I was a 16 yr old Midwest pop music fan and then I heard Devo, Kate Bush, Laurie Anderson, Talking Heads, Velvet Underground, etc…and my life completely changed. Thank you early 80s alt music.
I was wondering when one of the "reactors" would hit Laurie Anderson, and you are the first! Well done! You have to remember that this was when analog synths were at their peak and samplers were just invented. She combined all of that with her violin and her performances. Blew us all away. I suggest Let X = X next.
I had the privilege to see Laurie perform this (and other songs) live, when I was a student at UConn (1981?). She was a friend of a faculty member and did a little lecture on her work and then played. This was right before the album was released. Mesmerizing! A cherished memory.
Same here, gotta admit that was a great show. At least in the San Diego she admitted it was about the death of her mother and how she wished she took that last call, instead of leaving it to the machine. And, she added, what if someone else left a message on her machine....say, the hand that takes....
Laurie Anderson said in an interview, right after 9/11, how surreal and unnerving it was to sing the part "here comes the planes" on stage. I bet it sure was.
Honestly when I first listened to this song. The part about “so hold me mom” hit me right in the feels. I never knew my mother, she died from colon cancer when I was 5 weeks old. Idk why but this song makes me feel connected to her, I know that’s not the intention of the song but to me it’s someone’s mother calling them, telling them to come home for a hug. I cry everytime I listen to this song
When this came out it was an immediate out of left field hit in the UK, where I am and it was played full-length all over the radio here. I don't understand fully, even now what the lyrics are about although I'm not surprised that her references are American. She is American so it makes sense. I was intrigued right away and have bought her albums ever since. This is probably one of her least accessible songs yet the one she is most remembered for if her name is mentioned. Her next album, Mister Heartbreak, is more melodic but still experimental and technological. She even uses musicians on it, good ones too. She is a performance artist and plays violin and keyboards and is responsible for the electronic treatments of those and her voice, sometimes even altering it so it sounds like man. I personally think she is a genius and I'm surprised and delighted to see this pop up on a reaction channel, almost as much as I'm surprised that it was requested. Kudos to that person. Oh, and she was married to Lou Reed.
"O Superman", also known as "O Superman (For Massenet)", is a 1981 song by performance artist and musician Laurie Anderson. The song became a surprise hit in the United Kingdom after it was championed by DJ John Peel,[2] rising to #2 on the UK Singles Charts in 1981.[9] Prior to the success of this song, Anderson was little known outside the art world. First released as a single, the song also appeared on her debut album Big Science (1982)[10] and as part of her live album United States Live (1984).
I was a teeny when i heard it for the first time...and it scares me the hell out of it. S creepy that i couldnt listen to it withiut nightmares. much later i understood the story...its all about answering machines and robots ! and now, 40 years later I love this song...total epic!!
She has been an avant garde performance artist for years. She has constructed her own "musical devices' to create her unusual sounds. She has worked in association with many artists, notably Philip Glass. She was married to the great Lou Reed ( who you should sample Harri, along with the Velvet Underground)
I didn't know she was married to Lou Reed! I did like her Mister Heartbreak album, and she collaborated with Peter Gabriel.There was a track on that album (Excellent Birds) that was also on Peter Gabriel's So album on the Cassette and CD releases as 'This is the Picture'.
So was I in 1982 , shocked and pleasently surprised with the simplicity and in fact the strength of this song. And then there is the length. Despite of this it still got its radioplay here in The Netherlands!
Laurie Anderson is a performance artist, and the only performance of any kind that I have seen in person twice. She is not overly well-known outside the music industry. O Superman was her biggest hit, reaching the top 10 in the UK. You've probably heard her more than you realize; she joined with Peter Gabriel to do Excellent Birds for example. You may want to try her Language Is A Virus video, the live one.
I have both the Lps that appeared for me when I was in college and the Vietnam war was going full blast. Only for rhe ulta hip at the time of their release.
When this song was first released ,didn,t pay much attention to it but one day driving to the car spares store it came on the radio ,could not get out of the car till it finished ,at full volume mind you .Once heard never forgotten.
Even though I grew up exposed to Tangerine Dream, Devo, and Kraftwerk, this album did come to me as a shock as well. I couldn't get enough of it at the time. You can hear a strong influence in this song from the work of Philip Glass, as in Koyaanisqatsi. 1981, what were we involved in? Iran, Beirut, Israel, take your pick.
I recommend Laurie Anderson's "Mr. Heartbreak" album - you would find it to be more accessible, more fun. Try the song "Sharkey's Night" (with Adrian Belew on guitar and with novelist/poet William Burroughs on vocals), or "Excellent Birds" (with Peter Gabriel vocals). It's classic Art Rock.
1981. The US was not at war directly, but the Iran Hostage crisis was still fresh, the hangover from the Vietnam War still lingered, and the fear that incoming president Ronald Reagan with his "evil empire" rhetoric would start WWIII by attacking the USSR was prevalent. The song made no sense to me the first time I heard it back then. I found it a quirky bit of weirdness. I've come to appreciate it's calmness in the decades since. Digital samplers were brand new back then and Anderson makes the most of her new toy on this track. PS. Check out Laurie Anderson "Language is a Virus" when you can.
