Laurie Anderson - Big Science - C or D

I also dig Ugly One... and never get on a plane without it if for no other reason than the one about the woman who is flying for the first time and thinks the lights from the cities below are stars.

Was it The State or Kids in the Hall that had a skit about a cheerleader that made cheers Laurie Anderson-style? Also classic.

My girlfriend almost left me because I took her to the horrible cheesefest Moby Dick thing on the night she got laid off. Although i suspect that was LA's nadir.

Has anybody got the Big Science reissue? How does it sound?

What about the new recording of Big Science on the single with Lou?

In case nobody knows what I'm talking about:

PITCHFORK

Laurie Anderson's art-rock classic Big Science is 25, and to celebrate, Nonesuch are saving the candles and reissuing the thing instead. But that's not all: according to Uncut, Laurie, along with her pals Lou Reed and Antony Hegarty (of "and the Johnsons" fame), recorded a new version of the record's title track for a Big Science 2 EP. The EP also features a remastered version of "O Superman" from the Big Science LP. Both are due in the UK July 16. UPDATE: THEY WILL BE OUT JULY 17 IN THE U.S.

Laurie also has a few tour dates on the way in Spain and Portugal, which we'll get to after the tracklists.

Big Science 2:

01 Big Science [ft. Lou Reed and Anthony Hagerty]
02 O Superman

Big Science:

01 From the Air
02 Big Science
03 Sweaters
04 Walking and Falling
05 Born Never Asked
06 O Superman
07 Example #22
08 Let X = X
09 It Tango
10 Walk the Dog
11 O Superman

Small tour:

07-13 Braga, Portugal - Theatro Circo
07-15 Lisbon, Portugal - Culturgest
07-17 Madrid, Spain - Festival Veranos de la Villa

I don't like the idea of bonus tracks after "It Tango". Totally beside the point.

was not into Big Science the first few times I heard it, but it clicked with me big time recently ... suddenly what seemed like self conscious quirk turned into something beautiful and haunting. Not sure how it happened but it did. Curious to know what the context for this was -- did people see her as like, a female David Byrne? Kind of disappointed that this isn't a more expansive reissue -- aren't there a bunch of uncollected pre-BIg Science tunes out there?

I hadn't heard any news about the reissue, but that's exciting. I actually just heard this record for the first time a few weeks ago, after finding a used vinyl copy. The spoken word bits put me off at first, but by the end of the album I thought it was all pretty awesome. I had a similar feeling to: suddenly what seemed like self conscious quirk turned into something beautiful and haunting

yeah, it makes me think of the effect David Lynch's best stuff ... Laurie's aesthetic is different obviously, but there's a similar thing going on -- where weirdness is expected but actual emotion and truth isn't. So when that emotion comes through, it's the equivalent of a gut punch. If that makes sense.

I think the bonus tracks just play on computer or something like that.

Big Science songs are excerpts from a larger work called United States. This has only been released in a live version that is 4 CD's long. I've always assumed that because part of her job description is Performance Artist, that the live version of this is how it is meant to be heard.

I've never felt compelled to brave a 4 cd Laurie Anderson album.

You guys are making a strong case for me to relisten to it. Since I don't own Home of the Brave, I gotta say that BS is my least favoritie eighties Anderson: lots of good ideas, fascinating synth textures, and such, but the music and spoken-word stuff rarely interfaces meaningfully. Like I said upthread, Strange Angels is her real masterwork.

Oh man, I love this record. It's be nice if Laurie got all trendy or something.

It's hard. It's just hard. It's just kinda hard to say.

But isn't it?

This record was a car staple of ours when I was 8 or 9. 'From The Air' and a couple of others are ingrained.

Let X=X

Thanks for puttin' on the feed bag

(p.s. the last 20 seconds of 'Let X=X' are phenomenal)

OMG XPOST

let xpost = xpost

I'm kind of frightened of hearing these songs in the United States context in case it changes them. I think I would like to be listening to "It Tango" when I die.

The dodgy youtube clip of let x=x live is brilliant. The acoustics/dodgy mobile phone recording give it this really nice warmth.

my friend Jon went to a Laurie Anderson show a few years back and left halfway through -- apparently after he left, she played "O Superman" and people clapped along(!?)

