Suzanne Vega Performs a Brand-New Song (Get Lit)

Singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega performs live from our Get Lit with All Of It book club event.
( Courtesy of the New York Public Library )

Summary Transcript

Title: Suzanne Vega Performs a Brand-New Song (Get Lit)

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Alison Stewart: You are listening to All Of It on WNYC, I'm Alison Stewart. Our Get Lit November book club selection was the novel Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner. Part of that novel takes place in the '80s. When we were looking for a musical guest, Taffy suggested we invite singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega, whose debut album came out in 1985, and we were thrilled she said yes. Earlier this year, Suzanne put out her first new original single in almost a decade.

We hear there's an album on the way. She joined us with her longtime guitarist, Jerry Leonard. In just a moment, you're going to hear two live performances from Suzanne, including a brand new song and a great rendition of Tom's Diner, but first, here's my conversation with Suzanne Vega.

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Alison Stewart: One of the reviews I read of you was remembering 40 years ago, and it said, "Suzanne Vega is a writer." Do you think of yourself as a writer?

Suzanne Vega: Yes, I do. I'm a songwriter. I feel that that's my best writing is, I think in the songs, but I love writing, I love reading, I love books. My father who raised me was a writer. My stepfather, Edgardo Vega Yunqué was his name. We talked a lot about books, metaphor, vocabulary, everything. Talk, talk, talk, read, read, read.

Alison Stewart: Long Island Compromise starts in 1980s in New York. What strikes you has changed about the music scene in New York since the '80s compared to now?

Suzanne Vega: Oh, so much. Back in the '80s, it was a wonderful time to be an up and coming musician, especially if you found your home. My home at that time was folk city. You could go in and for the price of a drink or maybe two, you could stay all night and watch someone perform. It was great. It was a great place to just learn how to perform.

Alison Stewart: Jerry Leonard is your guitar player. How long have you been working with Jerry?

Suzanne Vega: I've been working with Jerry since 2000. That's 24 years now.

Alison Stewart: What clicked for you? How did you know he was going to be your guitar player?

Suzanne Vega: He kept showing up. [laughter] No, no, that's a joke. When I first met him, we were working on an album and he came up to me one day and he said, "I can play your guitar parts like you do." I thought, "Oh, that's interesting," because my guitar parts are really weird. I make them up and I invent them and it's hard to find someone who could play my parts like me, but since I was playing them myself, I thought, "Great." Then I broke my arm. I broke my left arm right before I was supposed to go on tour.

I thought, "I need Jerry Leonard to come and play my parts like me." We've been pretty much playing together, mostly as a duo, but very often not as a duo. Sometimes we bring a full band, and it's been since then.

Alison Stewart: I want to ask you about your latest single, Rats. I went and watched the video, and then I had to turn it off.

Suzanne Vega: I don't blame you.

Alison Stewart: It's rats. It's full of rats.

Suzanne Vega: It's full of rats. It's really, really creepy, even for me. I was like, "Oh, my God."

Alison Stewart: You're riding bikes and things. What led you to write about rats?

Suzanne Vega: I grew up in New York City in many different neighborhoods, and one night when I was working on the Beauty and Crime album, I was having a discussion with the producer. He had lived in Scotland and lived in London, and we started to talk about rats. We literally started to talk about who had seen the biggest rat and compare rat stories. Then I just kept collecting them. Through Covid, I would read about them on Next Door. The line about they're swarming in Barzinis, they really were swarming in Barzinis. The language, "Swarming in Barzinis." I was like, "I have to write that down." I just collected all of these stories that are true.

Alison Stewart: Somebody wrote in the comments on YouTube, "I didn't have on my bingo list, punk rock, rats, and Suzanne Vega. I like the song."

Suzanne Vega: Great. I feel like I very often surprise people with what I like to do. It seems to happen over and over again. When I did Blood Makes Noise, people were like, "Oh, my God, that's so unlike you," but I keep doing it.

Alison Stewart: That's probably how you stay interested.

Suzanne Vega: It's how I stay interesting-

Alison Stewart: Interesting.

Suzanne Vega: -and interested. It's a part of life that I want to express. I had a good time with that.

Alison Stewart: You have a new album coming out?

Suzanne Vega: Yes.

Alison Stewart: Great.

