Classic Or Dud: Laurie Anderson's "O Superman"

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I've never liked anything by Laurie Anderson. Maybe I should listen again - I haven't listened really closely or in a long time - but I'll say dud for now. The lines quoted above are sort of an example of why. She turns me off the same way the Talking Heads turn me off. Like this dorky smartass but fundamentally corny 'quirky' 'wit' that says nothing at all to me but that arts profs always just love to death. And the music just never seemed to compensate.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Friday, 29 August 2003 02:42 (twenty years ago) link

Classic with a capital C. I played this for my girlfriend, who was born a year after this song came out, had never heard it before, and pretty much regards Laurie Anderson as "Lou Reed's girlfriend," and she was mesmerized. It stands up as a piece of music, in my mind, as well as any song recorded in the 80s. And, if forced to make a choice between listening to Momus's entire catalog and listening to this song on repeat for an equivalent length of time, I could make my decision in a microsecond, as I'm sure which one I'd get more out of.

― Jesse Fuchs (Jesse Fuchs), Friday, 29 August 2003 02:46 (twenty years ago) link

i have a theory that this would be a really good song to drop in a dj set.it goes really well mixed into some noise/soundscapes,then having some idm or whatever mixed out of it..ive never really tested it outside of my house,but someday.

― juiceboxxx (juiceboxxx), Friday, 29 August 2003 04:22 (twenty years ago) link

I love it a lot, but I disagree re: Momus's entire catalog and think that was a poor thing to say

― Sonny A. (Keiko), Friday, 29 August 2003 04:36 (twenty years ago) link

I think it was one of the least poor things said in the 1980s.

― Jesse Fuchs (Jesse Fuchs), Friday, 29 August 2003 04:38 (twenty years ago) link

he was just trying to draw attention to the fact that someone was slagging the track off upthread saying *even* momus thought it was poor, or something. Anyway - im sure any sane person would make the same decision re OSuperman.

― jed_e_3 (jed_e_3), Friday, 29 August 2003 08:53 (twenty years ago) link

Odd how this was recently revived. Picked up the Laurie Anderson Rhino 2CD comp over the weekend and now, at long last, am finally hearing "O Superman" for the first time. Astoundingly beautiful, just flat out astounding. The fact that it went #2 anywhere boggles my mind.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 15:22 (twenty years ago) link

Ned, I am astounded that you've never heard it till now. Song is of course classic.

How is the comp?

― H (Heruy), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 15:27 (twenty years ago) link

Lots of things slip through my nets! I first encountered Anderson in a clip from what I guess was Home of the Brave era stuff on some sort of PBS special in 1986 -- it wasn't in fact a special on her, it was either part of a one-off thing or maybe a series on something else, I can't remember what. Some kind of scientific documentary! I was sufficiently bemused/rattled enough by the results to not know what to think of it and never really investigated further, though friend Stripey has long been a fan. So far this comp is pretty good, it samples the seven albums through The Ugly One With the Jewels.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 15:34 (twenty years ago) link

You can sing it even if you can't sing: Classic.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 15:40 (twenty years ago) link

The Ugly One with the Jewels is absolutely great! I'm a sucker for tell-me-a-story spoken word albums, though. Ken Nordine's work probably got me started down that path.

The first time I saw Laurie Anderson was when she had six clips on a CD-ROM for Macintosh Quicktime, when she goes off on weird tangents about the national debt and televised school lunch menus. I fell in love right then and there.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Wednesday, 10 September 2003 20:48 (twenty years ago) link

big science is an amazing record. let x = classic!

it shocking to me that suck a strange tune would be such a pop hit. it just goes to show you that your average radio listener could like songs that escape the usual formulas.

if only the industry at large would be as bold today. (and it tries and succeeds sometimes, i know, i know. but but but...)

― msp, Thursday, 11 September 2003 18:38 (twenty years ago) link

I will never forget the moment I first heard this song. It seems so quirky and funny at first, a typical Anderson parody of American consumerism.

And then this last verse:

"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."

