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Suzanne Vega: Solitude Standing

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: A&M Records
Released: 1987.04.01
Time:
 44:20
Category: Pop/Rock
Producer(s): See Artists ...
Rating: *****..... (5/10)
Media type: CD
Web address: www.suzannevega.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 1998
Price in €: 4,99



 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Tom's Diner (Vega) - 2:09
[2] Luka (Vega) - 3:52
[3] Ironbound/Fancy Poultry (Sanko/Vega) - 6:19
[4] In the Eye (Shulman/Vega) - 4:16
[5] Night Vision (Sanko/Vega) - 2:47
[6] Solitude Standing (Ferrera/Sanko/Shulman/Vega/Visceglia) - 4:49
[7] Calypso (Vega) - 4:14
[8] Language (Vega/Visceglia) - 3:57
[9] Gypsy (Vega) - 4:04
[10] Wooden Horse [Casper Hauser's Song] (Ferrera/Sanko/Shulman/Vega/Visceglia) - 5:13
[11] Tom's Diner [Reprise] (Vega) - 2:40

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Suzanne Vega - Acoustic Guitar, Vocals

Steve Addabbo - Guitar, Producer, Engineer
Mitch Easter - Rhythm Guitar, Producer, Mixing
Frank Christian - Electric Guitar
John Gordon - Guitar
Shawn Colvin - Background Vocals
Sue Evans - Percussion, Drums
Steve Ferrera - Percussion, Drums
Anton Sanko - Synthesizer, Classical Guitar
Marc Shulman - Electric Guitar
Michael Visceglia - Synthesizer, Bass Guitar

Lenny Kaye - Producer
Rod O'Brien - Engineer
Shelly Yakus - Mixing
Arthur Zarate - Assistant Engineer
George Cowan - Assistant Engineer
Marc DeSisto - Assistant Engineer
Geoff Keehn - Assistant Engineer
Jeff Lippay - Assistant Engineer
Joe Martin - Assistant Engineer
Mark McKenna - Assistant Engineer
Dan Nash - Assistant Engineer
Paula Bullwinkel - Photography
Richard Croft - Photography
Ronald K. Fierstein - Executive Producer
Jeffrey Gold - Art Direction, Design
Melanie Nissen - Art Direction, Design
Matthew Vega - Photography


 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s

1987 CD A&M VEGCD3
1987 LP A&M 5136
1987 CD A&M Reco 3951362
1990 CS A&M 75021-5136-4
1990 CD A&M 75021-5136-2
1993 CD A&M 5136

For the follow-up to her groundbreaking debut album, Vega made a wise move by incorporating her band further into the arrangement process. Thus, instead of delving deeper into herown introspective muse, she reaches outward to pursue a musical vision markedly expanded from the friendly folk-rock ofthe previous album. The dark, brooding influence of LeonardCohen is felt more strongly here, as songs like the title track and "Night Vision" take the listener into a dark, moodyworld where unsettling emotions are described with moody, poetic flair. SOLITUDE STANDING also featured Vega's breakthrough hit "Luka", a startlingly original, masterfully written first-person account of a young boy whose denial is the only way to deal with his parents' physical abuse. The song rightfully established Vega as an artist of the first order,and won her legions of international fan

Recorded at Bearsville Sound Studios, Bearsville, New York; RPM Sound Studios, New York, New York; A&M Recording Studios, Los Angeles, California; Clinton Recording Studios, New York, New York; Celestial Sound Studio, New York, New York; Carnegie Hill Studios, New York, New York.



The songs on Solitude Standing, Suzanne Vega's second album, had years listed beside them on the lyric sheet, so you could see that some of them dated back to 1978. But that bold admission heralded the album's triumph - its diversity was what made it so good. Partially, that was because the old songs were the equal of anything on the first album - tunes like the a cappella slice-of-life "Tom's Diner" and the warmly romantic "Gypsy" simply wouldn't have fit thematically on the debut. On Solitude Standing, however, they became part of an album of story songs set in a variety of musical contexts; many had band arrangements, and in fact, members of Vega's touring band often were credited as co-writers. Additionally, Vega had developed more as a singer without losing the focused intonation that had made her debut - one of many compelling elements which helped make "Luka," a character song about domestic abuse, a fluke hit.

