so hold me mom

February 27, 2007 3:57 PM

Mach 20- O Superman- PSA- Soho 1982
posted by vronsky (34 comments total)

Fuckin' added to favorites.
posted by phaedon at 4:04 PM on February 27, 2007

So... four youtube links to Laurie Anderson? Why? Why these 4? Is there any overarching theme here, or just "I like Laurie Anderson"?
posted by hincandenza at 4:05 PM on February 27, 2007

conTEEEEEEXT!
posted by shmegegge at 4:14 PM on February 27, 2007

Wanna bake your noodle? Try opening the "O Superman" link in a coupla windows.

Where have I heard this song before?
posted by phaedon at 4:16 PM on February 27, 2007

O there is a theme hincandenza, but I'm saving that for a massive twelve paragraph footnote at the end of the thread.
posted by vronsky at 4:19 PM on February 27, 2007

Does anyone else find this stuff pretentious and overly arty? I loved her in the 80's but on looking back, this really hasn't aged well.
posted by doctor_negative at 4:20 PM on February 27, 2007

ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah
posted by sourwookie at 4:21 PM on February 27, 2007 [1 favorite]

Any critical judgment I might otherwise have had regarding this post has been completely and utterly annihilated by my overarching love for Laurie Anderson, and for O Superman in particular.
posted by cortex at 4:29 PM on February 27, 2007

Does anyone else find this stuff pretentious and overly arty?

Nah. It's all in the delivery. Anderson presents herself and her art naturally. It's enjoyable without screaming "LOOK AT ME! I'M SO DIFFERENT!" even though that's probably what she's doing.
posted by Bappy Lorenzo at 4:36 PM on February 27, 2007

Laurie Anderson recently gave a lecture at the university where I work. The event ended up being nothing more than a slide show, even though it was advertised as an opportunity to see her play the violin, and most people walked out before an hour had passed. I can't say that I knew her work in the 80's because I was just a little tike then, but judging from her current output, I completely agree with doctor_negative above. At one point she was discussing her recent collaboration with NASA - if you remember, she was hired to be their first ever "artist-in-residence". As she put it, NASA had expected her to create some sort of galactic light show, refracting light off planets or something. At the very least, maybe take some interesting photos or write an interesting song from fragments of space noise. Instead, Anderson wrote an epic poem about 9/11 after her year (possibly 2 years?) of collaboration with the agency - once she got a good look at all of the confused faces on the other side of the table, she simply said sayonara, thanks for the check. NASA ended the artist-in-residence program after Anderson's tenure - GEE I WONDER WHY. The really interesting and frustrating thing was that Anderson was PROUD of the fact that NASA disbanded the program because of her. Typical pretensious 'oh dum scientists u dont get art' bullshit. So, any goodwill I may feel toward her for doing interesting things in the 80's is pretty much washed out by the fact that she ruined a really cool opportunity for other artists who actually would have savored being an artist-in-residence at NASA. Also, she showed the audience a film she made a few years ago that was easily worse than half of the student films made on campus. She's lost her mojo.
posted by billysumday at 4:45 PM on February 27, 2007

I remember seeing her and Adrian Belew in the Mid eighties, she had a violin with a bow strung with cassette tape played over tape heads mounted in the violin. Freaky sound.

Aged well? I think so. Oh Superman is just as relevant today- given Iraq et al.
posted by mattoxic at 4:47 PM on February 27, 2007

She's lost her mojo.

Don't we all?
posted by vronsky at 4:48 PM on February 27, 2007

No, most great artists enter the realm of quiet and beautiful grace.
posted by billysumday at 4:52 PM on February 27, 2007

man, but i dig oh superman. where the hell have i heard that song before?
posted by shmegegge at 4:52 PM on February 27, 2007

I was eleven in 1981. I remember this. To put it in historical perspective, other records released in 1981:
Damaged by Black Flag
In God We Trust Inc. by Dead Kennedys
Wha'ppen by the English Beat
Living in Darkness by Agent Orange
"Absolute Beginners" by the Jam

Somebody in 1981 was like -- Laurie Anderson! I was like -- you have got to be kidding me. I'm still like this.
posted by Methylviolet at 4:57 PM on February 27, 2007

Freshman in college.
Christmas Break.
Family shattered; alone in the dorms; didn't go home.
MTV played it three or four times, after midnight I suppose; I'd been numb on vodka.
Knocked me out.
Out.
Led me to Fripp, Eno, Byrne's "The Catherine Wheel"---a whole new world of ideas that had never heard of Huey Lewis & the News.
Maybe in a hundred years I'll be able to thank her for opening up my 18-year-old mind.
I'd take a bullet for her and that is no lie.
posted by Dizzy at 5:24 PM on February 27, 2007 [2 favorites]

I remember hearing O Superman on NPR some time in the late 80s. I was riding in the car with my dad, and they played some or all of it and then talked about Laurie a bit, and I didn't retain anything except a sense of wonder. It wasn't till years later that I figured out who she was, what the song was, and what a vocoder was, and all that time I was carrying around this vague, inexpressible emotional connection to the song.
posted by cortex at 5:30 PM on February 27, 2007

No, most great artists enter the realm of quiet and beautiful grace.