It just chilled me to the bone. Still does.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Thursday, 11 September 2003 20:50 (twenty years ago) link

I enthusiastically second The Ugly One with the Jewels! Yes, it's technically a "spoken word" album, but it's remarkably atmospheric.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 11 September 2003 21:26 (twenty years ago) link

No doubt, Alex. "John Lilly" is like a mini-suite, the way it's structured. The wobbly two-chord undulations underneath "Maria Teresa Teresa Maria" do as much to create the mood as Laurie's wonderfully chosen verbal images.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 11 September 2003 21:30 (twenty years ago) link

when i was 14, a schoolteacher subjected me (and the rest of the class) to all of home of the brave (the film)! i still don't like it, but i like "o superman" as noted above.

― amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 12 September 2003 06:50 (twenty years ago) link

There's a nice little segment on program #14 of the radio series American Mavericks about Laurie, and it discusses the inspiration for "O Superman," Massenet's "O Souverain" which has the line:

O souverain, o juge, o père

("O sovereign, o judge, o father")

― Ernest P. (ernestp), Friday, 12 September 2003 15:25 (twenty years ago) link

has anyone fallen as far as she? I regrettably made my girlfriend sit through the Moby Dick disaster of cheesiness she did a few years ago. Egads. Although I heard the performances immediately after 9/11 were more a return to form. The last album I bought was Bright Red and only like the eno production. Otherwise, she is beginning to seem like a casualty of the 80's, which is too bad.

O Superman though, outstanding.

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Friday, 12 September 2003 16:51 (twenty years ago) link

has anyone fallen as far as she?

Her boyfriend, Lou Reed.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 12 September 2003 16:53 (twenty years ago) link

Yeah, just listen to that old people sex record he did about them. Yuck.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Friday, 12 September 2003 17:33 (twenty years ago) link

i refuse to believe that both of them are not gay

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Friday, 12 September 2003 17:42 (twenty years ago) link

whatever, man

'mister heartbreak' is a wonderful album. 'big science' and her tracks on 'you're the guy I want to spend my money with' as well.

― jl (Jon L), Friday, 12 September 2003 18:04 (twenty years ago) link

This song got to number 2?!

Could Schneider TM & Kpt.Michigan - "The Light 3000" get to number 2? In the City of Sound perhaps.

I think this is the saddest song.

― David. (Cozen), Saturday, 13 September 2003 08:54 (twenty years ago) link

vinyl as pop art

― george gosset (gegoss), Saturday, 13 September 2003 09:39 (twenty years ago) link

pretty relevant these days -- "petro-chemical arms" anyone ?

― george gosset (gegoss), Saturday, 13 September 2003 09:40 (twenty years ago) link

can those western fossils really hear all their answering machines ?

― george gosset (gegoss), Saturday, 13 September 2003 09:43 (twenty years ago) link

"I think this is the saddest song. "

I saw Laurie Anderson live about 1 or 2 days after 9/11/2001 and When she sang this song just listening to the lyrics was so overwelming. "Here comes the planes, They're American Planes, Made in America"

Also, this is one of my alltime favorite songs.

― A Nairn (moretap), Saturday, 13 September 2003 20:22 (twenty years ago) link

"Here comes the planes, They're American Planes, Made in America"

That just gave me the chills.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 13 September 2003 20:55 (twenty years ago) link

I thought the exact same thing as I listened to this sitting on a train platform in Kilwinning today. I know reading post-Sept 11 resonance into lyrics which are clearly not meant thus is an irretrievable dud but it is quite poignant. The way she sings "Made in America... Smoking..." then that pause, you think she's talking about planes on fire. It's the first time I've ever felt anything about Sept. 11.

― David. (Cozen), Saturday, 13 September 2003 21:35 (twenty years ago) link

Wow. Wildly out of context, yes, but stil.....creepy.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 13 September 2003 21:37 (twenty years ago) link

classic. the first time i ever heard this song, i was getting into my car to go to school on a very cold canadian winter morning. it was on a university radio station. my car was parked in a spot that i never park in, only because my usual spot was taken. my stereo was turned up all the way from the previous night. the "HA HA HA HA HA HA HA" at the beginning scared the hell out of me because of the extreme volume and its repetative nature.