Lately I have been rediscovering this song, like an old acquaintance. I am old enough to remember seeing it on the MTV and hearing it sometimes on my local progressive rock/punk radio station during high school and college times. At the time I had no notion of sequencers or looping, of anything Laurie Anderson was wielding in her storytelling arsenal. I just found the song so very curious and unique. It was speaking to me in certain ways. I find the song haunting and esoteric. There's a hypnotic or mesmeric quality in it. I don't often "get" or appreciate avant garde art and artists but this song does something for me. It flips a switch in my noggin, and appeals to the part of me that enjoys something that is equally creepy and lovely. The exact meaning of the tune is not clear for me, but sometimes the work itself is what matters--- not unlike a David Lynch movie that pulls us into a web of mystery and wonder. The art washes over me, holds me in its arms.
When I was a DJ I played this song all the time .But I had a late night show from 3-5 am. Not prime time at all. And this was very popular on college radio.
I know this is late, but I love that you reacted to this. You should watch the official video so that you can see her performance. I had a radio show from 1989-1999, and I played this song regularly throughout that time period.
Weird, but wonderful. It was played on the radio a few times, with quizzical remarks by the dj's, but not often enough for me. With the mechanical voice and American accent, seeing the lyrics written out was useful today. I hadn't a clue what she was on about. Essentially it is anti-war, and critical of the industrial military machine. I'd got that much from reading an article about her years ago. She is more of an artist than a singer, and though I like this one a lot, I've not gone further and explored her other stuff. Glad that you've reviewed it, it is a great piece of work. Thanks Harri.
As others have pointed out Laurie is a performance artists. I was lucky to see her in concert two times. She is a classically trained violinist who progressed to removing the hair from the bow and replacing it with pieces of recorded tape and playing/manipulating them over the sound head she had installed on her violin. She would go out on the streets and play them while wearing a pair of ice skates that were frozen into a block of ice. She would play until the ice melted. Her LPs Mr. Heartbreak and Strange Angels are much more mainstream as well as quite beautiful. There is her concert film Home of the Brave which is well worth seeing. This is not the original video that she made for this song, you should look that one up as well. In her later works she transitioned to more spoken word pieces.
In the Netherlands there was a long going radioshow called De Avondspits (The Evening Rush Hour) broadcasted every through the week day between 6.00 pm and 7 pm. It was a very populair radioshow, many people listened to this. The show had a few anchors every day and one of this was De Steunplaat (The Support Record). where a song was promoted by playing it 5 days long every day at 6.30 p.m. One of the Steunplaat was this Lauri Anderson song . Every day 8.30 minutes long hahahahaha. Great., in those days radio shows where not completely comercialized but it was fun to listen to.
My parents introduced me to Laurie Amderson when she first came out in the early 80s and I grew up listening to her music. Sharkeys Night is good. X=X is also wonderful. This song isnt about war as much as you think. In interviews she has always purported that this is a song about how technology can't save us. Like Frank Zappa sland Philip Glass she is as much a conposer as she is a singer and artist. Ibwould actually recommend watxhing her original video. This one was a second attempt if I recall, and though it doesnt make this any more senae. Its interesting to watch the performance. It was VERY popular when it came out in the 80s and it was played full length. It was pooular in the US as well as the UK. There wasnt a war on at that time, though it was the height of the cold war, and the Iran Contra fiasco had juat gone down when she wrote it in 1980.
Glad you were able to appreciate this song for what it’s worth Harri. When I first heard this song my interpretation was a bit dark. That the child in the song was unreachable through phone, so the real mother had to leave her a message after the tone. The mother does leave a real message, asking if she’ll come home. The child does respond, but in an alternate spiritual world and instead communicates with the “hand that takes” (as in, the taker of life). I picture this song as a song of a child in the afterlife with the regret of not coming home to their mom. But that’s just how I see it! :)
From Wikipedia: "Many of us have heard the postal carriers' motto in one form or another. “Neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor hail shall keep the postmen from their appointed rounds.” According to Wikipedia, the original saying was spoken about 2500 years ago by the Greek historian, Herodotus." This piece by Laurie Anderson is so deeply profound, moving and brilliant and foreshadowing that it's hard to put a reaction into words.
Absolutely correct that she is/was a performance artist. Check out her performance of “United States.” She later had more commercially appropriate music but still with an edge.
I remember when this first came out here in the UK. it got a ton of attention & lots of great reviews. I was just a kid so the meaning went right over my head. I was mesmerized by it all the same; I knew it had something important to say. I forgot about it until last year & I got chills as I realised what it meant (to me, others may have.different interpretations). I think it's a comment on the American people & the US's military-industrial complex (that's who mom is). Right from the beginning mom makes it clear that she isn't exactly loving & giving, she is "the hand that takes". That's the gist of my theory. This song gives me chills just as it used to when I first heard it. I love it tbh, it really is art 💗
This song was an accidental discovery for me back when it came out. I kept seeing the cassette tape of the album in a big bin at the record store and was intrigued by how it looked. I figured that for $2, I should give it a try. I immediately fell in love with her work and have explored all of it that I have been able to find. I have only seen her perform live once, on her Tales From The Nerve Bible tour. She is as much, if not more, of a performance artist as singer. She has experimented with many different ways of producing sounds, including many instruments that she invented herself. She has great lyrics as well. One of my favorites is from another song on the same album as O Superman. It starts, "I met this guy... and he looked like he might have been a hat-check clerk at an ice rink. Which, in fact, he turned out to be." If you want to hear something probably a bit more accessible from her, try Sharkey's Day, from her Mister Heartbreak album. It is still wonderfully experimental, but not quite as synth-heavy. There is another song on that album, Excellent Birds, in collaboration with Peter Gabriel. He has a different version of the same song with her on one of his albums.