HOW DO YOU PEOPLE KNOW I'VE BEEN THINKING ABOUT LAURIE ANDERSON THESE DAYS?

just bought it. xcited if trepidatious. she's always here where i work at our Galas and stuff, with lou reed. i wanna slip her a demo.

o superman is good but a little lazy, no?

Not really? I dunno: watch the video, and it feels like it's in the perfect spot, every element given just the right amount of weight and space.

i like the sparseness OK, but i could have done with a little more texture. also, the mother's voice is a cheap effect. not sure what it's supposed to mean, or why the effect wasn't more nuanced...

i've seen the video and loved it

I have a lot of love for this, i think it's crappiness adds to it (i mean the clip quality)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_VA3wuNNo0

Laurie is a one of the Golden Greats.

well i'm super psyched to check this album out

Wait, I'm not sure what you mean about the mother's voice -- the way she lapses a little further into Chicago-suburbs accent? (That's actually one of my favorite things about this, the really subtle Mom-ism of it!)

no no, just the way -- okay to put it literally, i feel like i clicked "Orion Voices" in GarageBand. it's just a cheap chorus/alien effect. coulda been more sutble?

the accent tho IS subtle, u r right. i like that.

Ha, okay, I have zero idea what you're talking about, I guess -- I don't recall any additional effect beyond the vocoder.

I love love love vocoders, I will like pretty much anything that uses a vocoder just for the vocoders. I love how the vocoder comes in slowly on the "dear amigo, dear partner" line

i barely know what i'm talking about either but every time i hear it, it just sounds like a little weird-for weird's-sake-to-me, in a lazy way.

someone at our radio station once got a request for "O Superman" so they just went on the air and started going "ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha"

i mean i love them too but sometimes i find them gratuitous.

i don't know, more listens will prolly change mind. i do very much enjoy listening to it.

haha @ ha ha ha

Best use of a bagpipe in pop ever.

I was so amazed when I first heard O Superman, I was told I would love it, I didn't really know what to expect. I love it.

oohhhh i dunno man Kate Bush has pipes kinda cornered no? tho i'm not exactly clear on pipe distinctions

Sweaters.

I love the backwards voices on Example (why can't I ever find the hash key on mac keyboards?)22

o superman came on from some old mix CD this weekend while i was driving around with my 2 1/2 year old.
"what is she saying?!" "what is that sound!?"

neither snow nor rain
nor gloom of night
shall stay these couriers
from the swift completion
of their appointed rounds

have yet to hear another laurie anderson album that i really like :/

^^^ what I think about Strange Angels although I like lots of her other albums.

The Ugly One with the Jewels appeals to the kid in me who still loves storytime.

haven't heard it, but You're the Guy I Want to Share My Money With is a great title

Mr. Heartbreak is mostly killer, a little filler.

Anyway, the O Superman video is sort of shockingly effective to me today given its age and the technology involved: http://vimeo.com/3610524

I haven't done an A/B comparison but my instinct was that all these tracks were better on the huge "United State Live" box.

in no case is this true

Well then, you've forced me to do said comparison!

'o superman' is wonderful. but not enough is said about the title track. sometimes certain parts will hit me out of nowhere - "Every man for himself.
Golden cities. Golden towns."

"Thanks for the ride. Big Science. Hallelujah. Big Science. Yodellayheehoo

It's the best, along with "Let X=X / It Tango"

Here's a man who lives a life of danger.
Everywhere he goes he stays -
a stranger.
Howdy stranger. Mind if I smoke?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqCJkzyYwCM

love

Well that’s a nice discovery — the album gets a rerelease on Bandcamp tomorrow:

https://laurieanderson.bandcamp.com/

Was United States Live ever filmed or videotaped? I wish that could be released, but I guess that's rarely the case with performance pieces like it.

I have memories of PBS airplay.

I assumed the revive was for this good appreciation of it by Margaret Atwood https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/apr/08/margaret-atwood-laurie-anderson-big-science-o-superman-prophetic-80s-america-pertinent

I have memories of PBS airplay.

Aw nice! There must be a broadcast master somewhere.

Oddly enough my own first encounter of her wasn't a broadcast of a full piece straight up but a separate appearance in a PBS documentary series...and I almost want to say it was The Story of English?

I've never seen any footage of it. You're not getting confused with Alive from Off Center, are you?