Big Science - Laurie Anderson > Reviews (1)

Back in oh-oh-oh-oh 1981 many people were oh-oh-oh-oh so annoyed by Laurie Anderson's oh-oh-oh-oh-O SUPERMAN which people like me oh-oh-oh-oh so nearly bought to number one. They were oh-oh-oh-oh lucky they didn't hear "Sweaters", the third track on this album, on which Laurie plays the bagpipes! Now that is the worst track of all-time.

Soh-oh-oh-oh let's oh-oh-oh-oh start with the noh-oh-oh-oh-torious oh-oh-oh-oh O SUPERMAN (FOR MASSENET), track no.6 on the CD.
Oh-oh-oh-oh-so radio un-friendly at 8 minutes and 21 seconds long. Anderson created a vocal tape-loop oh-oh-oh-of herself monosyllabically chanting "oh" and this runs through-oh-oh-oh-out the track. To some it was hypnotic, oh-oh-oh-oh-others found it s-oh-oh-oh-oh annoh-oh-oying they wanted to throw the radi-oh-oh-oh-oh at the wall.

Based loosely on the French composer Massenet's hymn "O Souverain",
it begins with an answering machine message (which was still quite novel back then.) Her lyrics are es-oh-oh-oh-oh-teric, avant garde, or-or-or-or just plain boh-oh-oh-oh-llocks depending on your point of view:

~Well, you don't know me, but I know you.
~And I've got a message to give to you
~Here come the planes.
~So you better get ready. Ready to go.
~You can come as you are, but pay as you go.

It does begin to make sense when seen as a reaction to a failed U.S. military operation to rescue hostages held in Iran in the late 70's though.
Especially these lines adapted from the Tao Te Ching:

~cause when love is gone, there's always justice.
~and when justice is gone, there's always force...

Like Yoko Oh-oh-oh-oh-no, Laurie Anderson is a 'performance artist' (last year she performed her audio-visual interpretation of Moby Dick at the Barbican Theatre in London.) This album is subtitled: Songs from "United States I-IV" and was the first part of a gargantuan piece called "United States" which became an eight hour stage show in 1983.

Back to the beginning of the CD (or side one of the record in old money) Track one is the ominous FROM THE AIR on which Anderson greets us with the line: "Good evening. This is your captain. We are about to attempt a crash landing. Please extinguish all cigarettes."
...and lots of other things you never want to hear a pilot say,
all accompanied by another annoying vocal tape loop.

A wry look at progress, BIG SCIENCE, starts with a roar (is that a bear?) and lyrically paints a picture of a new town being developed.
This is the most melodic song on the album, but even so has plenty of percussion (electronic tom-toms, tympani and sticks!)
In fact the whole album is dominated by rhythms rather than melodies.

SWEATERS I've already warned you about. It's about falling out of love and is the musical equivalent of sarin. Don't even THINK about downloading it from Napster - your sound card would crash in disgust.

WALKING & FALLING is, er, profoundly obvious:

~You're walking. And you don't always realize it, but you're always falling
~With each step, you fall forward slightly.
~And then catch yourself from falling...

~And this is how you can be walking and falling at the same time.

BORN, NEVER ASKED is probably my favourite track. After a slightly cynical description of a maternity ward, it turns into an instrumental juxtaposition of violin, marimba and electronic claps. Any track which includes a marimba can't be bad. (A marimba is like a xylophone with pipes to add resonance, giving a rich, rounded, lug-zhurious tone.)

EXAMPLE#22 is a song about er, paranormal voices on tape, and stuff, sung partly in German. With it's bizarre instrumentation (violin, whistling, woodwind and an accordion) it is almost as annoying as "Sweaters".

The last two tracks on the album LET X=X/IT TANGO are harmless percussive efforts, with more marimba playing, some odd trombone interruptions and unfathomable lyrics.

Was it really twenty years ago that I went out and bought O Superman one lunch-time during my work experience at the Halifax building society?
When I told a female colleague what I'd bought she said she had never heard of it, I wonder what she thought of me when she did hear it!
And did the fifteen-year-old me fancy Laurie Anderson?
Mind your oh-oh-own business...

For more titbits about Laurie Anderson go to:

http://hotwired.lycos.com/popfeatures/96​/23/laurie.guide.html

her official web-site is:

http://www.laurieanderson.com/

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