Overlaid on a sparse background of two alternating chords formed by the repeated spoken syllable "Ha" created by looping with an Eventide Harmonizer, the text of "O Superman" is spoken through a vocoder. A saxophone is heard as the song fades out, and a sample of tweeting birds is subtly overlaid at various points within the track. The two chords of the song are A♭ major and C minor, the repeating "Ha" syllable (a C note) acting as a drone.
In the UK it got to number 2 in singles charts as the amazing BBC DJ John Peel loved it and played it - making her an international star -for a moment. The song is about America, and its comfort with technology and technological warare. :)
I've loved this since John Peel first played. I still have my vinyl copy of Big Science. As far as I have been able to find out, it was written about the hostage crisis the the American Embassy in Tehran
I remember seeing the video for this song on Night Flight back in the 80s and being both perplexed and completely enamored by it. Bought Big Science and I think I was more confused than anything but it was such a fun listen it always finds its way onto my queue ever year.
Don't feel bad about being caught off guard. At first, I did not feel that it was music. 😁 I first heard it in 1982, when my partner brought home her album and explained that she was a performance artist. I listened to the whole album in one sitting and then went back to this song. It challenged me to ask myself, "Is this music?" So I mentally listed my criteria -- rhythm , melody, lyrics, theme etc. And I decided "Yes, this is music." I get from this piece a sense of anxiety throughout. She may not have been referring to a specific war that the US was involved in, but rather a military/political overall zeitgeist. The US did get militarily involved in Grenada in 1982, There was a war in the Falklands, Conflicts with Lebonon. There was a war between Iraq and Iran, which followed after the Hostage Crisis of 1979-1981 (60 US Diplomats/citizens held captive in Iran for 444 days) There were terrorist attacks in several countries. 1982 The US placed an embargo on Libyan oil imports, alleging Libyan support for terrorist groups. Also 1982 There was a ground-breaking ceremony for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is held in Washington, DC. So anxiety was a possible reaction in those days.
I first heard it on the college radio station soon after it came out in 1982. Harri - I don't know if someone else mentioned it below in the comments, but it did hit #2 in the UK, shocking the hell out of Laurie Anderson. It isn't about any specific war. It's more about, as Ezra Pound wrote, "War ... war after war" and the US military underpinning how we respond to everything we see in the world.
So glad you reviewed this...such good stuff. Check out Phillip Glass for some music theory expression...this was like 1981 or so...good stuff. Well received in UK when it came out
The Cold War. Her live performance is excellent. I first saw it on an eclectic show called Night Flight. Another gem from the show was "The Art of Noise"
I was a film student when this album was released and it hit our department and the Art department hard. You're right that she was more of a performance artist than a pop singer. It never made the charts in the US but it made number 2 in the UK. The US has always dipped its hands into covert military actions. At this time (1981 -2) the Reagan administration was funding the Mujahedeen, who were Muslim rebels opposing the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union at the time. The US provided these fundamentalist fighters with arms and training to put pressure on the Soviet military and to bog them down in the region. This pressure eventually caused the Russians to leave Afghanistan and contributed to the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union. The Islamicist fighters eventually became the same Al Qaeda/Taliban group responsible for 9/11 and other terrorism. So we ended up arming and training our attackers. It was fucked up.
If you asked 15 year old me back in the 80's who my favorite musician was I would have said Laurie Anderson. No, she didn't get radio play. Heck I had to special order her albums because my local Strawberry's didn't stock them. You had to learn about them from someone else (like all my family and friends did because I wouldn't shut up about her) or you had to catch her stuff on some kind of Avant-garde show. In my case it was Night Flight.
Weirdly compelling song. Back in 96 it was used in a traffic safety ad here in New Zealand, which scared the crap out of a lot of people! Used to stand behind this one girl at work and go Ha ha ha ha..funny to watch her squirm!
Wow. I first heard this song when it came out in 82, but at the time I didn't care about the lyrics - the sound, the rythmic "ha", the monotonous melody, her distorted voice, all that was plenty for me at 14. Later I gathered it had to be about war, specifically the one to come that we all feared in 82, at the height of the cold war. I guess I misheard one of the last lines - or simply dreamed it up - as "here come the bombs." Accordingly I somehow interpreted the phone conversation as one you might hope to get with your parent or child in such a situation - you would want to be together in such a crisis. It doesn't really make sense though. Few people realise today, how close we were in the early 80es, with a big Nato exercise in 83 that was perceived by the Soviet Union as a cover for a possible first-strike attack. I was scared back then. I don't understand the irrational fears today of terrorists, or even the climate change, although it _is_ serious. Still, ending humanity with making the planet a radioactive hell, and then a frozen hell with nuclear winter, to me appears far worse.
