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June 5, 2007
O Superwoman
A rare shot of Laurie Anderson with a normal haircut.
Musician, performance artist, and all-around intimidating brainiac babe Laurie Anderson turns 60 today. That’s right, 60. I found this hard to believe, but I double-checked and found it to be true. Yet more proof that Time Is Passing at an Alarming Rate.
I’ve been a fan ever since I heard Mr. Heartbreak, released in 1984, which featured Anderson’s trademark mix of cerebral detachment with strong senses of humor and melody. It also was my first exposure to the droll voice of William S. (Uncle Bill) Burroughs, who is heard intoning lines like “The sun’s coming up like a big bald head” and “It’s driving me crazy, it’s driving me nuts.”
It was only later that I went back and listened to Anderson’s debut and probably masterpiece, Big Science. Derived from her five-LP epic United States Live—which, a quarter-century later, I’m still scared of—this album propelled Anderson from avant-garde obscurity onto the pop charts. Viewing it at this remove, it’s hard to see why. Not that Big Science isn’t great; although strongly redolent of the 80s, it has not dated over the years so much as fermented. What’s hard to understand is how it ever found a mainstream audience. “O Superman”—ethereal, arthymic, and over eight minutes long—somehow became a hit single. Could that happen today? You never know, but my inner old fogey (who sounds an awful lot like WSB) is muttering “I don’t think so.”
I have to admit to not being hep to what Laurie is up to today. I only recently acquired her 1994 album Bright Red/Tightrope, so I’m running roughly a decade behind. There’s still time to catch up, though, and hopefully time to see her live, which I regret not having done up to this point. In the meantime, please join me at 7:27 tonight for a synchronized listening of “Sharkey’s Night” as—wait for it—the sun goes down like a big bald head.
Somebody's birthday
Posted by bill at June 5, 2007 12:03 PM
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Comments
no matter how terrible people act, we don’t have a right to judge them. We are just to express our minds, and don’t have to pay attention what other people look like, what’s their real face. It doesn’t matter for me, if someone will say anything about me, I know what I really deserve, and what kind of person I really am.
Posted by: Leena65 at April 3, 2008 1:35 AM
If you think Laurie Anderson's usual hairdos are not normal, you have a pretty narrow view of what's normal.
Posted by: crismas at January 31, 2008 12:03 AM
In light of the previous comment, I'd just like to go on record as saying that I personally do not consider Lou Reed an asshole. Nor do I consider him, conversely, not an asshole. I have never had any personal interaction with the man, nor am I likely to, so his assholishness level really has very little impact on my life.
I do know this: He wrote "Candy Says," "Pale Blue Eyes," "Sunday Morning," "Satellite of Love," "I'll Be Your Mirror," etc. And these things have had a verifiably positive impact on my life. So on the whole I'm willing to give Lou a break.
Posted by: Bill at June 17, 2007 3:47 PM
big science was my intro, courtesy of Rob B. sometime back in high school. I think it was a cassette he made for me. Let X = X.
Beautiful beautiful stuff. Now there would be an "A' for the list of Bands We've Seen.
-Cecil
Posted by: Cecil V. at June 8, 2007 1:27 AM
Hard to believe she's married to that asshole Lou Reed.
Posted by: FrankieTeardrop at June 7, 2007 5:43 PM