Sometimes I buy tickets to see a singer even though I'm not overly familiar with their whole body of work, and I'm not a huge fan per se. But there may have been just one or two songs that really impacted me or stuck in my mind.  Not necessarily because they were hits but sometimes because they are evocative of certain memories or a time in my life. Such was the case when I went to go see Suzanne Vega on September 26th, 2022, at the intimate Freight and Salvage venue in Berkeley.  It was her 1986 song "Left of Center" that had really made an emotional impact on me when I was 21 and THAT song was in the back of my mind when I bought the ticket to see her.  

Looking through my vast memorabilia and record collection, I saw that I had a 1986 photo and press kit from A&M records, the vinyl 45 "Left of Center" and an LP of "Tom's Diner" (featuring Suzanne's version and several others). I decided to print out a high-quality photo promoting "Luka", since I always like to have artists sign items associated with their most iconic works. 

There I was standing in line, reading a book waiting to get into the venue early for a good seat and expecting that the worst-case scenario would be sitting through a show where I knew only three songs.  It turned out to be a highly enjoyable show with Suzanne having such a mellow, yet infectious method of storytelling interspersed with her musical poetry, that I found myself really connected with her music and feeling so drawn to her and her personality. And this began with her first song, “Marlene on the Wall” (which is coincidentally about my favorite actress, Dietrich) and it was a song I hadn’t heard before. She had the audience in the palm of her hand, with her unassuming slightly coquettish ways and I was so pleased to be there, having much more fun and fondness for her than I expected. "Left of Center" was about midway through her set and was so satisfying, along with "Solitude Standing". 

Autograph-wise, when I had first arrived at the theater, I had approached the merchandise booth ($40 signed posters and some CDs) and asked whether I could pay for Suzanne to autograph a couple of items for me. But the vendors didn't work directly for her, so I asked if I could leave the items with them to give to Suzanne's people. They were kind of hesitant, so I asked, "Are any of her crew people walking around here?" - taking a wild guess. They said yes, his name is Steve. “Great!” I said, “I will leave these with you and hopefully Steve will be able to help us out; please text me if you’re able to get them signed.” 

As I was sitting in my aisle seat about four rows from the stage, I saw somebody come from backstage.  He came out of a door at the front right of the stage and went up the side of the aisle. Me and my keen eyes.  I jumped up, walked towards him, saw that he was heading towards the vending booth and said, "Are you Steve?" Turns out that he was. I said I would really love to have Suzanne sign these for me and I am more than happy to pay for it. He said no problem, I did not have to pay and that he'd get it back to me when he could. About 15 minutes later the vendors texted me and next thing you know, I had my signed LP and Luka photo in hand! Now I was fully ready to enjoy the show. 

It was truly a great show, she was a lovely, sweet, engaging entertainer and the closing two songs of Luka and Tom's Diner were beautifully done! Bonus: she has a really nice signature! 

I was just sitting here contemplating the passive income from her writing “Tom’s Diner” which has been covered or sampled on over 125 different recordings!   

Doo-doo-doo-doo, Doo-doo-doo-doo 

Doo-doo-doo-doo, Doo-doo-doo-doo  

Why wasn’t this one with Britney and Georgio Moroder a hit?!?!