Performance art, poetry, in 1981. Using voice modulation. Ahead of it's time. Not long after the Fall of the Berlin wall. Who knows what was going through her mind. Amazing song though.
Very cool. Avant Garde technopop. Is that the official video? It seems like it made it onto the pop charts in the UK in the early 80s. I have always loved it. Cheers.
Might have been reeling off her aggregate messages, rather than a single one... also other messages received from her environment. She's sooo cool. America had just come out of Vietnam a few years before, obviously a dominant theme during her young adulthood.
It got to number 2 in the UK charts (my brother bought the single, and it blew our tiny minds..!😍). Would have been nice to see a reaction to the original video featuring Laurie herself (though no disrespect to this fan effort, of course).
The digital visuals are not from the original 1981 video. These visuals, simple as they are now, were too sophisticated to be animated in the early 80s, for what a performance artist could afford back them. All of the sound effects were state-of-the-art in their day, leading edge stuff that you would normally only hear from Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel or Kate Bush.
I remember hearing this song (different and better video) on a PBS video show called "Alive From Off Center". That video was cool, this one...not so much.
The music is very similar to the Phillip Glass soundtrack to Reggio's cult film "Koyannisquatsi." Minimalist to the max, both from 1982. The film is very much worth watching. sit back for an hour and a half of a real "Art Film." (Not the flix we used to go see after midnight at the cinema.)
Believe it or not, this was a #2 hit in the UK and a top-40 hit in Australia in 1981, so it was played on the radio a lot and was very well received. Very avant-garde times those were. Today, people say that it was about what Americans call the Iran hostage crisis of 1979-80; Anderson has even said that herself in recent years, but she wasn't clear about that at the time. The 1980s were a time of renewed "gunboat diplomacy" by the US under Reagan's renewed aggressions and I know Anderson was against that, having seen her live in the eighties, where she made it very clear. Still, no real certainty about the inspiration for this song, as Anderson has said various things over the years. By the way, the more familiar video for the song features Anderson, a performance artist married to Lou Reed, dressed in her early eighties-trademark white suit doing various gestures and movements that really enhance the feel. Worth viewing. She also had a minor hit in 1984 collaborating with Peter Gabriel on a song called "Excellent Birds," a very nice song.
Hello Mr. Harri, it's my first contact with your content. For an open ear, the album "Big Science" has a lot to offer. This was never a hit in the US. The video you showed was new to me, by the way... In 81, lots of US airplay went to fine songwriters like Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson, REM, Talking Heads, the Police, and of course many older, long-established bands. Synth tones were a big part of many short-lived pop bands, but Laurie was always apart from the mainstream. And like Sonic Youth, her 80's stuff still sounds cryptic, hypnotic and enticing~~~~~~
I was a 16 yr old Midwest pop music fan and then I heard Devo, Kate Bush, Laurie Anderson, Talking Heads, Velvet Underground, etc…and my life completely changed. Thank you early 80s alt music.
I was wondering when one of the "reactors" would hit Laurie Anderson, and you are the first! Well done! You have to remember that this was when analog synths were at their peak and samplers were just invented. She combined all of that with her violin and her performances. Blew us all away. I suggest Let X = X next.
@@amykidd6811 She has indeed.
I second Let X = X
I had the privilege to see Laurie perform this (and other songs) live, when I was a student at UConn (1981?). She was a friend of a faculty member and did a little lecture on her work and then played. This was right before the album was released. Mesmerizing! A cherished memory.
Same here, gotta admit that was a great show. At least in the San Diego she admitted it was about the death of her mother and how she wished she took that last call, instead of leaving it to the machine. And, she added, what if someone else left a message on her machine....say, the hand that takes....
Laurie Anderson said in an interview, right after 9/11, how surreal and unnerving it was to sing the part "here comes the planes" on stage. I bet it sure was.
I thought it was about 9/11 because of that part. I might just be a dumbass
@@poochoonut5768his came out during the 1980
@@poochoonut5768 It predates 9/11 by some time but Laurie Anderson was playing a concert in New York a few days after.
Honestly when I first listened to this song. The part about “so hold me mom” hit me right in the feels.
I never knew my mother, she died from colon cancer when I was 5 weeks old. Idk why but this song makes me feel connected to her, I know that’s not the intention of the song but to me it’s someone’s mother calling them, telling them to come home for a hug.
I cry everytime I listen to this song
It almost puts you in a trancelike state, which draws you in to focus on the lyrics. She’s a genius at what she does…
Laurie Anderson speaking on this song said that basically it’s about how technology won’t save us
It certainly won’t.
@@largactilhatwe only hear her music bc of it
When this came out it was an immediate out of left field hit in the UK, where I am and it was played full-length all over the radio here. I don't understand fully, even now what the lyrics are about although I'm not surprised that her references are American. She is American so it makes sense. I was intrigued right away and have bought her albums ever since. This is probably one of her least accessible songs yet the one she is most remembered for if her name is mentioned.
Her next album, Mister Heartbreak, is more melodic but still experimental and technological. She even uses musicians on it, good ones too. She is a performance artist and plays violin and keyboards and is responsible for the electronic treatments of those and her voice, sometimes even altering it so it sounds like man. I personally think she is a genius and I'm surprised and delighted to see this pop up on a reaction channel, almost as much as I'm surprised that it was requested. Kudos to that person.
