In a number of other threads lots of you have mentioed bands/artists that you like. However, I wondered who else you were listening to when Suzanne clicked in your mind, and if you have favourite bands/artists, where does Suzanne fit into that list.

Nice thread, Mike. When I discovered Suzanne, I was bored of most of my music, and bought "Tried and True" because I'd always felt I'd like Suzanne.

I soon after re-discovered Duran Duran...no link there, quite a contrast!! DD was based on nostalgia, and never having been a fan of them first time round, but hearing their hits reminded me of the 80s...I alternated listening to Suzanne with listening to them for a number of months.

Suzanne is at the top of my favourites now, just because she's an artist I really feel a connection with. So it's Suzanne I listen to more than anyone else, and am more consistently imperssed and moved by. I listen to a wide range of other stuff, but Suzanne would be my signature artist!

Anna

I wasn't really listening to any music at all when I discovered Suzanne. When I first heard Suzanne's music, I realised I never had heard the guitar being played like that, and I had never heard words in music that touched me like that. I didn't know there were people who were not singing about "I love you", "I hate you" or being dramatic about something. No, I heard something real and it struck a chord. So I suddenly started listening to music, and everyone around me was surprised.

Spikey

When i discovered Suzanne (summer of 1987) i was totally involved in the 80ies music; my favourite artists at that moment were U2, Police, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, Teras for Fears, and mybe few more. And the Beatles, since i was a child. No one that was even closely like Suzanne.
But she immediatly became my favourite artist.
Despite of all the others, Suzanne has keep her position in my favourite list untill now. And she is the artist which i feel more intimate and close. Just like a friend.
Andrea

When I discovered Suzanne, in 1991, I was listening to The Police, Sting, TFF (Btw, Andrea, the news are that their new album will be released in September this year, under Universal label: they are not with Arista anymore: I’m not so much interested in them after all this time, but I think I’ll buy it) but mostly D. Sylvian and T.Chapman.
Suzanne’s music was what I was searching for, without knowing it. She was far from the star system; her songs were speaking to me directly about feelings and thoughts I had in my mind and needed to rationalise; her voice was incredible; I immediately liked her as a person too.
Since that time, she has remained at the top (n.1) of my music preferences. When I call to my mind some important moments of my life, if I listen carefully, there is a Suzanne song playing in the background.
GG

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“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” – William Arthur Ward

Being a bit older than most of you - and older than Suzanne - I mostly listened (and still listen) to musicians from the generation preceding mine: Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, John Fogerty, Richard Thompson, Sandy Denny, Al Stewart, Leonard Cohen, Albert Lee, Emmylou Harris, Roy Buchanan, Joni Mitchell, Chuck Berry, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Blondie, Nick Drake, Elvis Costello, The Pretenders, Jimi Hendrix and Neil Young. Then in 1985 I heard "Marlene" on the radio and went out and bought the single immediately. As I was even more taken by the flip of the original UK 7" - "Neighborhood Girls" - I also bought the album when it was released. Suzanne is the youngest artiste I listen to and the only new arrival on the scene that I have followed since 1985.

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"...when the armies of emotion
go out to fight..."

When I first heard Suzanne it was probably 87. I was listening to The Smiths, and if not them something like The Wedding Present. I couldn't really say what first made me go and buy Solitude Standing, and then Suzanne Vega very soon after, but I think the way she tells a story had a lot to do with it. I also probably liked the fact that she wasn't pushing herself forward in the way some artists of the time were, but seemed content to let her singing and playing talk for her. I still think there a good deal of similarity between Suzanne and Morrissey, although their careers have taken wildly different routes they both seem to have ended up with a very commited fan base.
As to now, it is very difficult to say who your "favourite". The time and mood dictates everything. Still, the thread asks: so the joint first place goes to Suzanne Vega, XTC, Elvis Costello and Belle and Sebastian.

Mike, I was a huge Smiths fan before Suzanne came along. Morrissey and Suzanne are my musical parents, more or less.

Has anybody ever heard Robyn Hitchcock? He was one of my all time faves, but I never meet anybody anywhere who's heard of him.

