LAURIE ANDERSON – O Superman (1982)

Laurel Philips Anderson (born June 5, 1947), known as Laurie Anderson, is an American avant-garde artist, composer, musician, and film director whose work spans performance art, pop music, and multimedia projects. Initially trained in violin and sculpting, Anderson pursued a variety of performance art projects in New York during the 1970s, focusing particularly on language, technology, and visual imagery. She became more widely known outside the art world when her single “O Superman” reached number two on the UK singles chart in 1981. Her debut album Big Science was released the following year. She also starred in and directed the 1986 concert film Home of the Brave.

Anderson is a pioneer in electronic music and has invented several devices that she has used in her recordings and performance art shows. In 1977, she created a tape-bow violin that uses recorded magnetic tape on the bow instead of horsehair and a magnetic tape head in the bridge. In the late 1990s, she collaborated with Interval Research to develop an instrument she called a “talking stick,” a six-foot-long (1.8 m) baton-like MIDI controller that can access and replicate sounds. Anderson met singer-songwriter Lou Reed in 1992, and she was married to him from April 2008 until his death in 2013.

“O Superman,” from Laurie Anderson’s 1982 debut album, ‘Big Science.’ The album returned to vinyl for the first time in 30 years in April 2021: https://laurieanderson.lnk.to/BigScience

O judge O Mom and Dad Mom and Dad

O judge O Mom and Dad Mom and Dad

Hi. I’m not home right now. But if you want to leave a Message, just start talking at the sound of the tone.

Hello? This is your Mother Are you there? Are you coming home?

Hello? Is anybody home? 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 Pay as you go

And I said: OK. Who is this really? And the voice said: This is the hand, the hand that takes This is the hand, the hand that takes This is the hand, the hand that takes Here come the planes. They’re American planes Made in America Smoking or non-smoking?

And the voice said: Neither snow nor rain nor gloom Of night shall stay these couriers from the swift Completion of their appointed rounds.

‘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!

So hold me, Mom, in your long arms So hold me, Mom, in your long arms In your automatic arms. Your electronic arms. In your arms. So hold me, Mom, in your long arms Your petrochemical arms Your military arms In your electronic arms

Director: Josh White Art Director: Perry Hoberman Concept: Laurie Anderson Music Director: Roma Baran Sign Language Coach: Jane Comfort