Oh, and she was married to Lou Reed.
The most inaccessible? I disagree and put forward the B side to this, Walk The Dog.
“When justice fails there’s always force”. I saw her perform this in the late ‘80s. Fantastic show. You’re right about performance art.
"O Superman", also known as "O Superman (For Massenet)", is a 1981 song by performance artist and musician Laurie Anderson. The song became a surprise hit in the United Kingdom after it was championed by DJ John Peel,[2] rising to #2 on the UK Singles Charts in 1981.[9] Prior to the success of this song, Anderson was little known outside the art world. First released as a single, the song also appeared on her debut album Big Science (1982)[10] and as part of her live album United States Live (1984).
You are only the 2nd reactor to react to this Laurie Anderson song. I commend you for taking the challenge.
Wow, must be 40 yrs ago, brings back some good memories. Laurie Anderson a very interesting lady. Really felt for her after the passing of Lou.
your petrochemical arms. the most emotional words I heard when I was 8.
I was a teeny when i heard it for the first time...and it scares me the hell out of it. S creepy that i couldnt listen to it withiut nightmares. much later i understood the story...its all about answering machines and robots ! and now, 40 years later I love this song...total epic!!
She has been an avant garde performance artist for years. She has constructed her own "musical devices' to create her unusual sounds. She has worked in association with many artists, notably Philip Glass. She was married to the great Lou Reed ( who you should sample Harri, along with the Velvet Underground)
I didn't know she was married to Lou Reed! I did like her Mister Heartbreak album, and she collaborated with Peter Gabriel.There was a track on that album (Excellent Birds) that was also on Peter Gabriel's So album on the Cassette and CD releases as 'This is the Picture'.
@@lmychajluk When Lou was posthumously inducted into the Rock Hall Lauri accepted in a moving tribute. You can view that on UA-cam.
She was/is a unique and brilliant multi-media performance artist.
This track actually climbed very high on the British pop charts 😉
I remember when this came out, 1980 I think. At the time you either loved it or hated it. I loved it. Well ahead of its time.
7:18 this part gave me chills
A greatt artist. I love her work .
Her distorted clone used to MC a show of sureal short movies on PBS TV.
Her LP `Strange Angels´ is a delight.
To the dismay of two of my friends, I taught their two young daughters most of this song. They kept on singing it for years!
So was I in 1982 , shocked and pleasently surprised with the simplicity and in fact the strength of this song. And then there is the length. Despite of this it still got its radioplay here in The Netherlands!
Laurie Anderson is a performance artist, and the only performance of any kind that I have seen in person twice. She is not overly well-known outside the music industry. O Superman was her biggest hit, reaching the top 10 in the UK. You've probably heard her more than you realize; she joined with Peter Gabriel to do Excellent Birds for example. You may want to try her Language Is A Virus video, the live one.
I have both the Lps that appeared for me when I was in college and the Vietnam war was going full blast. Only for rhe ulta hip at the time of their release.
Big Science is an amazing piece of art
Try "Language is a virus" or "let x=x". And yes Anderson is a performance artist. She is amazing. Married to lou reed.
When this song was first released ,didn,t pay much attention to it but one day driving to the car spares store it came on the radio ,could not get out of the car till it finished ,at full volume mind you .Once heard never forgotten.
Real, amazing art. Just deep powerful amazingness xxx
Mom =love ......miss you mom
Even though I grew up exposed to Tangerine Dream, Devo, and Kraftwerk, this album did come to me as a shock as well. I couldn't get enough of it at the time. You can hear a strong influence in this song from the work of Philip Glass, as in Koyaanisqatsi.
1981, what were we involved in? Iran, Beirut, Israel, take your pick.
laurie é amazing! she strikes me every time. she touches us deeply. you feel at home, or in outer space
I recommend Laurie Anderson's "Mr. Heartbreak" album - you would find it to be more accessible, more fun. Try the song "Sharkey's Night" (with Adrian Belew on guitar and with novelist/poet William Burroughs on vocals), or "Excellent Birds" (with Peter Gabriel vocals). It's classic Art Rock.
Performance artist of the highest calibre.
lol -- I sighed in perfect unison with you when the song ended. hits hard every time.
1981. The US was not at war directly, but the Iran Hostage crisis was still fresh, the hangover from the Vietnam War still lingered, and the fear that incoming president Ronald Reagan with his "evil empire" rhetoric would start WWIII by attacking the USSR was prevalent. The song made no sense to me the first time I heard it back then. I found it a quirky bit of weirdness. I've come to appreciate it's calmness in the decades since. Digital samplers were brand new back then and Anderson makes the most of her new toy on this track. PS. Check out Laurie Anderson "Language is a Virus" when you can.
Lately I have been rediscovering this song, like an old acquaintance. I am old enough to remember seeing it on the MTV and hearing it sometimes on my local progressive rock/punk radio station during high school and college times. At the time I had no notion of sequencers or looping, of anything Laurie Anderson was wielding in her storytelling arsenal. I just found the song so very curious and unique. It was speaking to me in certain ways.
