favorite line in O SUPERMAN by laurie anderson

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flappy bird if you appreciate this song, you'd really appreciate the title track "big science" too

i remember the corned beef of my childhood (Karl Malone), Thursday, 22 February 2018 04:47 (six years ago) link

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 justice is gone, there's always force. And when force is gone, there's always Mom. Hi Mom!

flappy bird, Thursday, 22 February 2018 05:08 (six years ago) link

xp yea i need to listen to The Big Science! i don't know why i haven't yet. waiting to find it in a record store??? or just can't stop listening to O Superman

flappy bird, Thursday, 22 February 2018 05:09 (six years ago) link

"When love is gone..." etc plays with a verse from the Tao teh ching which adds to the sense of womb retreat or sinking into loss of will for me.

But "your petrochemical arms" is the 3 words I find most euphonious.

smashong pumpgong (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 22 February 2018 08:10 (six years ago) link

"Here come the planes" is this amazing bleak elation tho. None of this piece is reducible to the semantic content of the words. It's all about the modulation

smashong pumpgong (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 22 February 2018 08:14 (six years ago) link

Probably top ten for me too. When I was a kid (why did I watch this video over and over as a kid) I thought she was saying "O George" and I wondered who George was so I'll vote for that.

orifex, Thursday, 22 February 2018 08:24 (six years ago) link

I think about this song a lot.

triggercut, Thursday, 22 February 2018 08:27 (six years ago) link

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

lol old people confused by technology.

lana del boy (ledge), Thursday, 22 February 2018 09:02 (six years ago) link

This is my favourite song, so it's impossible to choose. Every line gives me goosebumps like nothing else

Badgers (dog latin), Thursday, 22 February 2018 09:17 (six years ago) link

Seriously, such a hard decision but I went with

So hold me, Mom, in your long arms. So hold me, Mom, in your long arms.

Just kind of sums up the submissive context of hyper-capitalist politics but also the womb-like feel of the song, like I want to be enveloped in its amniotic sound and its insidious undertones

Badgers (dog latin), Thursday, 22 February 2018 09:21 (six years ago) link

Probably top ten for me too. When I was a kid (why did I watch this video over and over as a kid) I thought she was saying "O George" and I wondered who George was so I'll vote for that.

― orifex, Thursday, February 22, 2018 8:24 AM (fifty-seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

My mum always used to think it was 'Oh John'

Badgers (dog latin), Thursday, 22 February 2018 09:21 (six years ago) link

Noodle Vague OTM upthread. Some great posts all round.

Badgers (dog latin), Thursday, 22 February 2018 09:23 (six years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPBR5UmYLls

Ô Souverain, ô Juge, ô Père - Jonas Kaufmann

Mark G, Thursday, 22 February 2018 11:08 (six years ago) link

electronic arms

10 print "eatme" 20 goto 10 (Ye Mad Puffin), Thursday, 22 February 2018 13:03 (six years ago) link

O Mom and Dad. Mom and Dad.

One of those songs where I get so absorbed that the lyrics become less literal and just become part of the music.

Cat Power's "Colors and the Kids" is another song like this for me.

nicky lo-fi, Thursday, 22 February 2018 13:25 (six years ago) link

There was a rough time in my life a few years ago where I would play this over and over and over at work and on the way to and from work. Operated as some kind of melancholic Xanax. One of my favorite songs of all time.

circa1916, Thursday, 22 February 2018 13:40 (six years ago) link

How is Imagine a weird pop hit? Not being facetious. Like if you say O Superman is one of the weirdest pop hits ever that makes instant sense for me but Imagine sounds like a standard, straightforward piano ballad.

OTM.

"Minneapolis" (barf) (Eric H.), Thursday, 22 February 2018 13:42 (six years ago) link

I know this is slightly off topic, but the album she's just done with the Kronos Quartet is excellent.

Dan Worsley, Thursday, 22 February 2018 13:50 (six years ago) link

xp to self

Remembering that stretch, I would alternate Smog's Permanent Smile with O Superman. Seemed to fulfill a similar function and speak to a kind of resignation from a different angle.

circa1916, Thursday, 22 February 2018 14:05 (six years ago) link

Your petrochemical arms is a phrase for the ages.

piscesx, Thursday, 22 February 2018 14:48 (six years ago) link

i put this song in a mental category of artists/songs that i heard about for a long time before i actually listened to them, and then when i finally listened, i felt dumb for having waited so long because they are so perfect. it's a pretty small group but along with "o superman" (and big science as a whole), i put "hammond song" by the roches and "the downtown lights" by the blue nile in there too.

na (NA), Thursday, 22 February 2018 15:22 (six years ago) link

ha! I'd put Hammond ?Song on a similar pedestal too, funnily enough although I discovered it a lot more recently.

