LOVE IT OR HATE IT? | First Time Reaction to LAURA ANDERSON - O Superman | WHAT WAS MY REACTION?

[@JKonstage]

Thank you Nick, for your open mind and lovely reaction. Laurie is also a violinist who created some new string instruments. An early 80’s phenomenon who stretched ideas of what music could be! I’m not sure about that war reference from the commenter on KZbin, but she did say this song is about how “technology can’t save you.” One of a kind.

[@NicknLex]

Thank you for yet another great track, JK!! You rock!

[@johnmavroudis2054]

She is an artist through and through. It was a breath of fresh air that added an amazing element of poetry and prose where I was left hanging in anticipation for what was coming next. She was commenting on the relationship between the public and the war machine. …with the military replacing the actual mom with loving arms into electronic and petrochemical arms… and of course military arms. The whole album is wonderful and you fully understand why she and Peter Gabriel collaborated.

[@marshallgoff2651]

Give the entire album a listen. It's a tour de force

[@jimled50jl49]

Hi Nick, I bought this as a single. Loved it 1st time I heard it, but it wasn't until I got home with the record and really listened, that it brought me to tears. I remember my mum in the kitchen, next to the dining room with the door open listening as she was cooking dinner. She actually came and stood in the doorway to listen, after it had been on a few minutes. She loved it, and like me she got it, understanding how powerful it was. It turned out to be her favourite song. She passed away in her early 60's when I was 30 years old. For me personally this song will always be about mum. My mum. With all the bad that goes on in the world and all the hurt one can go through in life ...there's always mum ! I'm now older than my mum. Music holds my memories stronger than any written diary. This song still makes me cry. Thankyou for playing this. It's been a while since I heard it. Byee Jim X

[@NicknLex]

Thank you so much for sharing with us. May her memory continue to be a blessing, Jim! 💖 ✨

[@jimled50jl49]

@@NicknLex 🤗❤ Thankyou ! Jim X

[@canonfodder2068]

Holy Smokes! I never thought I would see anybody react to Laurie Anderson. I was a big fan of this entire album in the 80's while I was in art school. Of course, I was into Performance Art at that time and she was a big inspiration for me. Thanks, JK!! And, Nick, thanks for your channel!

[@mmoura1104]

Love it. Laurie Anderson has been woven into the fabric of my life. Since I first heard this. I have also been to one of contemporary arts exhibits and saw her in concert with Adrian Belew as her guitarist. Epic

[@Lightmane]

I love this album. It's so unique. A real piece of art.

[@aleclewis9123]

Even though I am a drummer, this song is one of my absolute favourites, because it's haunting, quirky and melodically evocative.

[@spikeysnack]

2001 -- Two weeks after 9/11 Laurie Anderson played a concert at Town Hall in New York City. "This is the hand ... the hand that takes ... here come the planes ... they're American planes ..." Chilling. "Here come the planes. So you better get ready. Ready to go. You can come As you are, but pay as you go. Pay as you go." I first came across Laurie Anderson on TV with her multimedia show "Language is a Virus", and I was blown away.

[@-R.Gray-]

On her next album, Mister Heartbreak (1984), Peter Gabriel co-wrote and sang on one song, and Adrian Belew played on 4 (mostly in the background).

[@matthewhope3664]

First and foremost she is a performance artist!

[@procopiusaugustus6231]

Saw her perform in the late ‘80s. Memorable.

[@brucer2152]

I used to play Laurie a lot on my late night radio show years ago...

[@NicknLex]

That sounds super cool! In what city and what year was your show?

[@brucer2152]

@NicknLex I was on kpft 90.1 fm in Houston. Public radio. Thursday nights 3 to 5 am. Was in the 90s. Show was called weightless.

[@rpmfla]

I saw her in concert and she is more of a multimedia artist than she is a musician. I like her sound and her visual creativity.

[@maxrnb01]

Her stage show was one of the most entertaining performances I’ve ever seen.

[@xelamercedes]

She's a performance artist. Not merely a performing artist.

[@barriehull7076]

Philip Glass vibes. It seems not just you but younger music listeners assume things were hard to do back on the day, the reality was a talent was essential rather than reliance on a computer programmer. Anderson has invented several experimental musical instruments that she has used in her recordings and performances. In 1977, she created a tape-bow violin that uses recorded magnetic tape on the bow instead of horsehair and a magnetic tape head in the bridge.

[@jmpmusva]

Her concert was amazing. She has a violin she plays that's not a real violin. It's a playback head. Her bows are actually strung with prerecorded tape of ....everything. Might be voices, noises and she can control them, change their speed, stop, backup,etc. She put a multi-media show together that was memorizing.

[@bmac1205]

Same Laurie Anderson on Peter Gabriel's 'So' Album. She co-wrote and co-performed on the song "This is the Picture (Excellent Birds)". A version of “Excellent Birds” was also released on her 'Mister Heartbreak' album. I knew I had heard of her before.

[@mcolford]

Great suggestion, JK -- Laurie Anderson is definitely an acquired taste, and it was fun watching you react to it, Nick. A very thoughtful song and powerful in its minimalism. All her stuff is so interesting and thought-provoking.

