| Suzanne Vega Interview Remember to click on the photos to find these items in Gemm.com itself. http://tinyurl.com/suzannevegainterview is the direct link to this article.  | Respected folk/pop artist appeared on Program #100 of Visual Radio with Joe Viglione
The snow was coming down steadily and driving conditions were hazardous, but Vega and her publicist showed up at TV 3 in Medford to talk about her career, and her book "The Passionate Eye" on Spike/Avon. My company was in touch with Ms. Vega as far back as 1987 as the late Jimmy Miller, former producer for The Rolling Stones, loved her album "Solitude Standing" and wanted to meet her. They had corresponded by mail and we finally met backstage at the Orpheum Theater in Boston twelve years before this interview. Suzanne was charming then, and has retained that mystique and charisma, When we sent Lou Reed the portion of this interview where Vega compliments his book "Between Thought And Expression", Lou wrote me back "That was awfully nice of Suzanne." | | I sent Beatle George Harrison a photo of the show (I had promoted an Alvin Lee single that George appeared on in 1992 entitled "Real Life Blues") and George wrote back "Tell Suzanne that 99point9farenheitdegrees is one of the best albums of the nineties." |
Visual Radio began with an interview with The Jefferson Starship's Marty Balin, and rare footage of J.S. performing in Connecticut in 1995. Four years later Suzanne Vega appeared on our 100th program, as the show is about to shift from Public Access to commercial television. It was an honor for us to have Suzanne Vega as our one hundredth guest.Waterstones has closed in the short time between Vega's visit to Boston, and the new competition from Amazon.Com, Barnes & Noble, and the internet. But "The Passionate Eye" by Suzanne Vega - one of the first books to be released on Hearst's new SPIKE imprint, will endure. It is marvelous. Joe Viglione
Producer/Host
Visual Radio-Television
July 19, 1999 |  | Suzanne Vega Interview JV: Visual Radio Program #100, we are honored to have Suzanne Vega as our special guest. Hello Suzanne.
SV: Hi.
JV: It's our 100th show.
SV: Congratulations
JV: And congratulations to you on "The Passionate Eye", a really wonderful book, published by Spike/Avon. Tell me, how did it all come together, you're making records & did they say "Hey, we need a book?"
SV: No, no...I guess it was after "Luka" became a hit in 1987, suddenly I found myself with a lot of offers from people who said "you know we really like your songwriting and you tell stories and would you like to write a book?" and at that point I just didn't have the time to follow through on any of it. So by the time I actually got focused on thinking about a book again it was several years later. A few years ago I got a letter from someone who then became my agent and they said "would you like to put together a proposal", and I said "yes", and it kind of grew out of that.
JV: It's subtitled "The collected writings of Suzanne Vega" and it truly is collected writing
SV: Well I love writing and I've written for most of my life so it did seem like a very natural thing to do.
JV: And it reads naturally. Who is Bruce Miyashita?
SV: I belong to a group on the internet, they had formed themselves before I found out about it and they had devoted themselves to writing about the lyrics and stuff like that, and so I joined this group a few years ago. And this particular person, Bruce Miyashita would write essays about my lyrics and then also about related issues, like Film Noire, mental illness, or, you know, whatever kind of provoked his fancy. So he had written an essay called "The Passionate Eye" and I just was stricken by the title and so I asked him if I could use it for the title here.
JV: The internet has changed everything. "Solitude Standing", of course, starts the book. There's so much to explore here. It reminds me of picking up The Kybalion ...you can go anywhere in The Kybalion and read Hermetic philosophy, with your book I can go anywhere...you don't have to start at the beginning...
SV: Right. Well, I'm glad you have that attitude because the thing about this book that I've probably been asked more times than anything else is "why are there no page numbers..."
JV: That was one of my questions (laughter)!!!
SV: and so..(laughter), that was one of the reasons why I think was because when I arranged
the book I didn't arrange it chronologically. The editors and I decided that we should do it by themes because different themes come up in your life at different times. And I think taking that a step further they decided not to have a table of contents or any page numbers so you could just kind of dip into the book any time you wanted. So you got the spirit of it right away.
JV: I never have notes on my show, everyone knows that. This being show #100 I wanted to have notes, I had said "the thing that annoys me is that there are no page numbers!!!!"
SV: Sorry (laughter)
JV: How can I reference things that I like?
SV: I know. Well, I guess you'll have to either number them yourself or you'll have to dog ear
them or - ah - put post it notes
JV: So you don't mind if I write in your book?
SV: Oh, no, I don't mind if you write in my book... I mean you can't write in MY book, but you can
write in your own book if you... JV: ...my copy of your book...because certain things hit you and...wow...