Badgers (dog latin), Thursday, 22 February 2018 15:23 (six years ago) link

i didn't really listen to that blue nile album until like two months ago. it's reassuring in a way to be in my late 30s and know that there's still tons of amazing music that i haven't heard yet, even from within my lifetime.

na (NA), Thursday, 22 February 2018 15:26 (six years ago) link

it's reassuring in a way to be in my late 30s and know that there's still tons of amazing music that i haven't heard yet, even from within my lifetime.

yes. it's so beautiful

flappy bird, Thursday, 22 February 2018 17:32 (six years ago) link

Congratulations, NA, you're now me at 14. The next 14 years are sweet and then it all goes to hell.

Three Word Username, Thursday, 22 February 2018 18:01 (six years ago) link

The hold me mom line is my favourite cuz it offers a bit of false hope

kolakube (Ross), Thursday, 22 February 2018 18:08 (six years ago) link

hey man congrats on having heard every good song by the time you were 14

na (NA), Thursday, 22 February 2018 18:17 (six years ago) link

it's the resignation & lack of other options that make that line (and the song) so uniquely moving and creepy. you're in the arms of Mom whether you like it or not, unless you go and live off the grid or move to a country not ruled by the military industrial complex

xp

flappy bird, Thursday, 22 February 2018 18:19 (six years ago) link

"Here come the planes" is the line that comes to mind when I think of this song. Agree on its greatness and its austere strangeness. Years later it still seems like this glittering ominous monument.

a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Thursday, 22 February 2018 20:54 (six years ago) link

Man this song is weird. Wikipedia says this song is about Operation Eagle Claw, but damn if I can figure that out.

Mr. Snrub, Thursday, 22 February 2018 21:52 (six years ago) link

A few years ago I visited an exhibition on Postmodernism, at the V&A in London iirc, they had a nice dark room with seating where you could watch the video on a loop, it was perfect.

MaresNest, Thursday, 22 February 2018 21:59 (six years ago) link

"judge"? It'll always be "Johnnie" to me.

Jeff W, Thursday, 22 February 2018 22:00 (six years ago) link

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

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

flappy bird, Friday, 23 February 2018 04:00 (six years ago) link

Love this thread, it has pointed me back to United States Live, which is sprawling and brilliant, I need this in my life more often.

MaresNest, Friday, 23 February 2018 16:58 (six years ago) link

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

lol old people confused by technology.


One of the things I love about US/BS is that a lot of it is this haunting/sinister/whatever take on what is essentially 80s brick wall standup. You seen these answering machines they have now? You know when you're on a plane and the captain comes on and says

scotti pruitti (wins), Friday, 23 February 2018 17:03 (six years ago) link

Yes!

smashong pumpgong (Noodle Vague), Friday, 23 February 2018 17:04 (six years ago) link

lmao

whaaaaaaat's the deaaaal with Mom? she's got a lot of arms!

flappy bird, Friday, 23 February 2018 17:09 (six years ago) link

otm. I met this guy...

JoeStork, Friday, 23 February 2018 17:11 (six years ago) link

flappy bird have you heard “The Big Top”?

JoeStork, Friday, 23 February 2018 17:12 (six years ago) link

My friend hates this song. Probably should disown him

kolakube (Ross), Friday, 23 February 2018 17:12 (six years ago) link

"NOW OPEN THEM!!!"

Mark G, Friday, 23 February 2018 18:36 (six years ago) link

Hello? This is your Mother. Are you there? Are you coming home? Hello, is anybody home?

Every December 24th, this happens.

sarahell, Friday, 23 February 2018 19:24 (six years ago) link

flappy bird have you heard “The Big Top”?

― JoeStork, Friday, February 23, 2018 12:12 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah i listened to most of United States for the first time last night. honestly having a hard time connecting with a lot her work, so much of it is interesting social commentary & performance art but none of it - yet, ime - coheres into the triumph of form & function & emotional wallop of O Superman. Mister Heartbreak is great but that's much more of a pop record (relatively speaking).

flappy bird, Friday, 23 February 2018 19:55 (six years ago) link

But I need to listen more...

flappy bird, Friday, 23 February 2018 19:55 (six years ago) link

honestly i haven't been able to really get into laurie anderson much beyond big science (though i enjoy the home of the brave soundtrack too)

na (NA), Friday, 23 February 2018 19:57 (six years ago) link

Sharkey's Day tho

flappy bird, Friday, 23 February 2018 20:01 (six years ago) link

Flappy try another day in America. It's pretty sublime. My favourite Anderson records are strange angels, big science and homeland

kolakube (Ross), Friday, 23 February 2018 20:03 (six years ago) link

^^^ those plus USL are the core imo

wins otm re: standup, particularly acute when live obv. a fave clip of her doing "mach 20" on tv:

https://youtu.be/SirOxIeuNDE

def someone doing a "routine" there, Voice of Authority and sperm projection and wiggly beat or no. (and the track is well-chosen bc it is the one of the most like a joke, building just like one before trailing off into disquieting wonder instead of ever quite punching.)