William Ruhlmann - All Music Guide



Suzanne Vega emerged in the mid-'80s, and while her intimate voice and acoustic guitar brought to mind Joni Mitchell, her urbane lyrics suggested a sensibility that was as much reportorial as confessional. Vega's second album, which replaced the delicate acoustic textures of her self-titled debut with more dramatic arrangements, includes Vega's career song, "Luka," surely one of the biggest hits ever written about child abuse. But it was the energetic folk-rock production of "Luka," thick with ringing guitars and pushed by perky drums, that let the listener luxuriate in a song that suggested the darkness that can lurk behind a neighbor's door. The title tune confronts personal loneliness with a similarly powerful performance, while "Ironbound/Fancy Poultry" makes a downtown landscape sound downright homey. Well-turned tunes like "Calypso" and "Gypsy" recall the softer textures of her debut. Ironically, Vega's next big hit would come when the English production duo DNA made a dance hit out of "Tom's Diner," a nursery-rhyme tribute to a coffee shop that opens the album.

John Milward - Amazon.com



Kaum eine Songschreiberin profilierte sich in den 80er Jahren wie diese Amerikanerin. Mit hell-klarer Stimme und prickelnden Melodien erzählt sie gefühlvolle Geschichten wie Luka oder Gypsy.

© Audio



"Tom's Diner," the opening a cappella cut from Suzanne Vega's second LP, gives insight into her appeal: unadorned, Vega sets up a vivid scene with her words, relating emotions through exquisite timing. The tempos and pauses are well chosen, and remarkably effective when one considers Vega's soft, lightly melodic voice. Vega bares her soul as nakedly as any gospel singer, though her voice lacks the gruffness and the power that usually portends soul. Emotions flow through words: "If you were to kill me now/Right here I would still/Look you in the eye" ("In The Eye"); "Hold me like a baby/That will not fall asleep" ("Gypsy"). The music is lightly melodic as well, a lush blend of jerky rhythms, guitar interplay and keyboard washes, an effective backing that never steals the focus. Solitude Standing is an eclectic set of songs that stands as a vivid portrait of the artist, and a glimpse into all our souls through hers. Lead cuts are "Luka" (the single), a charged look at a confused, abused child that's resigned to its fate, and "Gypsy," which could be the sleeper single, with tender lyrics and a strong chorus. "In The Eye," "Night Vision" and "Language" are also recommended.

CMJ.com - Nov 10, 2000



Call Suzanne Vega uneasy listening. Beneath the pretty, acoustic-based melodies on her debut album, Suzanne Vega, released two years ago, was a series of impressionistic images: a jilted lover crying in a hallway ("Knight Moves"), a framed photograph acting as a caustic observer of the narrator's love life ("Marlene on the Wall"), someone walking shellshocked through a park ("Cracking"). Add to that Vega's soft, distanced voice, set to her own brittle acoustic guitar and understated, almost gothic arrangements, and the result was the most striking singer-songwriter debut since the genre's early-Seventies heyday.

Solitude Standing, Vega's long-awaited second album, ups the ante. Following up on the sound of "Left of Center," the atypically rock & roll track (it was a British hit single) she contributed to the John Hughes film Pretty in Pink, the production is beefier, with an in-your-face drum mix and more emphasis on synths and electric guitars. But surface gloss notwithstanding, Vega hasn't changed all that much. On initial listen, "Luka," the first single, seems an upbeat folkrock number with a killer hook of a chorus. Then you notice the lyrics: "They only hit until you cry/And after that you don't ask why/You just don't argue anymore." Only a writer as skillful and subtle as Vega could write a potent song about child abuse that gets your feet tapping while putting across its point.

As a high-tech record clearly designed to surpass the 250,000 domestic sales of Vega's debut, Solitude Standing walks its own fine line. Due to Vega's case of writer's block (the song credits span a decade, and many of the later songs were co-written by members of her new band), it's shakier and less focused than Suzanne Vega. Perhaps that's understandable: the trail of Greenwich Village singer-songwriters who've aimed for Top Forty success is littered with casualties. Even the packaging – Vega as demure chanteuse in the soft-focus front-cover photo, as dark-clothed street waif on the back – seems to hedge its bets. But in juxtaposing old and new material, Solitude Standing unwittingly shows where Vega has been and where she's going, and that's the good news.