SV: yeah
JV: I"m going to keep this for my whole life
SV: OK
JV: because a lot of books you read and...
SV: ...give them away
JV: back to the library or whatever but this is an important work
SV: Thank you.
JV: Very interesting, usually in someone's book they may interview a Leonard Cohen, but in your book Leonard Cohen interviews you...
SV: Yeah, well I thought that anyone who was attracted to the lyrics might also be attracted to this particular interview
JV: It's excellent, Leonard's a very important artist...and you people have this relationship with your music and...
SV: I mean I'd say to say that we're friends is a bit too intimate. I wouldn't say that we're really friends but that we've sort of known each other over the years at these very odd functions, you know, I'll meet him at a photo shoot or, ah, I went to the Juno Awards, which it mentions in there, to sing a part of his song when he got a lifetime achievement award...so I see him under these different circumstances...so it's not quite a friendship but it's a ...some kind of relationship that seems to go on
JV: You're colleagues
SV: Yeah, I guess so, although I'm a lot younger than he is. I learned a lot from him, so I wouldn't say colleagues really, he's ...when Rolling Stone had asked me to pick a mentor to have my picture taken with I picked him
JV: Oh
SV: And that's how we first met
JV: That's great
SV: It was really fascinating to meet him under those circumstances
JV: And how did the interview come about?
SV: The interview came about because A & M records at that time decided for some reason they thought it would be an interesting idea and the original idea was that they were going to do it for radio and also for print. And for some reason it just never got off the ground. I think it was on the internet for awhile and that was pretty much the extent of where it had been published - although maybe it also got published in Europe. So it was A & M that had commissioned Leonard Cohen to do this.
JV: Oh wow, so this is really quite a find, then for fans of yours and Leonard's.
SV: I think so.
JV: As I said, I was going through the book and you had something on masculinity... and this was published in Esquire...
SV: Yeah...
JV: and then "Marlene" (On The Wall) comes right after it...
SV: Yes, well, because, you see, the end of this one "On Masculinity" today (published in Esquire Magazine, 1991) they were talking about this one part here where someone asked me you know who impersonates sex for me, and that's a little bit of a joke because they didn't mean who impersonates sex for me, they meant who
embodies it JV: Right
SV: And at that point so I said my boyfriend and Marlene Dietrich and that's why it leads into "Marlene On The Wall"
JV: My boyfriend "A" meaning his initial?
SV: Yes, his initial...
JV: As opposed to your first boyfriend
SV: Right. (chuckles), Right, he was not my first boyfriend but his first initial was "A". |
 | JV: Marlene, what movies of hers do you like?
SV: Oh I was a huge fan of hers, it must've been quite a while ago, the one I remember loving was, I think it was called "A Foreign Affair" (1947/48)
JV: Oh
SV: You know, I think there's a scene in that where she's about to be beheaded or something, they've drawn a sword and they're holding it in front of her face and she chooses that moment to check her lipstick in the reflection of the sword and I thought, you know, you really can't beat that moment. I think that was probably the one or maybe it was "Destry Rides Again"(1939), I can't remember especially, but, there's a few... | JV: Wasn't she in a movie "In The Navy" or something? She sang a song "In The Navy", in a navy suit?
SV: I don't remember...I don't remember...
JV: I think that (scene) was re-issued in the film "Myra Breckinridge" with Raquel Welch. Myra/Raquel teaches a film class, and there's Marlene Dietrich, and I just thought "on masculinity", and there's Marlene in a sailor's suit...you know
SV: Right, no, the one scene I do remember is when she's in a tuxedo and she's singing "Falling In Love Again" and then she kisses this woman on the mouth which I guess at that point is very risque
JV: Wow
SV:: Then I think later in that film I think she sings "Hot Voodoo" in sort of a gorilla outfit...which is... I don't know, you don't even want to get into that, but...
JV: Ok, so you've exposed yourself with the book, -you know, "Tom's Diner". I'd hear "Tom's Diner" on the radio, but unlike "Luka" where I grabbed the lyrics right away, I didn't realize till last night that "Tom's Diner", I never really grasped the lyrics till I read it in the book...
SV: hmmm
JV: The melody is so strong...
SV: Everybody thinks of the melody, it's true, everybody thinks (Suzanne starts singing the intro to "Tom's Diner"), that's really what sticks in everyone's mind, and a few people figure out that it's about breakfast or it's about feeling alienated or it's about, you know, sitting in a diner on a typical morning, and that kind of thing
JV: It wasn't until I started reading the book that I realized I never understood those lyrics, it's one of the only songs for me, ever, that the lyrics didn't impact me till I read them in the book - so now we get to the next level - is it OK to ask the artist what a song is about after you've read it in their book?
