Suzanne Vega - The Boulevardiers (1984)

Suzanne Nadine Vega was born on 11 July 1959 in Santa Monica, California, and was the step-daughter of Ed Vega, a novelist and professor from Puerto Rico. When she was two and a half, her family moved to New York City, and she grew up in Spanish Harlem and the Upper West Side. While majoring in English literature at Barnard College, she performed in small venues in Greenwich Village, where she was a regular contributor to Jack Hardy's Monday night songwriters' group at the Cornelia Street Cafe, and she had some of her first songs published on Fast Folk anthology albums. In 1984, she received a major label recording contract with A&M Records, making her one of the first Fast Folk artists to break out on a major label. Her eponymous debut studio album was released on 1 May 1985, and was well received by critics in the U.S., and it also reached platinum status in the UK. It was produced by Lenny Kaye and Steve Addabbo, and the songs feature Vega's acoustic guitar in straightforward arrangements which deviated from the prevailing trends of the time. A music video was released for the single 'Marlene On The Wall', which went into MTV and VH1's rotations, and during this period she also wrote lyrics and sang vocals for the songs 'Lightning' and 'Freezing' on the 1986 studio album 'Songs From Liquid Days' by composer and pianist Philip Glass. Vega's song 'Left Of Center' was co-written with Steve Addabbo, and was released as part of the soundtrack to the John Hughes film 'Pretty in Pink' in 1986. It featured British musician Joe Jackson on piano, and was also released as a single in May 1986, reaching No. 32 on the UK singles chart. In the years leading up to the success of her debut album, she performed solo acoustic shows around the US, and a couple of them were captured on tape, revealing that she had a stash of songs which never made it to her first record, either being saved for the follow-up, or abandoned altogether. This collections features all the songs that did not appear on her 1985 album, plus acoustic versions of ones that later appeared on her 1987 album, 'Solitude Standing', and a nice acoustic take on 'Left Of Centre'. 

Track listing

01 The Boulevardiers
02 Gypsy
03 Calypso
04 The Rent Song
05 Silver Lady
06 Tom's Diner
07 Black Widow Station
08 The Marching Dream
09 Just Friends
10 Daniella
11 Left Of Centre
12 Playing

Thanks to geofmcm for the music and the inspiration.