I find the song haunting and esoteric. There's a hypnotic or mesmeric quality in it. I don't often "get" or appreciate avant garde art and artists but this song does something for me. It flips a switch in my noggin, and appeals to the part of me that enjoys something that is equally creepy and lovely. The exact meaning of the tune is not clear for me, but sometimes the work itself is what matters--- not unlike a David Lynch movie that pulls us into a web of mystery and wonder. The art washes over me, holds me in its arms.
I absolutely love Laurie Anderson. Please do more of her songs! Her own videos are always the best, too.
When I was a DJ I played this song all the time .But I had a late night show from 3-5 am. Not prime time at all. And this was very popular on college radio.
It was played on prime time BBC radio at the time, I think it got to no.2 in the charts, climbed quickly, dropped just as fast.
I know this is late, but I love that you reacted to this. You should watch the official video so that you can see her performance. I had a radio show from 1989-1999, and I played this song regularly throughout that time period.
Weird, but wonderful. It was played on the radio a few times, with quizzical remarks by the dj's, but not often enough for me. With the mechanical voice and American accent, seeing the lyrics written out was useful today. I hadn't a clue what she was on about. Essentially it is anti-war, and critical of the industrial military machine. I'd got that much from reading an article about her years ago. She is more of an artist than a singer, and though I like this one a lot, I've not gone further and explored her other stuff. Glad that you've reviewed it, it is a great piece of work. Thanks Harri.
As others have pointed out Laurie is a performance artists. I was lucky to see her in concert two times. She is a classically trained violinist who progressed to removing the hair from the bow and replacing it with pieces of recorded tape and playing/manipulating them over the sound head she had installed on her violin. She would go out on the streets and play them while wearing a pair of ice skates that were frozen into a block of ice. She would play until the ice melted. Her LPs Mr. Heartbreak and Strange Angels are much more mainstream as well as quite beautiful. There is her concert film Home of the Brave which is well worth seeing. This is not the original video that she made for this song, you should look that one up as well. In her later works she transitioned to more spoken word pieces.
She is great went to see her in concert when language is a virus. She put on a great show and concert
In the Netherlands there was a long going radioshow called De Avondspits (The Evening Rush Hour) broadcasted every through the week day between 6.00 pm and 7 pm. It was a very populair radioshow, many people listened to this. The show had a few anchors every day and one of this was De Steunplaat (The Support Record). where a song was promoted by playing it 5 days long every day at 6.30 p.m. One of the Steunplaat was this Lauri Anderson song . Every day 8.30 minutes long hahahahaha. Great., in those days radio shows where not completely comercialized but it was fun to listen to.
My parents introduced me to Laurie Amderson when she first came out in the early 80s and I grew up listening to her music. Sharkeys Night is good. X=X is also wonderful.
This song isnt about war as much as you think. In interviews she has always purported that this is a song about how technology can't save us. Like Frank Zappa sland Philip Glass she is as much a conposer as she is a singer and artist.
Ibwould actually recommend watxhing her original video. This one was a second attempt if I recall, and though it doesnt make this any more senae. Its interesting to watch the performance.
It was VERY popular when it came out in the 80s and it was played full length. It was pooular in the US as well as the UK.
There wasnt a war on at that time, though it was the height of the cold war, and the Iran Contra fiasco had juat gone down when she wrote it in 1980.
Glad you were able to appreciate this song for what it’s worth Harri. When I first heard this song my interpretation was a bit dark. That the child in the song was unreachable through phone, so the real mother had to leave her a message after the tone. The mother does leave a real message, asking if she’ll come home. The child does respond, but in an alternate spiritual world and instead communicates with the “hand that takes” (as in, the taker of life). I picture this song as a song of a child in the afterlife with the regret of not coming home to their mom. But that’s just how I see it! :)
From Wikipedia:
"Many of us have heard the postal carriers' motto in one form or another. “Neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor hail shall keep the postmen from their appointed rounds.” According to Wikipedia, the original saying was spoken about 2500 years ago by the Greek historian, Herodotus." This piece by Laurie Anderson is so deeply profound, moving and brilliant and foreshadowing that it's hard to put a reaction into words.
Absolutely correct that she is/was a performance artist. Check out her performance of “United States.” She later had more commercially appropriate music but still with an edge.
I remember when this first came out here in the UK. it got a ton of attention & lots of great reviews. I was just a kid so the meaning went right over my head. I was mesmerized by it all the same; I knew it had something important to say.
I forgot about it until last year & I got chills as I realised what it meant (to me, others may have.different interpretations).
I think it's a comment on the American people & the US's military-industrial complex (that's who mom is). Right from the beginning mom makes it clear that she isn't exactly loving & giving, she is "the hand that takes".
That's the gist of my theory.
This song gives me chills just as it used to when I first heard it. I love it tbh, it really is art 💗
That whole album is comforting in a strange way.
She is an absolute original.....designed to make you SEE**FEEL***THINK!
This song was an accidental discovery for me back when it came out. I kept seeing the cassette tape of the album in a big bin at the record store and was intrigued by how it looked. I figured that for $2, I should give it a try. I immediately fell in love with her work and have explored all of it that I have been able to find. I have only seen her perform live once, on her Tales From The Nerve Bible tour. She is as much, if not more, of a performance artist as singer. She has experimented with many different ways of producing sounds, including many instruments that she invented herself. She has great lyrics as well. One of my favorites is from another song on the same album as O Superman. It starts, "I met this guy... and he looked like he might have been a hat-check clerk at an ice rink. Which, in fact, he turned out to be."
