Suzanne Vega

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- 9OOD - Artwork and the Apple -

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Subj: Suzanne, Eve and the apple
Date: 96-09-10 16:48:34 EDT
From: pbugna@intesys.it (Gian-Paolo Bugna)
Sender: owner-undertow@law.emory.edu
To: undertow@serv4.law.emory.edu

Hi everyone

On Sun, 8 Sept 1996, Guida Fonseca reported:

> This one I'll tell you the whole story, João Lisboa asks:
> "On the album cover, you're the one who is the object of desire posing like
> Eve with an apple in your hand..."
>
> Suzanne says:"I've talked with people from Catholic countrys and they to
> have made that cover's interpretation. However that was not my idea. I was
> asked by an Italian interviewer if I thought that desire was a sin, and why
> did I put the apple on the album's cover.

hmmmm!
This smells like a commonplace (sorry Suzanne!).
I'm Italian, but I'm not Catholic.
The first time I saw the album cover it was in Paris, in August, Bibliotheque Publique d'Information. Michela, (my girlfriend, we met at a Suzanne concert - thank you Suzanne!) wanted to "stay tuned" also for our short holiday time. My first impression was I liked the cover: I liked the color and Suzanne, well... she was damn beautiful on it (to use David's words). Michela didn't like the cover, but she didn't tell me why. Tonight I heard her to the phone, I told her of this biblical interpretation, and I asked her if this was the reason she didn't like the cover. She told me: "No, I don't like the cover 'couse looking at it I'm waiting for William Tell shooting an arrow!"

With love
Paolo

P.S. I still like the album cover. I'm waiting to hear the songs, and Michela too!

Subj: Re: Suzanne, Eve and the apple
Date: 96-09-10 19:30:57 EDT
From: max7531@earthlink.net (Max Headroom)
Sender: owner-undertow@law.emory.edu
To: undertow@serv4.law.emory.edu

I can hear a lot of Beatles influence on this album. Do any of you think the apple symbolizes Apple Records, you know, the Beatles' label?

Max Headroom

"Never send a scary monster to do the work of an evil scientist!"

Subj: Most desirable objects. And The presentation of NOOD
Date: 96-09-22 18:09:27 EDT
From: janvier@odyssee.net (Guillaume Lesage)
Sender: owner-undertow@law.emory.edu
To: undertow@serv4.law.emory.edu

In fact, the only thing I can complain about Suzanne new album is the product presentation, the image printed on the CD (you know these drk dots!) are really kitch! Same for the little flower in the inside of the booklet. It reminds me the SUPERB televisual environment of THE Price IS Right! The picture on the back of the booklet should have been bigger! The white border at the back of the box is not really beautifull. If I take a quick look at 99.9 and Days of ... booklets, the art work is so beautifull. When you drop down to NOOD artwork.... :-(

With Suzanne two precedent album and with 99.9 limited edition, there was meat on the bone. There was interaction between the artwork and the songs. (fatman & dancing girl and the beautifull dancing girl outfit, 50/50 chance and the ahnd whit the bird skull on the blackboard...)

In retrospactive and to finish on a good note, the thing I like the most about NOOD artwork is the cover picture. It reminds me about René Magritte paintings because of the apple (even if it was not supposed to figure there) and the way it hides Suzanne face. The picture is really catchy. When your in a music sore, the album seems to pop out when you look at a wall full of differents cd's.

P.S. the artwork is not very good but I know that it is the music and the lyrics that counts.

Guillaume Lesage
The gay fatman!

Subj: I do not have problems anymore!
Date: 96-10-01 20:37:53 EDT
From: janvier@odyssee.net (Guillaume Lesage)
Sender: owner-undertow@law.emory.edu
To: undertow@serv4.law.emory.edu

Even is the cover picture is really great, I do not like the artwork of this SV album. Sv fans have been very spoiled in that way for her Days of... and 99.9 artwor were brilliant. In these two albums, the booklet was a complement for the music. I'm thinking about the fatman &dancing girl pictures in 99.9. On the first page of it, there is this wood texture that reminds me the ones in Days of.... The pages where the songs are printed are not really beautifull and black becomes stained by our finger prints (I'm so picky!) And what to say about page 3 ( 3 if you except the cover of the booklet.) You can't do more kitch than this. The little flower reminjds me of The Price is Right showcase shodiwn set! UUUUH! In the other hand, I really like the picture of Suzanne on the roof on pages 9 and 10. The back of the booklet is really not my cup of tea and the picture of suzanne should have been bigger. But the worst of all is that white border at the back of the CD case... I feel very sorry to write this comment but I think that this design is not as great as the two previous albums. I hope you guys will not be too angry about this comment, it is the very first time that I have something bad to say about a SV album.

From: Alia_Santini@brown.edu (Alia Santini)
To: VegaNet@aol.com
Date: 96-10-03 10:36:21 EDT

Hi all.
Here's my question:
Why is there a green apple on the cover of the new album: "Nine Objects of Desire." Suzanne explains in her online interview why she didn't put a plum on the cover (because that is the ""the object of desire to end all objects -- the one thing you really want but don't have"), but why the apple? Adam and Eve? Seduction? Temptation? Evil? and why green? Jealousy? Envy? new life? And further more, why does the photo evoke the back cover of kd lang's most recent album (though her food-of-choice is a pea)?
Any insight?

Subj: Re: Why they apple?
Date: 96-10-03 18:23:15 EDT
From: BobandSooz@aol.com
Sender: owner-undertow@law.emory.edu
To: VegaNet@aol.com, undertow@serv4.law.emory.edu

In a message dated 96-10-03 17:22:39 EDT, VegaNet@aol.com writes:

<< why the apple? >>

Maybe apples photograph well? And people know what they are. Some fruits are a bit obscure for the general public. And maybe plums aren't photogenic. Hard to know where a plum starts and where it ends. And bananas -- well, it would be hard to coordinate bananas with many wardrobes. Oranges -- kind of bright, don't you think? Reminds me of highway workers or chain gangs. I definitely think a green apple was the only way to go. (As you pointed out, the pea had been done.)

From: dgmorris@dcs.uga.edu (Smeagol)
To: VegaNet@aol.com
Date: 96-10-03 19:08:13 EDT

I hate to say it:

But I thought that it had something to do with the "Apple of her Eye" .... *collective groans* :)

I mean, that does count as an object of desire... :)

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