SV: Yeah, sure, I mean you can always ask. (both of us laugh simultaneously)
JV: OK, Marlene on the wall. Is she a spy?
SV: Marlene on the wall? Well, she is a little bit, I mean it was a photograph of Marlene Dietrich that was on my wall, and I thought that the idea of having a song written from an inanimate point of view was kind of an unusual one, and that was...So I guess she was sort of acting as a spy if she could've been looking at the activities that were happening in my life, in my room at that point, um, it was sort of meant to be, ah, yeah, as though she were observing and what her judgments or what her thoughts might have been.
JV: So she was counseling you?
SV: Well, if I...If I...ah, yeah, I guess she was, in a sense...
JV: ha
SV: If I could've, you know, in my imagination, which, of course, is what it's all about.
* * * * *
JV: You put song lyrics in here, and then there's material from when you were a child.
SV: Yeah
JV: It's wild
SV: I think it's wild - I guess I'd started writing at a very early age, you know, with the expectation and the hope that one day I would have a book out. So, I carefully kept everything, oh, you know, and so, yeah, now I get to put it in this collection
JV: Would you mind reading?
SV: No, no, I don't mind...
JV: Is "Night Song" ?
SV: Night Song, OK, This is actually a song that I had written when I was about fifteen and my parents really
didn't know what to make of it. They used to call it "The Love Song To The Mother" I guess I was sort of trying to write a Dylan-esque song about somone on the other side of the civilized world... you know... OK, "Night Song"... (Suzanne starts reading her poem from the book...) It's two o'clock in the morning... (She laughs), "I just found a typo, I'm sorry, we'll start again... I't two o'clock in the morning... (Suzanne reads "Night Song" in its entirety)
...because you can't stop the rising sun..."
SV: ...So what would make you pick this song to read...
JV: Well, I'm amazed that at age 15 you came up with something that reads like an adult wrote it.
SV: Thank you.
JV: I remember Janis Ian was like 12 years old and she played in Greenwich Village with one of my previous guests (author/vocal coach) Jeannie Deva, they were in a band together, and I'm saying "these girls were 12 years old!" and Janis hit at 15 with her song...
SV: "Society's Child" - yeah -
JV: I'm just amazed when I see this depth at this young age
SV: Thank you.
JV: Did you ever think to take the book to grammar schools and high schools and maybe lecture and...I think it's inspiring for someone fifteen years old to say like "wow, this woman wrote this when she was fifteen and it's published"
SV: I haven't yet, although my sister's a schoolteacher and so sometimes I go to her class and I hear from a lot of teachers that they'll use the songs in different ways, they'll use "Luka", or a lot of people seem to use "Tom's Diner" a lot of people who teach English, seem to want to use "Tom's Diner" to teach about meter and, ah, because the language is pretty simple, you know. and so they like it for that.
JV: Now "Tom's Diner" - did you have any idea that anyone was covering it WITH you?
SV: That someone had done that re-mix of it? Ah, no, I did not, and in fact, it was kind of a puzzle when it happened 'cause it did happen three years after the original song. So I was on tour promoting "9 Objects of Desire" and all of a sudden we got a telephone call from my manager and he said "these two boys in England have stolen your song and we're going to sue them, and this can't happen" and all of this sort of thing and I said "well, let me listen to it', and I listened to it and thought it was actually very funny and very clever, and a very original idea, it was certainly something I wouldn't have thought of myself, so when I listened to it and I thought "I think it's all right" so we released it as a single and it became hugely successful, much to my surprise.
JV: So you released it?
SV:: I asked the record company to release it.
JV: A & M?
SV: Yeah.
JV: So I thought that they had done this on their own and it hit...
SV: They had done it on their own and it was starting to really sell and that's when A & M found out about it. You know, their story was that they had called the record company and that they had never got anyone to call back. And they decided not to wait and to release it themselves. And it started to just fly out of the stores.
JV: That is wild
SV: it was wild, yeah, it was really one of those unpredictable things.
JV: And who are they?
SV: They're not really a group, they are two men called DNA, and one's a singles promotions guy, the other one's a guy in the studio who just does re-mixes, and they've done a lot of remixes since then, a lot of really successful ones, like for Loreena McKennitt, she has one called "The Mummers' Dance" I think, (from the 1997 album "The Book Of Secrets" Quinlan Road Records) and they did her remix, so.... |
Remember to click on the photos to find these items in Gemm.com itself. http://tinyurl.com/suzannevegainterview is the direct link to this article. |
