Subject: The September 1996 Promo Tour

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Subj: In-stores and World Before Columbus Date: 96-09-11 23:38:17 EDT From: Suzanne Vega To: undertow@serv4.law.emory.edu Hi gang -- Sorry it has been a while since I posted but as you might imagine, I've been busy. It's been fun meeting some of you on this radio and in-store promo tour I'm doing -- I like connecting faces to the names I see so often! There were a couple of things I wanted to clarify -- someone posted recently complaining about the imagery of World Before Columbus, saying there were other explorers before Columbus who proved the world was round, and that the line "cruel as the world before Columbus" was one that my Puerto-Rican stepfather wouldn't have liked, implying, I guess that I was talking about the cruelty of Native Americans? or indiginous people in general? Normally I let criticisms go, but this one offends me because it is not what I mean, not how I was raised, and not what I believe. To me, the main image of this song is that of the world being flat if this person's love were taken away. Nowhere do I mention Indians. A flat world (surrounded by demons) that one could fall off and never get back to is my idea of a cruel world. Similarly, when I say the world could be as "dark as the world before Columbus" I am NOT talking about Africa, savages or anything like that, implying that Columbus somehow civilized the world and made it bearable. I am only referring to the one belief -- that the world was flat. That's all. As for the other explorers you mentioned -- their names don't sing as well. I guess the choruses are clear enough. Most of the time I don't mind interpretations, but I found this one offensive. I also wanted to answer Charlie's question of a month or two ago -- before he shelled out the money for the new album he wanted my position on gay rights, marriage, adoption, the whole shebang. For the record, I think gay people should have the right to marry, with all the privileges of marriage -- no, I don't think it tears at the moral fiber of society, (as someone suggested); I think quite the opposite. But I don't think you should buy the album because of my political beliefs! I am not running for office. But since you wanted my position -- there it is. I enjoyed the live chat the other night! I'll see you soon! It's been an exciting week. Thanks to everyone -- love, Suzanne Subj: New York City Show at Tower Records From: Unique212@aol.com Date: 09/11/96 To: undertow@law.emory.edu Hi webmates, The New York City Tower Records at Broadway and 4th Street was the site of the first concert of the in-store promotion tour at approximately 6 p.m. Tuesday evening. Suzanne was in fine voice, and played a new small-bodied mahogany Taylor guitar which sounded wonderful. She was accompanied by Mitchell Froom on myriad keyboards and synths and Mike Visceglia on bass (alternating with electric guitar) as well as a tambourine-and-cymbal setup which he occasionally played with his left foot. There was a large audience turnout, and an autograph-signing session followed the show. SV was announced as being "direct from Tribeca," the neighborhood in downtown NYC where she lives. SV said she was very pleased to be starting the record-release tour in New York instead of Europe for a change. She mentioned that it reminded her of her first in-store at the same Tower location about 12 years ago (just after she quit her day job as a receptionist) when an overenthusiastic fan was silenced by another audience member saying "Shut up, Dick" in a no-nonsense tone which became the watchword of that tour. The songs were (I think this is the correct order): Rock in This Pocket (Song of David) Marlene on the Wall Blood Makes Noise World Before Columbus (after asking how many people were into computers, she explained that the song had nothing to do with colonialism and mentioned that some of the Internet people seemed to be getting bogged down in interpreting this one. She said something about having to write in and tell us about it.) Caramel (she described the scene in the movie "The Truth About Cats and Dogs" where Uma Thurman is sitting on a sofa and being fed cake by Ben Chaplin and going into ecstasy while Caramel is played on the soundtrack. She was surprised that many people seem to think this song is about dieting. Apparently men think the song is hopeful while women think it is sad, she said.) No Cheap Thrill Luka Encore: Tom's Diner (which became a singalong after the first verse when she mentioned that she heard just one small voice in the back of the room -- soon it was a free-for-all, with SV encouraging us and waiting for us between verses.) Altogether an excellent, if too brief, show, and the whole band seemed to be having a great time. There were at least two Undertowers in the audience, Alex of