[@JokMetal]

Lene Lovich, “Lucky Number”, Kate Bush, “Them Heavy People”, and this track, had such a profound effect on me, as a 14-15 year male. It wasn’t because they were sexy, but they had something to say! And it was so leftfield! 😍🥰😍🥰😍🥰

[@brucer2152]

Laurie also played with Jarre on his recording "Zoolook".

[@bmac1205]

I knew I heard something similar before from somewhere with that repeated voice sound.

[@brucer2152]

Some Laurie Anderson song suggestions....Anything from her album "Big Science". Also "let x = x" or "Sharky's Day' or "IT tango". and...Oh so many....oh so many...more.

[@triscat]

Love it is the correct answer. Any woman who could bring out the teddy bear in Lou Reed is special.

[@vmax4steve524]

Wasn't Lou Reed supposed to be gay ?

[@triscat]

@ It seems that there was a lot of sexual transgression in the 70’s, but he married 3 women and kind of renounced the bi stuff from his drug days. Much like Bowie.

[@group-music]

A wonderful track and a very talented artist.

[@canonfodder2068]

Definitely Avant-garde. She plays violin and later worked with guitarist Adrian Belew and Peter Gabriel, so she does have SOME tracks that have more familiar sounds. I don't spend a lot of time with her catalog and I haven't listened to her latest album yet, but her song with Gabriel is a good one, Excellent Birds(?) Admittedly, for me, Peter is the main draw on that one. I am a big fan of her installations more than as a musician (she had a big show in museum of modern art in Stockholm last year.) One at MOMA a few years ago, etc.

[@brucer2152]

Adrian Belew played on that whole concert tour. And he was amazing.

[@j.k.1963]

Thanks JK! 😉

[@tkengathegrateful4844]

My right arm hurts right now, and I realized it's because I had the arm of my chair in a death grip for 10 minutes. Even after 40+ years, I have trouble moving or even breathing while listening to this song. It's that powerful.

[@andrewkline5611]

So prescient and profound. Can only imagine the depth of the creative well that made this.

[@turfsniffer]

Love this song. It always transports me back to being a kid.

[@Kyle_heringer]

I love Laurie Anderson

[@benoitdesmarais2948]

Her next album, Mister Heartbreak, was more fleshed out, it featured collaborations with Peter Gabriel on a couple of tracks. He used one on his So album (This Is The Picture) which he adapted. Saw her that year on her Home of the Brave tour, one of the best shows I ever saw.

[@gregall2178]

Never thought I'd see this song reacted to... great pick, JK 🙂

[@bmac1205]

111K !!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!

[@43cbgb]

Seeing her on Wednesday in concert at Manchester, UK

[@brian1nola]

"Smoke Rings" and "Let X=X " are good too, "Language is a Virus" is probably her other well known one. When I was in Jr. High a friend introduced me to her, he showed me her concert movie Home of the Brave which was really cool and very much worth watching.

[@BrianR.]

Love it! Saw her Live in Montreal, it was an amazing and different concert. She has a great track she did with Peter Gabriel and it has a good video, it's called This Is The Picture (Excellent Birds). Well worth a view.

[@rosenfield10]

Laurie Anderson did a song with Peter Gabriel called "This is the Pcture (Excellent Birds)" on Gabriel's LP. "So." Tony Levin's bass line on that version is swell.

[@goytabr]

Hehe, I'm so used to listening to the full "Big Science" album that I expected a sudden segue to a German lady saying "Beispiele paranormaler Tonbandstimmen" ("Examples of paranormal voices on tape", the opening line of "Example #22", the next song in the album). I actually find "Born, Never Asked" the most impactful song in the album, with the most unexpected "plot twist" ever in the lyrics, and it hits you like a punch in the stomach while a very melancholic violin goes on to a marimba-like electronic beat. And who else could put how life is a dangerous thing the way she did in "Walking and Falling"? "Big Science" is not an easy album for sure, but it's absolutely genius and innovative from start to finish. But not all of her work is so hermetic. "Home of the Brave", for example, is much more accessible and musical in a more conventional sense, though it's from a live concert movie (not all album tracks directly from it, though), and the movie is even better (though VERY hard to find these days, I used to have a VHS tape of it, but I think it wasn't even released on DVD; KZbin has an old upload of the full movie, but it's in 360p, and it seems not to be available on any other streaming service). "Smoke Rings", for example, is a lot of fun, an overload of cynicism, "Language Is a Virus" has some spot-on quotes, and I love how she makes fun of herself in "Talk Normal". This is not to say that the album and movie are tame: in "Late Show", for example, she glued a strip of magnetic tape to a violin bow and mounted a tape recorder head onto the violin body, so she could create effects when passing the bow at different speeds and distances near the recorder head (the tape contained a line of her song "Sharkey's Night" recited by none other than William S. Burroughs saying "listen to my heartbeat"; Burroughs also appears in the movie dancing with Laurie). This is just a sample of how experimental she can get! Then there is the surprising "Strange Angels", a total 180º turn for her, a more conventional and also more emotional and sensitive album, in which she puts aside her usual cynicism and irony. And we're so much used to her deep contralto talking voice in most of her songs that it's a surprise to hear that she's a soprano when actually singing, and beautifully. The album is still full of unusual sonic textures, though. And it has a beautiful cover, a black-and-white portrait of Laurie clicked by Robert Mapplethorpe, no less! Mapplethorpe is famous for his explicit erotic work, usually homoerotic, but this obscures the fact that he was also an amazing portrait photographer. My favorite tracks are "My Eyes" and especially "Ramon". Laurie isn't for everyone for sure, but she can be a deep rabbit hole. And she tends to grow on you. She definitely makes you think, and this alone is a precious virtue these days when everybody seems to be attempting to create a crowd of imbeciles.