The old Vega, the one who made her name in the moribund New York folk community in the early Eighties, can be heard in the album's two oldest songs, both written in 1978: "Gypsy" (coproduced by Mitch Easter and Steve Addabbo during some early sessions for the LP) and "Calypso." The former, a pretty but lightweight lullaby to a teacher-lover, finds her mewling lines like "You come from far away/With pictures in your eyes/Of coffeeshops and morning streets/In the blue and silent sunrise." And "Calypso" features a treacly arrangement of mellow guitars and tinkling synths that only serves to draw attention to the song's cloying lyrics, in which Vega takes the part of a nymph in The Odyssey.

In "Night Vision," Vega sings, "Half the world in sweetness/The other in fear." Fortunately, Solitude Standing delves more into the latter than the former. The lilting "Ironbound/Fancy Poultry" balances a melody reminiscent of mid-Seventies Paul Simon with a gloomy description of a woman walking through a Newark, New Jersey, poultry market that's "bound up in iron and wire and fate." "In the Eye," a taut song that recalls "Left of Center," finds her staring down a potential assailant, while in "Solitude Standing" loneliness takes the form of a specter haunting Vega's home: "And she takes my wrist, I feel her imprint of fear/And I say, 'I've never thought of finding you here.'"

Vega's half-whispered performance on "Solitude Standing" shows how she can use the cool, aloof qualities in her voice to best advantage. Similarly, on the a cappella opener, "Tom's Diner" – which finds her observing customers and passers-by in an Upper West Side diner as she sips coffee and drifts off into memories of a former lover, snapping back to reality just in time to catch the train – her almost emotionless singing slows down and speeds up like a ride on a rickety subway. On songs like "Luka" and "In the Eye," her unflinchingly direct voice gets right to the matter, and even "Calypso" sports one of her most sensual vocals.

Given the airiness of Vega's voice and guitar playing, it would seem easy to overpower her in the studio; fortunately, the production of Steve Addabbo, a longtime associate and former band member, and Lenny Kaye achieves just the right balance. Unlike their work on Suzanne Vega, which sounds quaint in comparison, the arrangements here are hard edged but never grating. Marc Shulman's jagged guitar lines and Anton Sanko's eerie synths are perfect touches, even if Vega's group (which also includes bassist Michael Visceglia and drummer Stephen Ferrera) hasn't yet found its own voice.

Addabbo and Kaye's deft touch is perhaps best displayed on "Wooden Horse (Caspar Hauser's Song)," the album's penultimate track and one of Vega's most chilling songs. One of the last songs written for the album, it's miles apart from the gentle folksiness of "Gypsy"; if anything, its tribal bass and drum backup recall Joni Mitchell's similarly gripping "Dreamland," from her LP Don Juan's Reckless Daughter. Taking the role of the title character – a seventeen-year-old boy with no apparent background who was found wandering the streets of Nuremberg, Germany, in 1828, and who was said to have been locked up in a basement since infancy – Vega sings, "If you could tell them this/That what was wood became alive." Considering Vega's own growth as a singer and writer, those lines take on added significance.

"Wooden Horse (Caspar Hauser's Song)" would have made an ideal finale for the album, but that honor goes instead to an instrumental cuckoo-clock version of "Tom's Diner." This, along with a few other gaffes – such as the prissy Poetry 101 of "Night Vision" – reveals that Vega's music still needs a bit of fine tuning. In the meantime, Suzanne Vega has managed to beat the sophomore jinx while giving the singer-songwriter a good name once again.

DAVID BROWNE - Jun 18, 1987
Rolling Stone (RS 502)
  

 L y r i c s


Tom's Diner

I am sitting
In the morning
At the diner
On the corner

I am waiting
At the counter
For the man
To pour the coffee

And he fills it
Only halfway
And before
I even argue

He is looking
Out the window
At somebody
Coming in

"It is always
Nice to see you"
Says the man
Behind the counter

To the woman
Who has come in
She is shaking
Her umbrella

And I look
The other way
As they are kissing
Their hellos

I'm pretending
Not to see them
Instead
I pour the milk

I open
Up the paper
There's a story
Of an actor

Who had died
While he was drinking
It was no one
I had heard of

And I'm turning
To the horoscope
And looking
For the funnies

When I'm feeling
Someone watching me
And so
I raise my head

There's a woman
On the outside
Looking inside
Does she see me?

