect to the music. I have to organize my time in a
better way. Q: Especially a child does change life dramatically. Is this in your
case harder if you're on tour? A: It's not harder, it's different. I'm glad that my husband and my
daughter are always with me. Q: Do you like concerts as much as before Ruby's birth? A: That has nothing to do with Ruby. I like playing in front of an
audience and my daughter is used to live with us on a tour since the
age of six months. But if we arrive somewhere now, we have to check
where the next supermarket is, because we need milk for her. Q: Your last album ,,Nine Objects Of Desire'' is stilistically manifold.
Critics say that it is your best album. What do you think? A: I was surprised about the extremely positive reactions on the album.
I for my part do think that is my most mature work. But I'm surely not
impartial. Q: Your received rewards as ,,best folk-artist'', for the ,,best
popalbum'' and for the ,,best rockalbum''. Is this a proof that
Suzanne Vega is not merely a folk singer? A: If those rewards are to symbolize breadth then I agree. But I never
regarded myself as being a folk singer. I am glad about having been
a member of that scene in New York in earlier times; that was very
important for me. Q: The music scene has changed drastically. Especially women are now
very successful. Would you say that you opened the doors for other
women woth your success? A: It looks as if. But if it is like that then my success only changed
the way of thinking of the managers. I don't think at all that it is
important whether you're making music being a man or a woman, it is only
important whether you want to be an artist. Q: Your music is for listening to the lyrics. Is it for you important
that the audience understands what you're expressing in your songs? A: Of course I write my songs to communicate myself. But I found out that
the songs create a mood in which the audience understands what the song
is all about. If they feel the mood of a song then it will be good. Q: A lot of people always connect your name with ,,Luka'', your worldwide
hit from 1987. Can you stand hearing the song anymore? A: Yes, of course. I still singe it, too, because the people are waiting
for it. It has become a part of me. Q: One of your favourite songs is ,,Walk On The Wild Side'' by Lou Reed
because it is still modern although it was written 20 years ago. Do you
think that ,,Luka'' might be a ,,All-Time-Favourite'' one day? A: Yes, might be. There are several artists like Evan Dando from the
Lemonheads who are reinterpreting ,,Luka''. So it appears to be a great
song.
Suzanne Vega doesn't fit into the beer tent
A hit can turn into a curse if a artist and his whole creative work
are compared to it. ,,Luka'' by Suzanne Vega is already ten years old
but a lot of people went to the Linz-Fest only because of that. When
the New Yorker turned out to be intellectual breaking the tight musical
genre-boundaries that was more than part of the audience could handle.
While Vega told her stories from New York in the back part of the
beer tent that had been turned into a concert-hall stories from Austria
took place. Some uninterested said: ,,Hoist ma nu a Bier, weu sonst hoit
i den Sch... net aus'' in an extreme example of ignorance. After those
had left the tent after an hour or so only those people stayed that
wanted to listen.
Because one has to tackle with Suzanne Vega. She's not a musician
you lend your ear to in a quick way and on the side. She puzzles with her
mechanistic sounds coming from the technical trickbox, spans the arc
from folk to industrial rock within one song and poses with her
acoustic guitar as a ,,protestsinger'' in the style of Joan Baez.
No moment in her almost two-hours concert is predictable.
To those willing to listen Vega serves with her excellent band a
soundcocktail of the best kind. And somewhere in the middle one forgets
the scenery which was in hars disagreement with the offered music.
But at least Suzanne Vega has once reached more people who left with
the knowledge that ,,Luka'' is only a small part in her ouvre.