the chat-session fame (thank you Alex!) and yours truly. Later, U212 Subject: Suzanne Vega was superb From: bluenote@jcn18.com Date: Wed, 11 Sep 1996 11:24:28 -0400 Suzanne Vega played a superb show at Tower Records. Gone are the days when she rhapodizes about aloneness. On her latest album, she captures the sparks that fly from a lover when she (he) meets another in desire. "World Before Columbus" celebrates maternal love: "If your love were taken from me, Every light that's bright would soon go dim, It would be as dark as the world before Columbus, Down the waterfall and I'd swim over the brim". By contrast, "Stockings" provocatively paints a picture of female love: "Do you know where friendship ends, and passion does begin? It's between the binding of her stockings and her skin." And in the aching "Caramel", she attempts to extricate herself from an obsessive romantic passion. She ended her performance of new material last night with "No Cheap Thrill", a mocking step away from the warmth of the other three songs. It compares the mating dance to a game of poker, with the loser, of course, being the one who folds first. The net result of the set was an illuminating multi-faceted portrayal of passion. Between and around the new songs, she sang selections from her impressive catalogue. Openers "Rock in My Pocket" and "Marlena on the Wall" expressed her fears about her first tour in five years: "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." And in songs like "Luka", "Tom's Diner", "Blood Makes Noise", and "99.9", she reprised her old hits as well as swinging with her newer electronic sound. (Songs from each album were sung except from the brilliantly crafted "Days of Open Hand", an omission which this listener regretted.) Happily, on the songs from "Nine Objects of Desire", she melds the warmth and passion of her voice nicely with the metallic production she has begun to favor. The net result is that the electronics work for her-accentuating the human, connective quality of her voice and the relationships she sings of by contrasting their warmth with the machine-made music in the background. Quite the opposite happened on "99.9", her last album. Some songs on "99.9", the first to feature the new production, were fun but, overall, the alienation in her voice magnified the metallics. The net result left the listener disengaged. At least that is my opinion. When you write your review, you can add yours. My advice for DJ's: you would serve her sound best if you played the mocking "No Cheap Thrill" back to back with a more passionate selection such as "World Before Columbus" or "Caramel" (as Vin Scelsa brilliantly did when he introduced her new record to his listeners). And if you see her live (Irving Plaza, Oct), you might come out bouncing as I did from her engaging personality. The show was filled with laughter as she interacted with us. One highlight--when she remarked that she is rusty on anecdotes after her five-year touring hiatus, I called out with a smile: "Don't worry." She laughed. A minute later, she remembered the following story about her first tour: At her first Tower appearance, she continuously apologized for stopping to re-tune her guitar. A male fan courtously said: "hey man, don't worry, take all the time you need". Finally a woman yelled out to him: "Shut up dick!" This New York minute became the watchword of her tour. (Vin, if Suzanne mentions this on Sunday, you can tell her that the woman who said "Don't worry" is a regular listener to your show.) As for me: I am going out to buy her record as my Rosh Hashanah present. Her lilting portrait of passion will form a nice bookend to Patti Smith's poetic portrayal of loss in her album "Gone Again" and Me'Shell Ndegeocello's subtle, smooth song of anger in "Peace Beyond Passion." Subj: Boston/Tower Records in-Store appearance Date: 96-09-11 22:31:31 EDT From: BobDsn@aol.com To: undertow@serv4.law.emory.edu Suzanne, Thank you for the wonderful mini-concert at Tower Records/Boston! You sounded just great and I'm really looking forward to your October show at the Berklee Performance Center. I'd also like to thank you for the autograph and for taking the time to chat about UNDERTOW with me. I was the guy with the beard wearing a crayola crayon necktie :-) (I get away with wearing funny ties to work because I Art Direct children's books for a Boston Publisher.) Best to you and Mitchell and Ruby, Bob Kosturko Subj: In-store DC 9/13 (fwd) Date: 96-09-13 22:13:48 EDT From: cass@netcom.com (Cassandra) To: undertow@serv4.law.emory.edu i arrived about 10 minutes before they began and had to search around for a seat unfortunately, my companion and i were seated behind a woman with a video camera on a tripod for much of the set she mercifully took it down during the fourth song suzanne, dressed in black made her way to the stage and started