She was in Chicago on 9/11/2001. She had a gig at the Park West, my GF & I had tickets, and none of us could think of anything better to do with our dazed selves. It was one of the strangest, but most moving concerts I’ve ever been to.
The meaning of her songs had been changed by history, in one day, in one hour, that morning.
Here come the planes …
They’re American planes.
Made in America.
or the song “Walking and Falling”
I wanted you. And I was looking for you.
But I couldn’t find you.
I was too dazed to think – I didn’t even know if my cousin, who worked on the 85th floor of the North Tower, was alive until I got home.
Number of top 10 songs by Lou Reed or Laurie Anderson? Joy Division? Velvet Underground? The Pixies? Throbbing Gristle? Coil? Nick Drake? I could go on.
Who cares what the music industry thinks is a good product that is going to make them rich? Britney Spears or Miley Cyrus or Rhinana probably have more hits than those artists combined… doesn’t mean that they are better?
I’m no saying you have to like Yoko, but lots of people do because they appreciate her art.
Oh, and this is kind of odd… So you guys know the actor Norman Reedus, right? Well, his production company is called “Big Bald Head”, and he’s selling a book of photos he did, which is called “The Sun’s Coming up Like a Big Bald Head”… That’s straight from Sharkey’s night? Laurie Anderson fan?
You made a comment about crossover which unless I misunderstood implies a art artist finding success in the commercial world. Laurie Anderson did have a measure of commercial success with Big Science which is the point I was addressing, not the artistic merit of either woman’s music.
Fair enough… But I’d argue that even in the realm of crossover, a solid fanbase is more important than hits–if Anderson was concerned about hits, she probably would have stopped making albums in the 80s. I’m not sure she’s had a hit since then, yet she’s still making music. As far as Yoko is concerned, she has I think a loyal fanbase.
I’ve always been a Laurie Anderson fan. If nothing else, she was an original geek girl. Her records were great, but she was really all about performance, experience. Her Puppet Motel, a sort of video game / experience, released on CD captured the spirit of her performances, a cabinet of wonders. I’m hoping it will be updated and re-released in some form before it is lost.
Back in the mid-90s, I was filling in tech support for our Seattle branch, until we could replace the previous guy. I’d flown up there for a couple of days, got out of a meeting early, went down to the Pike Street dockside area, it was a bright and sunny summer day, and I found that my company was sponsoring “Jazz on the Pier” nights, and Laurie Anderson was playing! It was the middle of the concert, but I was able to wave my badge to get in the servants’ entrance and get standing room in the back corner, and she was just transfixing. I don’t remember which show she was doing, but she was playing an electric violin much of it and doing her microphone-and-echo poetry things. I’ve caught a couple other shows of hers when she’s been on the West Coast, but it’s been too long.
Sorry for your recent loss Laurie. This is the soundtrack of my dreams. When I was young, 3 years before I would buy my first album, we had Star TV, which was a scrambled cable type station. Late at night, in between shows, they would have filler, and O’Superman was on often. I never listened to Laurie Anderson growing up, but every time I hear O’ Superman I get chills. Also, Laurie has a rat terrier named Lulabelle.
Thanks for the reminder, Xeni. I am sure I have friends who do not like “Oh, Superman” but I am also sure I do not have any close friends who do not like that.
For the poster who was looking for a more “approachable” intro to Anderson I would recommend “Strange Angels”. The songs are much more melodic and have more conventional structures than other of her work.
I’ve seen her five or six times in “concert” and I recommend it, highly. Every show is different. I remember once going to see her at the Peabody Essex Museum where she didn’t sing at all, just told stories, and played a few instruments. It’s always worth seeing what she’s up to, even if it’s sometimes difficult to process.
I still remember where I was when I heard, “O Superman” for the first time - riding in my friend’s VW Dasher wagon around a twisty corner in Morgantown, WV, listening to the then-new college station WWVU-FM (U92). I hadn’t heard anything that felt really new since discovering the Beatles’ “Revolver,” which at the time was already 15 years old. That was a good day, and prompted one of the only fan letters I’ve ever written. I miss that album’s sense of perfectly encapsulated avant weirdness. I still have it and listen to it on vinyl - which is perfectly inappropriate, because if any artist was “digital-ready” in the early 80s, it’s Laurie Anderson.