If you want to hear something probably a bit more accessible from her, try Sharkey's Day, from her Mister Heartbreak album. It is still wonderfully experimental, but not quite as synth-heavy. There is another song on that album, Excellent Birds, in collaboration with Peter Gabriel. He has a different version of the same song with her on one of his albums.
Overlaid on a sparse background of two alternating chords formed by the repeated spoken syllable "Ha" created by looping with an Eventide Harmonizer, the text of "O Superman" is spoken through a vocoder. A saxophone is heard as the song fades out, and a sample of tweeting birds is subtly overlaid at various points within the track. The two chords of the song are A♭ major and C minor, the repeating "Ha" syllable (a C note) acting as a drone.
In the UK it got to number 2 in singles charts as the amazing BBC DJ John Peel loved it and played it - making her an international star -for a moment. The song is about America, and its comfort with technology and technological warare. :)
This is from her album "big science" that you should listen to. Lots of good stuff on there. Learned about her using her music for choreography....
I've loved this since John Peel first played. I still have my vinyl copy of Big Science. As far as I have been able to find out, it was written about the hostage crisis the the American Embassy in Tehran
Love it,still got it on cassette. (No cassette player,but a memento from the '80s)🏴
Loved the song when it came out,it somehow sounded different now but thanks for doing this reaction.This one certainly caught you off guard
I remember seeing the video for this song on Night Flight back in the 80s and being both perplexed and completely enamored by it. Bought Big Science and I think I was more confused than anything but it was such a fun listen it always finds its way onto my queue ever year.
This really needs to be watched with the original music video.
Harri, look up a tune called 'Hiawatha' by Laurie Anderson. I think you will be just as taken aback.
Don't feel bad about being caught off guard. At first, I did not feel that it was music. 😁
I first heard it in 1982, when my partner brought home her album and explained that she was a performance artist.
I listened to the whole album in one sitting and then went back to this song.
It challenged me to ask myself, "Is this music?"
So I mentally listed my criteria -- rhythm , melody, lyrics, theme etc.
And I decided "Yes, this is music."
I get from this piece a sense of anxiety throughout.
She may not have been referring to a specific war that the US was involved in, but rather a military/political overall zeitgeist.
The US did get militarily involved in Grenada in 1982, There was a war in the Falklands, Conflicts with Lebonon.
There was a war between Iraq and Iran,
which followed after the Hostage Crisis of 1979-1981 (60 US Diplomats/citizens held captive in Iran for 444 days)
There were terrorist attacks in several countries.
1982 The US placed an embargo on Libyan oil imports, alleging Libyan support for terrorist groups.
Also 1982 There was a ground-breaking ceremony for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is held in Washington, DC.
So anxiety was a possible reaction in those days.
Listen to this on tramad on your headphones and this crazy world makes perfect sense ...
Very nice reaction! Thank you.
Try "My Eyes", off the "Strange Angels" album. Beautiful, beautiful song.
ua-cam.com/video/2_oUul8hMeA/v-deo.html
I first heard it on the college radio station soon after it came out in 1982. Harri - I don't know if someone else mentioned it below in the comments, but it did hit #2 in the UK, shocking the hell out of Laurie Anderson. It isn't about any specific war. It's more about, as Ezra Pound wrote, "War ... war after war" and the US military underpinning how we respond to everything we see in the world.
So glad you reviewed this...such good stuff. Check out Phillip Glass for some music theory expression...this was like 1981 or so...good stuff. Well received in UK when it came out
You need to see her video that accompanies this piece. She is also a visual artist. The video above detracts from the impact of the original.
I was 11 when my now late sister took me to a show in the mid eighties. A top ten experience for sure. Lori rocks
Beautiful reaction
The Cold War. Her live performance is excellent. I first saw it on an eclectic show called Night Flight. Another gem from the show was "The Art of Noise"
I was a film student when this album was released and it hit our department and the Art department hard. You're right that she was more of a performance artist than a pop singer. It never made the charts in the US but it made number 2 in the UK.
The US has always dipped its hands into covert military actions. At this time (1981 -2) the Reagan administration was funding the Mujahedeen, who were Muslim rebels opposing the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union at the time. The US provided these fundamentalist fighters with arms and training to put pressure on the Soviet military and to bog them down in the region. This pressure eventually caused the Russians to leave Afghanistan and contributed to the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union. The Islamicist fighters eventually became the same Al Qaeda/Taliban group responsible for 9/11 and other terrorism. So we ended up arming and training our attackers. It was fucked up.
This is a Cold War song of the Reagan era.
I've always considered this genre of music as being brought into the mainstream by The Beatles with their Revolution #9
If you asked 15 year old me back in the 80's who my favorite musician was I would have said Laurie Anderson. No, she didn't get radio play. Heck I had to special order her albums because my local Strawberry's didn't stock them. You had to learn about them from someone else (like all my family and friends did because I wouldn't shut up about her) or you had to catch her stuff on some kind of Avant-garde show. In my case it was Night Flight.
Weirdly compelling song. Back in 96 it was used in a traffic safety ad here in New Zealand, which scared the crap out of a lot of people! Used to stand behind this one girl at work and go Ha ha ha ha..funny to watch her squirm!