right in with marlene on the wall she made a remark about being glad everyone was there or else it would be a very different show next she sang gypsy during which a faint PA announcement could be heard from elsewhere in the store suzanne noticed a poster of singer tony vega on the wall and told a story of meeting a woman at an in-store who had heard a "rumor" that suzanne thought she was puerto rican for some of her childhood the woman asked suzanne this, expecting to find out it was a tall tale instead, of course, suzanne told her it was true the woman told suzanne she thought that was sad suzanne introduced caramel, saying that the woman had said it was her favorite song from the new album about 4 bars in the PA went off again this time suzanne stopped apparently amused, or perhaps disappointed that the spell had been broken but this gave her an opportunity to tell the audience how caramel was used in the truth about cats and dogs and asked us to imagine uma orgasmically eating cake and she began again next was honeymoon suite which she indicated was a true story then came world before columbus which 'is about my daughter', she said the last song sung from the new album was stockings i really enjoyed watching suzanne sing this song, as she seemed to delight in the turn of phrases she told a story about how the man translating the song into german had difficulty with the difference between stockings and tights and she wondered if it was lost in the english-german translation or the woman-man translation she also mentioned that one of the "challenges" of working with one's husband is coming to him with songs such as stockings and getting questions like 'uh, is this a recent thing? is there something i should know?... ' rock in my pocket was next and she mentioned it was about david from the bible as she was singing i was reminded of how the song can be taken very literally to tell the story of david & golith or can be taken from all sorts of other directions (one's need/desire/frustration involving communicating with someone, for example) and while i enjoy knowing the artist's motivation behind a work i also enjoy being free to let the song take my subconcious where it wants to go and since we're all humans with different experiences, emotions, etc ... we'll each have unique journies to take with these songs i guess that's why i dont involve myself much in the literal discussion of lyrics here on the mailing list (well there's also the thought that suzanne can read it and say 'well that's not what i meant at all' and that would be not so nice... ok back to the in-store report) she then sang luka put the guitar down and closed with tom's diner encouraging folks to sing along the crowd decided to be kind of meek suzanne seemed a bit surprised by this and stopped making another request for people to join in (shaming them into it with threats of being the quietest store) and this time people did my companion and i left at this point because i really didnt know what i'd say to suzanne if i stood in line what do you say to someone who's work has accompanied you through so many phases of your life? all i can muster up is.. 'thank you' (i had entertained thoughts of bringing her something from work with our logo on it... i work for AOL and she's a member there... but decided against it, thinking it too cheezy an idea.... perhaps when she comes back to town to play the 930 club.. who knows.... ) at any rate it was a very nice evening even with the PA and the flourescent lights thank you suzanne Subj: Suzanne signed my CD booklet Date: 96-09-16 11:32:36 EDT From: hollie_satterfield@mail.amsinc.com To: undertow@serv4.law.emory.edu As there do not seem to be many Undertowers in the D.C. area, I feel compelled to add my two cents worth to the previous (very complete) report. Suzanne said that she does not mind signing autographs at stores because of her own autograph experiences. She said that she was once quoted in the New York press as saying something along the lines of "Some days you just wish you were Lou Reed" at one of her early shows, and that Mr. Reed embarassed her by asking her to explain this remark when she told him her name at one of his autograph sessions. Being shy myself I did not have any clever remarks to make to Ms. Vega when she signed my booklet. (Being a male named Hollie is usually enough complications for any autograph I have managed to get.) P.S. I would like to be the first to say that I will never be able to look at the cute back cover of the CD booklet without thinking of a famous scene from the film 'Daddy-O' which was soundly mocked on Mystery Science Theater 3000. Subj: KSCA Show: Mini-report Date: 96-09-20 09:17:09 EDT From: delvin@kmtt.com (Dave Elvin) To: undertow@serv4.law.emory.edu Hey All-- I'll let Wendy do the big report, but I wanted to toss in a couple of my favorite