You really believe that?

As for NASA disbanding their pet artist program they got what they deserved. See also New Jersey's former poet laureate Amiri Baraka. What's the point of that sort of thing, anyway?

It is as dangerous for society to attract and indulge authors as it is for grain-dealers to raise rats in their granaries. - Maupassant by way of Chekhov
posted by otio at 6:10 PM on February 27, 2007

No, most great artists enter the realm of quiet and beautiful grace.

You really believe that?

Of course. Look at Kris Kristofferson.
posted by billysumday at 6:32 PM on February 27, 2007

Ah... Ah... Ah... Ah... Ah... Ah... Ah... Ah... Ah...
Mo-ments... in love...

Christ, I feel fuckin' old.
posted by boo_radley at 7:26 PM on February 27, 2007 [1 favorite]

And now the mp3 player's gotten around to playing some Wire. Eeeesh.
posted by boo_radley at 7:34 PM on February 27, 2007

A+
posted by edgeways at 7:36 PM on February 27, 2007

Here come the planes...
posted by Falconetti at 8:12 PM on February 27, 2007

I'm with cortex on this one... while some (much?) of the experimental stuff from this era hasn't aged well, and though I cringe slightly to remember how important I once found such things, I will always love Laurie Anderson's Big Science and Mister Heartbreak.

Maybe you had to be there, since my feelings for her and especially for those two albums are of course wrapped up in who I was then and stuff. But so what. I say that you'd have been better off for having been there.

I've also always loved her bits from Alive from Off Center, especially What You Mean We?
posted by dammitjim at 9:34 PM on February 27, 2007

I remember hearing "Oh Superman" on John Peel back in the early '80's - at school the next day everyone was talking about it - the "ah, ah, ah" had got to people, but so did the other words. How could something so calculatedly weird be so funny and threatening as well?

'Cause when love is gone, there's always justice.
And when justive is gone, there's always force.
And when force is gone, there's always Mom. Hi Mom!

According to wikipedia it got to number 2 in the charts. Soundtrack to my bomb nightmares.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 9:52 PM on February 27, 2007

I saw her in London a few weeks after 9/11. There was palpable tension in the air when she started O Superman as everyone waited for the 'Here come the planes...' bit.
posted by markdj at 12:45 AM on February 28, 2007

I went back to Big Science for the first time in over a decade, expecting to be disappointed, and found it's as jaw-droppingly stark, macabre and funny now as it was back in 1982. Conversely I remember the moment I realised she'd ploughed the same farrow so long it was barren: sitting in the audience for the Empty Places tour in 1990. But wow, what an 80s she gave us.
posted by Hogshead at 3:34 AM on February 28, 2007 [1 favorite]

Soundtrack to my bomb nightmares.
Wow, exactly. Difference #345216 from today to the early 80's: We we all still scared shitless of nuclear war. The avant garde was such an appropriate reaction to that fear.
posted by dammitjim at 4:39 AM on February 28, 2007 [1 favorite]

Big Science and particularly her tour of United States I-IV changed my idea of what music and theater could be. Totally.

I've not particularly been an ardent fan of hers since the late-'80s. I've seen her a half-dozen times, bought all her releases, and diminishing returns have set in.

But I'm grateful to her for opening my eyes in a way few artists have done. So...thanks for the clips.
posted by the sobsister at 6:08 AM on February 28, 2007

twin Garfield's do O Superman (yes, youtube)
posted by spish at 9:10 AM on February 28, 2007 [1 favorite]

spish, you are eeeeeevil.
posted by Dizzy at 9:22 AM on February 28, 2007

Context? Easy. Her 60th birthday.

Massive, massive numbers of events ensue.

It's going to be a wonderful year to live within driving distance of NYC...
posted by mykescipark at 5:14 PM on February 28, 2007

mykescipark - I remember your name from this ask mefi -

"I have a strange affection for the syrupy, slightly outdated, epic-sounding vocal pop of female singers"

and I do too. I would love to raid your record collection. And the greek shortwave stuff - hell yes! Love that shit. Start a music blog please.
posted by vronsky at 7:50 PM on February 28, 2007

vronsky: you can start by raiding my new record... ;-)
posted by mykescipark at 11:18 PM on February 28, 2007 [1 favorite]