Wow. I first heard this song when it came out in 82, but at the time I didn't care about the lyrics - the sound, the rythmic "ha", the monotonous melody, her distorted voice, all that was plenty for me at 14. Later I gathered it had to be about war, specifically the one to come that we all feared in 82, at the height of the cold war. I guess I misheard one of the last lines - or simply dreamed it up - as "here come the bombs." Accordingly I somehow interpreted the phone conversation as one you might hope to get with your parent or child in such a situation - you would want to be together in such a crisis. It doesn't really make sense though. Few people realise today, how close we were in the early 80es, with a big Nato exercise in 83 that was perceived by the Soviet Union as a cover for a possible first-strike attack. I was scared back then. I don't understand the irrational fears today of terrorists, or even the climate change, although it _is_ serious. Still, ending humanity with making the planet a radioactive hell, and then a frozen hell with nuclear winter, to me appears far worse.
Thank you for your reaction video
Performance art, poetry, in 1981. Using voice modulation. Ahead of it's time. Not long after the Fall of the Berlin wall. Who knows what was going through her mind. Amazing song though.
Very cool. Avant Garde technopop. Is that the official video? It seems like it made it onto the pop charts in the UK in the early 80s. I have always loved it. Cheers.
Its not tje original video thatvwas a remake. Her original live action film is much more compelling
Might have been reeling off her aggregate messages, rather than a single one... also other messages received from her environment. She's sooo cool. America had just come out of Vietnam a few years before, obviously a dominant theme during her young adulthood.
It got to number 2 in the UK charts (my brother bought the single, and it blew our tiny minds..!😍). Would have been nice to see a reaction to the original video featuring Laurie herself (though no disrespect to this fan effort, of course).
The original vid is the best. This song makes me feel all the feelings while giving me a healing embrace.
After hearing your reaction to "take a walk on the wild side" I was going to suggest this. Lou Reed's partner.
I think even Laurie Anderson was surprised this was a hit.
Why anyone would take the original O Superman cut and screw it up like this is beyond me. Laurie Anderson’s film version is art. This is crap.
The digital visuals are not from the original 1981 video. These visuals, simple as they are now, were too sophisticated to be animated in the early 80s, for what a performance artist could afford back them.
All of the sound effects were state-of-the-art in their day, leading edge stuff that you would normally only hear from Brian Eno, Peter Gabriel or Kate Bush.
I remember hearing this song (different and better video) on a PBS video show called "Alive From Off Center". That video was cool, this one...not so much.
I suggest Sharky’s Day by Laurie Anderson 😎👍
"Neither snow nor rain, nor gloom of night, shall stay these couriers from their appointed rounds" -- U.S. Postal Service motto.
The music is very similar to the Phillip Glass soundtrack to Reggio's cult film "Koyannisquatsi." Minimalist to the max, both from 1982. The film is very much worth watching. sit back for an hour and a half of a real "Art Film." (Not the flix we used to go see after midnight at the cinema.)
Believe it or not, this was a #2 hit in the UK and a top-40 hit in Australia in 1981, so it was played on the radio a lot and was very well received. Very avant-garde times those were. Today, people say that it was about what Americans call the Iran hostage crisis of 1979-80; Anderson has even said that herself in recent years, but she wasn't clear about that at the time. The 1980s were a time of renewed "gunboat diplomacy" by the US under Reagan's renewed aggressions and I know Anderson was against that, having seen her live in the eighties, where she made it very clear. Still, no real certainty about the inspiration for this song, as Anderson has said various things over the years. By the way, the more familiar video for the song features Anderson, a performance artist married to Lou Reed, dressed in her early eighties-trademark white suit doing various gestures and movements that really enhance the feel. Worth viewing. She also had a minor hit in 1984 collaborating with Peter Gabriel on a song called "Excellent Birds," a very nice song.
It went straight into no.2 in England.
She was a electrical music as a women
WOW - can't believe you went here. thank you.
It got to no 2 in the U.K charts in 1981
It was a hit UK, Narri
I well remember as I did not like the record and had to sit through it or miss what was Numbet 1 on.the radio chart !
Do you remember which song was Number 1?
@@wiremuwifebash sorry I have well forgotten itb
@@stephenqualtrough7322 No worries. Thanks for the reply anyway :)
La gran laurie anderson colaboro en el disco zoolook del año 1984 perteneciente a jean michel jarre
saw this in Richmond VA. in 19 .80 ? ...,Lowe's Theater infunced me & my kidz
1984. The contras. Nicaragua. El Salvado.
Brilliant
Hello Mr. Harri, it's my first contact with your content.
For an open ear, the album "Big Science" has a lot to offer.
This was never a hit in the US. The video you showed was new to me, by the way...
In 81, lots of US airplay went to fine songwriters like Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson, REM, Talking Heads, the Police, and of course many older, long-established bands. Synth tones were a big part of many short-lived pop bands, but Laurie was always apart from the mainstream. And like Sonic Youth, her 80's stuff still sounds cryptic, hypnotic and enticing~~~~~~
Brave to have covered this, not many do, cheers, sub added, thanks.
Reached no 1 in the U.K. ~ longest song ever to do so
When have you known USA not in an altercation ?
no 1 in Australia for many weeks