moments from the broadcast last night. I was lucky enough to finagle tickets from my station (the Mountain in Seattle) and got to be there in person. (I asked several women if their name was Wendy, to no avail.) About halfway thru the show, I think it was 99.9, you may've heard some chuckling from the audience. Mitchell was playing an electronic wind instrument (doing a VERY cool solo), and at the same time, Suzanne was trying to get a drink of water from a pre-packaged water bottle. Well, the bottle had a seal inside and after fruitlessly tilting it up to try to squeeze a drink out, she put on a frustrated frown and unscrewed the top, peeled off the paper seal, making a humorous production out of it, and screwed the top back on. At that moment Mitchell's solo ended and she had to sing. Funny stuff. More generally-- I don't know if this came across the airwaves but the mood before the commercial break was kind of stilted, Suzanne seemed pretty nervous. I will say that the music definitely did not suffer, just that her between-song banter seemed awkward. During the commercial break, we got a chance to see her loosen up: she talked a little bit about Ruby, about the tour. After the break, she really started to get into the music, physically. Gesturing, making faces like she was really telling us a story rather than simply singing a song. She was dancing a little, swaying... A suprise to me: She did The Queen and the Soldier. I'd read that she wasn't doing that song anymore. Major sentimental value for me. Touching moment. She came out after we went off the air and mentioned that when the last song ended, Mitchell came up behind her and grabbed her ribs. With the mic' still live, she said,"What the fuck?," though not loud enough for the audience to hear. Don't know if it made it out into radioland. She did one more song, acoustic, and left. Quite an evening, a real treat. Dave in Seattle Subj: LA Appearances Date: 96-09-20 10:33:20 EDT From: wchapman@mizar.usc.edu (Wendy Chapman) To: undertow@serv4.law.emory.edu Hi Everyone, Well, yesterday was a busy day. I left work early to catch SV at the Virgin Megastore. She was running late and a little tired so the set was short because she had to get to the Gene Autrey museum. It was not crowded probably less than 100 people. Afterwards she did autographs. The Autrey show was really awesome...I hope some of you got to hear. She had perked up and a story she told during a commercial break was that Ruby had her first sound check that afternoon. She took her up on stage and Ruby grabed the mic and there was major feedback and Ruby burst into tears and had to be taken home. Mike Visceglia said it probably cured her of her musical asperations. After the show ended, Suzanne played Gypsy for the audience and that was it. I got a chance to go back and chat w/ her after the show again and she said they are planning fun stuff for the concert tour. Wendy! Subj: Virgin Megastore Date: 96-09-20 11:16:42 EDT From: nunki@netcom.com (nunki) To: undertow@serv4.law.emory.edu The songs played by Suzanne at the Virgin Megastore in Los Angeles: Marlene on the Wall Gypsy (in which she began to sing the same verse twice before stopping the song to correct herself!) Stockings Honeymoon Suite World Before Columbus Luka Tom's Diner I got my "When Heroes Go Down" single signed after the performance. I disagree with Wendy! about there being less than 100 people. I think there were around 200, but it still didn't seem as crowded as it should have been. I think I spotted Wendy! standing on the steps leading upstairs, but I didn't get the chance to speak with her. From: adambot@ix.netcom.com (Adam Martel) To: VegaNet@aol.com Date: 96-09-20 20:13:41 EDT To everyone: I was one of the lucky ones to win passes to Suzanne's performance last night at the Autry Museum. Hope you heard it on the national broadcast. What a great night!! We arrived early by a couple of hours, and because of that and the fact there were only 300 invited, we got front row center. To be a fan of hers and sit that close in those cosy confinds, was a dream. "Caramel" just melted my wife and myself, as did most of the songs. Although it was a short set, it was great. Can't wait to see the full set when she comes to the Galaxy in Santa Ana. For all you radio listeners, we received a bonus that you didn't hear - "Gypsy". That was not all. We lingered afterward until only a small group of 8 or 10 of us was left. We then were allowed to join the backstage (actually side stage) gathering of press and friends. Suzanne was so gracious to say hi to us (and Suzanne, if you're reading this we were the ones who had you sign a the playlist that we plucked off the stage (being in the front row and all. See you at the Galaxy. We'll be at one of the front tables, as we were one of the first to buy tickets when they went on sale. Adam Martel