I did Patrick! Robyn Hitchcock worked with Michael Stipe on at least two (nice) songs (ages ago): Dark Green Energy - this one is actually VERY nice She Doesn't Exist

(R.E.M. are my favourite band, BTW. This should go under the REM thread, I know.) As for where I was when Suzanne came in...well, long to tell....let's say Guns 'n' Roses were the only other Cd my player had played before the utterly new and fascinating 99.9°F... And Michae ljackson had been my only proper hero at that time (i know I know........sorry). Madonna was cool too. Even R.E.M. came much later. Suzanne's was the first guitar I really FELT and fell in love with, and her songs were the first whose lyrics I learnt by heart because they were me more than anything else. only Emily Dickinson at that time compared. But not that much. Beautiful music + beautiful lyrics is better than just beautiful lyrics (poetry). ;)

That's it for now. Good night if it's night. Here it is....it'll be dawn soon actually.

Miki

"only Emily Dickinson at that time compared. But not that much."

That's got to be the compliment of the century for Suzanne. But she is the modern-day Dickinson isn't she?

Glad to see somebody else dug 99.9F as much as I did! Suprised to hear that Hitchcock played with REM, but I guess it makes sense. I'll have to dig up those recordings.

Posted by Patrick Melody (Vendredius)

> Has anybody ever heard Robyn Hitchcock?

well, it's pretty certain that at least ONE person among us knows him for sure. ;o) suzanne has covered his song "chinese bones" when she played at a benefit (?) concert with the grateful dead.

hey, i'm not making this up!

remember me, philipp

Oh, Mike, what a delicious thread!

Now remember, ahem—a bit of age is talking here, so electronics now "ain't what they used to be." Thank God they've changed and given us more freedom and waaaaay too many things to learn. For the better, though, for the better.

This is almost like "Who's on your i-Pod?" only back then we still didn't have Sony CD Walkman portables, I know I was on a Sony Audio-tape Walkman. Besides quality of sound, at least you could do compilation tapes—whereas when they came out with the CD players (and none of us had burners yet), you were stuck listening to one disc. Not bad if you were in the mood for just that one, but quite the bummer if you wanted to float around.

I have always mixed my music—even now, I listen to "Suzanne Vega" and throw in "Evanescence." But I think the heart of Mike's question (if I'm not mistaken) is who else (who was releasing at that time) were we listing to besides SV. I'm going to do my list that way, so here goes, in no particular order:

Joan Armatrading, Joni Mitchell, Blondie, REM, The Police, Til'Tuesday (Aimee Mann's group, now owner of SV's new Record Co.), Richard Thompson, Elvis Costello, The Pretenders, Nick Drake, Janis Ian, Patti Smith, Simple Minds, Bryan Ferry, Sandy Denny, Karla Bonoff, and Wendy Waldman.

Others were in the mix, but these were probably the "most listened to."

It's great to see the different time frames of when people "discovered" Suzanne and who else was around at the time. Just by writing this list, I can almost begin to tell the story of my life. I say 'almost' because, it's a long way from 1955 to 1985 (I think that's when SV was released, right)?

We'd have to go back to vinyl and some names I'm not mentioning (too many gigglers out there) for me to tell the FULL story of my life. You can only mention those names when you are famous—then it doesn't matter if you watched Annette Funicello on The Mickey Mouse Club (damn, I did that, too)!

*Oh, and did I mention Suzanne Vega? I just can't leave her out of the crowd. She was definitely on the Walkman.

Love, Catherine

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"If we don't change the direction we are headed,
we will end up where we are going."

—Chinese Proverb

> "only Emily Dickinson at that time compared. But not that much." > > That's got to be the compliment of the century for Suzanne. But she is > the modern-day Dickinson isn't she? She is, most definitely.

> Glad to see somebody else dug 99.9F as much as I did!

You can never forget your first love! ;)

>Suprised to hear > that Hitchcock played with REM, but I guess it makes sense.

Not to be finnicky, but it was just *Michael Stipe* who lent his vocals to Robyn H.'s songs, I think. Stipe lent vocals to dozens of songwriters' songs actually.

Till soon...

Miki

Hey, Catherine, you must have heard John Fogerty´s song "I Heard It On TV" from his 1985 album "Centerfield". In it he refers to his, er, surprise when he discovered that Annette had ears.

ps you have good music taste.

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"...when the armies of emotion
go out to fight..."

Lefty,

No, I never did hear that one—and I don't think I have the album/disc. But the thought is pretty funny when you think about it—I remember getting a pair of "The Official Mickey Mouse Fan Club" ears when I was around 5. I wouldn't take those things off for anything—well, until they were bent beyond belief!

Thank you for the compliment, and I can easily return it—as I see we have a number of folks in common that we listened (still listen) to.

We'll just have to wait for more posts from others to see who was listening to what! I find this one quite fun.

Be Well—
Catherine

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"If we don't change the direction we are headed,
we will end up where we are going."

—Chinese Proverb