― astroblaster (astroblaster), Saturday, 13 September 2003 22:25 (twenty years ago) link

uh, don't forget her song "from the air" that's designed to be the first song you hear after you've heard the single and now bought the album -- that's about aeroplanes too y'know, and if you're american/ a smoker then probably another round of "chills"

(new zealand doesn't have that problem, well not since the french tried to blow up a Greenpeace protest boat, the bomb designed to explode when the boat would have had everybody aboard it, the Greenpeace people very luckily somewhere else by coincidence)

― george gosset (gegoss), Monday, 15 September 2003 06:59 (twenty years ago) link

that's about aeroplanes too y'know, and if you're american/ a smoker then probably another round of "chills"

And there I was thinking New Zealand was the land of Hobbits, not patronizing smartasses. Silly me.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 15 September 2003 11:51 (twenty years ago) link

i didn't think hobbits only lived in new zealand, or sorry, was that a skinny ?

― george gosset (gegoss), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 02:17 (twenty years ago) link

alex, on sept. 13th you seemed to be enjoying creepy

― george gosset (gegoss), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 11:33 (twenty years ago) link

Relax, Bilbo, I was just giving as good as I was getting.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 11:34 (twenty years ago) link

All lives need ghosts

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Tuesday, 16 September 2003 11:46 (twenty years ago) link

one month passes...

what the fuck was I saying upthread about the D. Stewart / B. Gaskin "It's My Party"? it's an amazing deconstruction of the original song, a *comment* on it, and therefore quite a remarkable number one. Tom called that one right.

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Saturday, 15 November 2003 17:44 (twenty years ago) link

one year passes...

is this one of the earliest ilm threads?

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Wednesday, 4 May 2005 05:58 (eighteen years ago) link

aside from being frightening and moving and spellbinding, this song almost got me laid

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Wednesday, 4 May 2005 06:01 (eighteen years ago) link

i'm not convinced i'll ever hear this song in the way i did before 9/11/2001

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Wednesday, 4 May 2005 06:04 (eighteen years ago) link

"hi mom!"

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Wednesday, 4 May 2005 06:07 (eighteen years ago) link

This is the first thread I ever saw on ILM.

― dog latin (dog latin), Wednesday, 4 May 2005 07:56 (eighteen years ago) link

"O Superman" is absurd, monotonous, pretentious, tuneless nonsense, and in terms of melodic content compares unfavourably to other hit singles of the period, such as "Endless Love" by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie.

― Comstock Carabinieri (nostudium), Wednesday, 4 May 2005 08:01 (eighteen years ago) link

I like this song, except I always wish there was more of the synth counterpoint stuff that comes in at the end.

Ha, totally agree. Still classic of course.

― Ste (Fuzzy), Wednesday, 4 May 2005 08:34 (eighteen years ago) link

one night back in - o - 82 a mate and i listened to this on repeat while on acid for several hours. when i put on the second side of rock bottom he demanded i take it off and we put this back on.

classic.

― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Wednesday, 4 May 2005 08:45 (eighteen years ago) link

"Who are you people and what do you want?"

― Baaderonixxxorzh (Fabfunk), Wednesday, 4 May 2005 09:25 (eighteen years ago) link

and in terms of melodic content compares unfavourably to other hit singles of the period, such as "Endless Love" by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie.

You need a mouth diaper, `cos you talk an awful lot of shit.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 4 May 2005 10:49 (eighteen years ago) link

No, you need a new pair of ears because you are the awful lot of shit if you cannot see that "O Superman" is repetitive, non-melodic and arty-farty. You should listen to some proper pop music of that period, such as Kim Carnes and REO Speedwagon.

― Comstock Carabinieri (nostudium), Wednesday, 4 May 2005 10:53 (eighteen years ago) link

No, you need a new pair of ears because you are the awful lot of shit

Brilliant.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Wednesday, 4 May 2005 11:06 (eighteen years ago) link

Skipping 110 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

it sounds like work product, which it is - fascinating for fans, by no means something for people who have never heard LA before

― flappy bird, Sunday, 18 August 2019 21:55 (four years ago) link

nine months pass...

AH AH AH AH MA MA MA MA DILL DILL DILL DILL OH OH OH OH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgU5Cztx490

― ernestp, Monday, 18 May 2020 21:54 (three years ago) link

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