Suzanne Vega: In the spring.

Alison Stewart: Tell us a little more about it. What are you planning that's interesting and interested?

Suzanne Vega: Rats is probably the-- It's a punk rock song, basically, but the whole album is not a punk rock album. There are many different genres of songs on this album. The song I'm going to do tonight is looking like it's going to be the title track. It's called Flying With Angels. It's. It's got the atmosphere of when there's been an emergency, and you need to figure out what to do really fast. You feel that there's a wind at your back, and you need to make decisions quickly. Of course, this was happening all the time during the COVID years. That's what's going on in that song.

Alison Stewart: Who's the producer on it?

Suzanne Vega: Jerry.

Alison Stewart: Jerry?

Suzanne Vega: Yes.

Alison Stewart: My next question was, is Jerry on it? So yes.

Suzanne Vega: He is. Yes. Playing my guitar parts like I do.

Alison Stewart: Before we get to the new song, I'm going to ask you about Tom's Diner.

Suzanne Vega: Sure.

Alison Stewart: It's probably your most popular song to date. There's a reggaeton, hip-hop song on the albums now that is sampling it. The last time I talked to you, there was another band. It was two years ago, people sampling. Do people have to call you about it?

Suzanne Vega: They don't have to call me, but they have to ask permission through the publishing company. I get a couple of those a month, for years now.

Alison Stewart: What do you think it is about that song?

Suzanne Vega: That is something I could not have predicted when I wrote the song. One is that I think the melody is so simple. The idea of someone sitting at a diner is also very simple. People hear it and they go, "I could do that. I could write that. I could put my story into that song." Then they do, and it works. That's why I think.

Alison Stewart: What is the most surprising use of Tom's Diner that you've heard?

Suzanne Vega: I say yes to 98% of all of the versions that I hear. The 2% that I thought was really unnecessary, that I said no to was pornography. I'm like, "Seriously? That song for that? Why would you do that?" I'm always like, "No." That was a surprise, but the rest of it, I'm like, "Yes, okay." As long as there's an artistic genuine point of view, it can be obscene, it can be whatever, but once it crosses into that line, I'm like, "No, thanks."

Alison Stewart: If you could pick one other song that you would like people to know or to think about from your career, what would it be? People know Tom's Diner. People know Luca. What's another song? People can go home and listen to it.

Suzanne Vega: I think I would like to hear more of Caramel, actually. It's a very sensual song. I listen to a lot of jazz stations and I'd love to hear it on the jazz station. They don't play my version. There's another woman who's done a cover and they play her from time to time with my song, but I'd like to hear a little more of that.

Alison Stewart: Go home and listen to Caramel. We'll hear now more from Suzanne Vega. Thank you for coming tonight.

Suzanne Vega: Thank you. Thank you so much.

[MUSIC - Suzanne Vega: Flying With Angels]

Flying with angels

Hovering low then going high

Don't know how it happened

Suddenly I am in the sky

Flying with angels

I can feel them all around

I see them so clearly

I've got no idea when I'll touch down

I'm over your head and over my own in fact

Someone is flying this plane

Whispering how to act

I'm in a heightened state

Everything has to wait

I'm flying with angels

Suddenly we're all in a pack

Know that they're with me

'Cause I can feel them at my back

I've got to be careful

I can't go left and won't turn right

I'm flying with angels

I thought they would know I hate the hang

I'm over your head, in over my own in fact

Someone is flying this plane

Whispering how to act

I'm in a heightened state

Everything has to wait

Aching with patience

I'm glad I'm not flying all alone.

I hope they stay with me until I can get you home

I'm flying with angels

Flying with angels

[applause].

Suzanne Vega: Thank you.

[MUSIC - Suzanne Vega: 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

And I'm pretending not to see them

And 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

[applause].

Suzanne Vega: Thank you so much. Thank you for having us.

Alison Stewart: That was Suzanne Vega with a live performance of her song Tom's Diner from our November Get Lit with All Of It book club event. Get Lit is taking a break in December for the holidays, but we'll be kicking things back off in January with an exciting author, Richard Price. To find out more details on the January event, head to wnyc.org/getlit. That is All Of It for today. I'm Alison Stewart. I appreciate you listening, and I appreciate you. I will meet you back here next time.

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