My Top 1000 Songs #832: Marlene On The Wall

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

Seems we've been on a run of mid-80s songs from my college days; here's another one from an album that I played all the time as a young student. Suzanne Vega's 1985 self-titled debut was a little more mainstream-sounding than most of the college radio indie rock that took over my life back then, but was innovative in its own way. She followed Joni Mitchell's lead in crafting songs that were more daring and adventurous than traditional singer-songwriter folk-tinged pop, a little on the jazzy side, with elements of the emerging new age music that hadn't yet become cliched. I don't get the sense she gets the credit she deserves these days, but you can hear strains of Vega's work in everything from Liz Phair's groundbreaking 90s run to current indie women artists like Vanessa Peters. 

"Marlene On The Wall" is probably the track I like most from the album, a little more bouncy and upbeat, lyrically and melodically rich with some noteworthy guitar. And, ok, it bears some of the hallmarks of dated 80s production, but the song itself is brilliant enough that it still sounds great today.

Still kicking in 2022: