Excuse me
If I may
Turn your attention
My way
The armies listen to the shepherd boy who has stepped up in
front of Goliath. But they listen only for a very short while. And
Goliath feels only contempt for David's challenge -- the battle must
continue on:
And when the Philistine looked about, and saw
David, he disdained him: for he was but a youth,
and ruddy, and of a fair countenance.
And the Philistine said unto David, Am I a dog,
that thou comest to me with staves? And the
Philistine cursed David by his gods.
And the Philistine said to David, Come to me, and
I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air,
and to the beasts of the field. (I Sam. 17:42-44)
*As a child, Suzanne found that words were too solid, that they didn't mean what she meant. She had to struggle with language to find some adequate expression for what she knew and felt inside. But when she was ready to speak, no one was interested any more.
Mother I'm cut at the root like a weed
Cause there's no one to hear my small story
Just like a woman who walks in the street
I will pay for my life with my body
Suzanne wanted to be a dancer, to stand on a stage and command
the attention of the audience. She learned to make people look at
her without even moving and found that she could defend herself by
looking at the aggressor in a certain way. And she liked the
microphone because you can sing quietly into it and still make it
sound very big. But she always had to fight to win an audience over
-- the world of today has little patience for a cute folkie girl.This is not only Suzanne's private problem. The ever increasing flood of flickering images that drench our senses makes it difficult to even think, let alone communicate.
I'm standing in a windy tunnel
Shouting through the roar
*When I first heard 99.9 F°, I was shocked. I wondered if Suzanne had let the producer turn her into yet another crowd-pleasing MTV artiste of the noisy media age. Not only was the sound of the album very different from anything she had done before, but the songs were dissimilar enough to constitute a various artists album!
Suzanne doubtlessly keeps the listener from getting bored or distracted. But the songs are not only different on the surface, they are different in their basic structure and approach. In a sense, the whole album is a post-modern play with different genres. And it grew out of necessity, out of the need to become more eloquent.
Does she tell the truth? Does she hide the lie?
Does she tell it so no one can know?
Already Blood Makes Noise poses a formidable problem. How do you
say that you are unable to communicate? The solution is as genial as
it is simple: an explosive torrent of words almost drenched in the
frightful noise of blood rhythmically forcing its way through the
ears. The pulsating sound is very life-like, but there is also a
dark humour in the rhythm that prevents the song from becoming
pathetic.But a strong expression is not always appropriate. In Luka, Suzanne managed to tackle child abuse by getting inside the situation and use the language potentially available to the child. Another approach would have ruined the song completely. Bad Wisdom is a similar song, but an adolescent girl could not use Luka's simple language, nor could she express herself in an adult way. Suzanne has chosen a quaint, meandering folk ballad to convey the girl's desperate need for order in her confused experience. It is very easy to believe this song -- it brings back the lonely feeling that only the diary would understand.
When Heroes Go Down, on the other hand, seems to be the perfect pop song. The message is simple and clear, and it is presented in a catchy and powerful way. There is only one snag þ Suzanne has deliberately made it to short to be released as a single!
This draws the attention to the songwriting process itself. Why has Suzanne written it in this way? Probably to see how powerful a song she could write. The subject matter is hardly appealing. It is the catchy melody and how the words sound together that makes it such an attractive song. Just like the microphone, the writing of the song has made Suzanne's voice a big and significant voice, a voice that commands the attention of the listener with assured authority. Even Goliath would have listened.
I might be out like a light
Extinguished in the throw
But I'll hit my mark
And you'll know
What at first may seem as surface gloss, proves to be a cunning
scheme to compel the listener to listen and understand. But it is
also a way of making language more useful and effectual. Suzanne
shows that you can sing about small things in an evocative way and
still be truthful. She demonstrates that it is possible to give the
hidden, true self a voice that is sonorous instead of pitiful. In
fact, the same could be said about women writers. In the past, women
have often written about important things in a dull way, while men
have written about dull things in an interesting way. This will
change.The noises on the album are also a form of externalization of the violence that is implicit in so many of Suzanne's songs, and a reminder of the chaotic upbringing that made her what she is today. People will have to see that Suzanne is not the timid and harmless waif they want her to be. She is an artist of tremendous integrity.
But there are also typical Vega-songs on the album. The crystalline Rock in This Pocket is, despite the sound effects, perhaps the most typical one. Nobody else could write anything as pure and direct. Everything I try to say in this article is in fact contained in it. Here, Suzanne's single-minded struggle for human dignity is distilled into one compact and clear image: The young David defiantly looking up at Goliath, the giant symbol of all oppression, be it domestic or political.
*Rock in This Pocket rings very true to me personally, both as a metaphor and as an almost photographic account of something I have experienced as a child -- something I am only now beginning to remember.
And what's so small to you
Is so large to me
If it's the last thing I do
I'll make you see
To hear Suzanne sing this song is painful, but it still gives me
strength and assurance. There is so much courage in her refusal to
silence the little child's voice within her. And it is worth to
remember that David had declined even the armour he had been
offered.I recently saw Bernini's sculpture of David in the Museo Borghese in Rome. It has something of the same quality as Rock in This Pocket -- the entire marble with its taut muscles and contorted features is concentrated in an upward gaze that fixes the fearful enemy a split second before the throw. (There is in fact no sculpture of Goliath, as there is really no Goliath in the song, but David's gaze is enough to make the image of the giant very tangible indeed.) Suzanne's song in my head turned Bernini's Baroque sculpture into a living, contemporary symbol of immense personal significance. I felt David's strength in my muscles.
And it gave me some kind of satisfaction to contemplate the sublimity of art þ and to see Suzanne as the equal of the greatest artists of all times. I, too, felt connected with the likes of Homer, Dante, Bernini and Picasso through her.
But there is nothing lofty about Suzanne's songs. Even though they have the power to make statues come to life, their real power is to help small people learn to have a life.
It isn't much
It's what I need
And seduced by Suzanne's beloved voice you let the undertow take
you in for a revealing and healing odyssey through the dark side of
a life.
Something cool
Against the skin
Is what you could be
Something cool
Against the skin
Is what you
Could be needing
Hugo Westerlund