difficult listening hour, Friday, 23 February 2018 20:14 (six years ago) link

the 90s mostly-spoken stuff can be gorgeously dark tho, "same time tomorrow", the one where she remembers where she came from it had burning buildings and a fiery red sea, the title track on "the ugly one with the jewels" (is this like... true at all? never checked.) drearier listens but full of key moments

difficult listening hour, Friday, 23 February 2018 20:18 (six years ago) link

Oh yeah heart of a dog is also essential

kolakube (Ross), Friday, 23 February 2018 20:20 (six years ago) link

i have tried several of her other albums and i don't connect to them. i don't hate them, and oddly none of them are super different from big science, but they're just not for me.

na (NA), Friday, 23 February 2018 20:22 (six years ago) link

animal collective owe laurie some of that my girls money

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaBbHGKLp88

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zol2MJf6XNE

flappy bird, Friday, 23 February 2018 20:27 (six years ago) link

ok who is this really?

orifex, Sunday, 25 February 2018 12:31 (six years ago) link

^also part of a famous standup comedy routine! (B*ll C*sby's Noah bit)

scotti pruitti (wins), Sunday, 25 February 2018 12:57 (six years ago) link

It would be pretty difficult for me to pick one single favorite from 1981 (or even a few dozen, really). But if I absolutely had to, 'O Superman' might be the one.

Flappy Bird, if you haven't proceeded to 'Big Science' yet--you really need to. 'o Superman' is the high point, sure, but it's really a rather amazing album--writing, performance, production, coherence--that things like 'US Live' or 'Strange Angels' or 'Mister Heartbreak' (much as I love those) barely suggest.

Soundslike, Sunday, 25 February 2018 16:32 (six years ago) link

i listened to this on the way to work this morning and started crying

marcos, Friday, 2 March 2018 20:46 (six years ago) link

three weeks pass...

https://media.giphy.com/media/14ouOwZDPad0Na/giphy.gif

flappy bird, Thursday, 29 March 2018 17:49 (six years ago) link

hi mom

scotti pruitti (wins), Thursday, 29 March 2018 17:50 (six years ago) link

One of the things I love about US/BS is that a lot of it is this haunting/sinister/whatever take on what is essentially 80s brick wall standup. You seen these answering machines they have now? You know when you're on a plane and the captain comes on and says
― scotti pruitti (wins), Friday, February 23, 2018 5:03 PM (one month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I was thinking that Talking Heads sometimes have this kind of new wave + performance art + stand-up comedy vibe as well - I always thought the song titles for Fear Of Music looked like the track listing for a stand-up LP where the track titles are the subjects of the various 'bits'

soref, Thursday, 29 March 2018 18:06 (six years ago) link

So true, trying to think who would be a good fit, my vote would be Mitch Hedberg.

MaresNest, Thursday, 29 March 2018 19:24 (six years ago) link

two weeks pass...

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

System, Saturday, 14 April 2018 00:01 (six years ago) link

Soref - you seen the fred armisen talking heads mockumentary? Sounds like it’s up your alley

after party for the apocalypse (Ross), Saturday, 14 April 2018 03:32 (six years ago) link

for posterity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bk_-fLpmM4E

flappy bird, Saturday, 14 April 2018 04:18 (six years ago) link

^ Laurie Anderson performing O Superman in NYC one week after 9/11. I didn't hear this song for the first time until late last year and I'm glad that my memories & associations with it aren't burdened or changed in the ways it was changed almost everyone that had heard it before 2001.

flappy bird, Saturday, 14 April 2018 04:21 (six years ago) link

It's gotta be petrochemical arms, but the whole thing is a masterpiece.

MikoMcha, Saturday, 14 April 2018 08:23 (six years ago) link

weird timing with this poll ending today. all i can think about is Wag the Dog, Eisenhower's farewell address, and this song. how she captured - in sound - the feeling of living in the powerful country on earth, stuck in a never-ending war that we never see, or we can choose not to see or think about. nabisco otm so many years ago about how this song changes our perception of time, and it just doesn't sound womblike, it is a womb, comforting & hypnotic & dark & soothing but with something so sinister barely audible past the song's horizon, until the very end.

flappy bird, Saturday, 14 April 2018 22:35 (six years ago) link

*most powerful

flappy bird, Saturday, 14 April 2018 22:35 (six years ago) link

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

System, Sunday, 15 April 2018 00:01 (six years ago) link

missed this poll. would have had a damned hard time choosing anyway. amazing song. "so hold me, mom" for emotional punch, maybe.

explosion from DOOM courtesy of id software (Doctor Casino), Monday, 16 April 2018 13:40 (six years ago) link

heartened that every line got at least 2 votes

flappy bird, Thursday, 19 April 2018 05:59 (six years ago) link

Fewer lines than you might think for an eight minute track. Admittedly there are musical breaks..

Mark G, Thursday, 19 April 2018 10:21 (six years ago) link

this is one of my favorite songs but i didn't vote in this bc separating out the lyrics of this song doesn't make sense to me. i will say that "so hold me mom in your long arms" feels like the emotional release of the song, though it also has to do with the way the music shifts under that line.

na (NA), Thursday, 19 April 2018 14:25 (six years ago) link


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