No she does not
Really see me
Cause she sees
Her own reflection

And I'm trying
Not to notice
That she's hitching
Up her skirt

And while she's
Straightening her stockings
Her hair
Has gotten wet

Oh, this rain
It will continue
Through the morning
As I'm listening

To the bells
Of the cathedral
I am thinking
Of your voice...

And of the midnight picnic
Once upon a time
Before the rain began...

And I finish up my coffee
And it's time to catch the train


Luka

My name is Luka
I live on the second floor
I live upstairs from you
Yes i think you´ve seen me before

If you hear something late at night
Some kind of trouble. some kind of fight
Just don't ask me what it was
Just don't ask me what it was
Just don't ask me what it was

I think it's because I'm clumsy
I try not to talk too loud
Maybe it's because I'm crazy
I try not to act too proud

They only hit until you cry
And after that you don't ask why
You just don't argue anymore
You just don't argue anymore
You just don't argue anymore

Yes I think I'm okay
I walked into the door again
Well, if you ask that's what I'll say
And it's not your business anyway
I guess I'd like to be alone
With nothing broken, nothing thrown

Just don't ask me how I am [3x]


Ironbound / Fancy Poultry

the clouds so low the morning so slow
as the wires cut through the sky

The beams and bridges cut the light on the ground
into little triangles and the rails run round
through the rust and the heat
the light and sweet coffee color of her skin

Bound up in wire and fate
watching her walk him up to the gate
in front of the ironbound school yard.

Kids will grow like weeds on a fence
She says they look for the light they try to make sense.
They come up through the cracks
Like grass on the tracks
She touches him goodbye.

Steps off the curb and into the street
the blood and feathers near her feet
into the ironbound market

In the ironbound section near Avenue L
where the Portuguese women come to see what you sell
the clouds so low the morning so slow
as the wires cut through the sky

She stops at the stall
fingers the ring
opens her purse
feels a longing
away from the ironbound border

"Fancy poulty parts sold here.
Breasts and thighs and hearts.
Backs are cheap and wings are nearly free.
Nearly free"


In The Eye

And I would burn myself into your memory
as long as you were still alive

I would live inside of you
I'd make you wear me like a scar
And I would burn myself
into your memory
and run through everything you are

I would not run, I would not turn, I would not hide [2x]

In the eye

If you were to kill me now right here
I would still look you in the eye
And I would burn myself
into your memory
as long as you were still alive

I would not run, I would not turn, I would not hide [2x]

In the eye
Look me in the eye


Night Vision

Half the world in sweetness
The other in fear

When the darkness takes you
With her hand across your face
Don't give in too quickly
Find the thing she's erased

Find the line, find the shape
Through the grain
Find the outline, things will
Tell you their name

The table. the guitar
The empty glass

All will blend together when
Daylight has passed

Find the line, find the shape
Through the grain
Find the outline, things will
Tell you their name

Now I watch you falling into sleep
Watch your fist curl against the sheet
Watch your lips fall open and your eyes dim
In blind faith

I would shelter you
Keep you in light
But I can only teach you
Night vision [3x]


Solitude Standing

I can see by her eyes she's been waiting
Standing in the slant of the late afternoon

And she turns to me with her hand extended
Her palm is split with a flower with a flame

Solitude stands in the doorway
And I'm struck once again by her black silhouette
By her long cool stare and her silence
I suddenly remember each time we've met

And she turns to me with her hand extended
Her palm is split with a flower with a flame

And she says "I've come to set a twisted thing straight"
And she says "I've come to lighten this dark heart"
And she takes my wrist, I feel her imprint of fear
And I say "I've never thought of finding you here"

I turn to the crowd as they're watching
They're sitting all together in the dark in the warm
I wanted to be in there among them
I see how their eyes are gathered into one

And then she turns to me with her hand extended
Her palm is split with a flower with a flame

And she says "I've come to set a twisted thing straight"
And she says"l've come to lighten this dark heart"
And she takes my wrist, I feel her imprint of fear
And I say "I've never thought of finding you here"

Solitude stands in the doorway
And I'm struck once again by her black silhouette
By her long cool stare and her silence
I suddenly remember each time we've met

And she turns to me with her hand extended
Her palm is split with a flower with a flame


Calypso

I live on an island
And I waken to the dawn
A long time ago
I watched him struggle with the sea
I knew that he was drowning
And I brought him into me
Now today
Come morning light
He sails away
After one last night
I let him go.

My name is Calypso
My garden overflows
Thick and wild and hidden
Is the sweetness there that grows
My hair it blows long
As I sing into the wind
My name is Calypso
And I have lived alone
I live on an island
I tell of nights
Where I could taste the salt on his skin

Salt of the waves
And of tears
And though he,pulled away
I kept him here for years
I let him go

My name is Calypso
I have let him go
In the dawn he sails away
To be gone forever more
And the waves will take him in again
But he'll know their ways now
I will stand upon the shore
With a clean heart

And my song in the wind
The sand will sting my feet
And the sky will burn
It's a lonely time ahead
I do not ask him to return
I let him go
I let him go


Language

Instead here we are
In a silence more eloquent
Than any word could ever be

These words are too solid
They don't move fast enough
To catch the blur in the brain
That flies by and is gone
Gone
Gone
Gone

I'd like to meet you
In a timeless, placeless place
Somewhere out of context
And beyond all consequences

Let's go back to the building
(Words are too solid)
On Little West Twelfth
It is not far away
(They don't move fast enough)
And the river is there
And the sun and the spaces
Are all laying low
(To catch the blur in the brain)
And we'll sit in the silence
(That flies by and is)
That comes rushing in and is
Gone (Gone)

I won't use words again
They don't mean what I meant
They don't say what I said
They're just the crust of the meaning
With realms underneath
Never touched
Never stirred
Never even moved through

If language were liquid
It would be rushing in
Instead here we are
In a silence more eloquent
Than any word could ever be

And is gone
Gone
Gone
And is gone


Gypsy

You come from far away
With pictures in your eyes
Of coffeeshops and morning streets
In the blue and silent sunrise
But night is the cathedral
Where we recognized the sign
We strangers know each other now
As part of the whole design

Oh, hold me like a baby
That will not fall asleep
Curl me up inside you
And let me hear you through the heat

You are the jester of this courtyard
With a smile like a girl's
Distracted by the women
With the dimples and the curls
By the pretty and the mischievous
By the timid and the blessed
By the blowing skirts of ladies
Who promise to gather you to their breast

Oh, hold me like a baby
That will not fall asleep
Curl me up inside you
And let me hear you through the heat

You have hands of raining water
And that earring in your ear
The wisdom on your face
Denies the number of your years
With the fingers of the potter
And the laughing tale of the fool
The arranger of disorder
With your strange and simple rules
Yes now I've met me another spinner
Of strange and gauzy threads
With a long and slender body
And a bump upon the head

Oh, hold me like a baby
That will not fall asleep
Curl me up inside you
And let me hear you through the heat

With a long and slender body
And the sweetest softest hands
And we'll blow away forever soon
And go on to different lands
And please do not ever look for me
But with me you will stay
And you will hear yourself in song
Blowing by one day

Oh, hold me like a baby
That will not fall asleep
Curl me up inside you
And let me hear you through the heat


Wooden Horse

A small white wooden horse
I'd been holding inside

And when I'm dead
If you could tell them this
That what was wood became alive
What was wood became alive

In the night the walls disappeared
In the day they returned
"I want to be a rider like my father"
Were the only words I could say

And when I'm dead
If you could tell them this
That what was wood became alive
What was wood became alive

Alive
And I fell under
A moving piece of sun
Freedom

I came out of the darkness
Holding one thing
I know I have a power
I am afraid I may be killed

But when I'm dead
If you could tell them this
That what was wood became alive
What was wood became alive
Alive
 

 M P 3   S a m p l e s


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