[@rnrsteev]

I met Laurie in NYC, 1993, nice person.

[@therealtwiggyleaf]

Good to hear you doing a Laurie Anderson song. Her first album was one my favourite of the Eighties. All of my peer group at the time had at least a cassette copy of "Big Science" and it was a firm favourite among many of us. If you try another song, any song from Big Science is cool. Songs from Mr Heartbreak are also cool. She had some great live shows in the Eighties, and you may enjoy watching some of those as well. I'd be interested to see you and Lex watch one together. Perhaps try "Let X = X" from her debut album. 😎

[@brian1nola]

Oh wow, I never even considered someone doing a reaction to O Superman. Interesting.

[@bmac1205]

Thanks for requesting this reaction @JKonstage

[@JKonstage]

You’re welcome, BMac!

[@ianlejeune6012]

First found and became convinced by her genius when I heard 'Home of the Brave' live LP…

[@scottstevens7639]

I was a college radio DJ when this came out and we played the crap out of the ‘Big Science’ album, so yes, it was an underground hit. Believe it or not, she performed this live on The Late Show with David Letterman. There was a fair amount of electronics involved. Cutting edge stuff for its time.

[@user-Chris.Alger11]

Loved it!! Music has such an evocative effect. This immediately transported me back to my youth. On first hearing it back then, I was blown away. So hypnotic, so ethereal. Great to hear it again. ; )

[@stuarthastie6374]

The clone of Laurie Anderson was on PBS in the 90s, great use of camera distortion. I have all her cassettes up until Strange Angles. Always hard to find hair recordings. You are probably the first reactor on KZbin. Thank you nick and JK.

[@debrabrabenec3731]

Kudos to JK for sponsoring this great reaction! A friend of a friend saw her at New Music America 1980 in Minneapolis and somehow got a tape of her whole performance. I ended up with a copy of it, with "O Superman" added at the end. I was just so intrigued with her, as I was always looking for something interesting and different to listen to. I later saw her movie Home of the Brave, saw a live performance, and have her first two albums, as well as the "O Superman" single. A true original indeed! Great reaction, Nick! I wonder what Alexia will think. Maybe you or she can tell us in the comments! 🎵❤️🎵 Debbie

[@colin4796]

I remember me buying this album and my parents definitely hating it.😄

[@davidcardoso3525]

I ran into this in my Freshmen English composition class. We were asked to analyze the lyrics. This album is very minimalistic.

[@christopherhuot2826]

My art teacher turned me on to her, she's amazing 👏 😊

[@scottanderson8420]

Wow nice request JK. This is art school Nirvana. Takes me back to grad school days. She is the complete package as a multi media, performance artist who also plays music. A great request for the channel. So happy to see your subscriptions rising on N&L. And still diversifying as you grow. I dig the Holdsworth t shirt especially that color.

[@lawrencekelli]

When this song came out I was 12..I didn't get it,But my mum loved it! she would play it often growing up and my sister and I would scream NOOOOO! But then when I got older I started listening to Craftwork and Underground Resistance...early tecno..I started to get it. Know I love it and play it often even more so now my mum has past away ..I play it for her. ''Language is a virus'' is a fantastic song of her's you must listen too!!!

[@M_J_Hammer]

I love it because it is so different and I'm not the biggest fan of electronica. She duets with Peter Gabriel on 'This is the picture (excellent birds)' from his 'So' Album. Cheers

[@jvvoid]

Even as a novice to music genres, I was intrigued and responsive to this as a 10YO when I first heard it. To hear it again now many years later it still draws me in.

[@robgrano6814]

When this came out I was in college and I bought the 12" single. I always thought it was fascinating how at a certain point you stop consciously hearing the 'ha-ha-ha' as words and it registers as just a pulse. Anyways, I've always thought this track was genius. Speaking of Kraftwerk, this month marks the 50th anniversary of the release of "Autobahn"

[@midgenobby]

Mesmerising....isn't music wonderful...it divides and also brings together our musical tastes...we may not like or love...that's the beauty of songs and artists. 😊

[@heinruh9788]

Masterpiece

[@bluehuerue6893]

I really like the use of real, ''acoustic'' flute and saxophone (played by Perry Hoberman) among all the synthetics/keyboards

[@Alix777.]

Thsi song is so unique. It's very cold and robotic but it makes me emotional for some reason.

[@robt7199]

As noted, a sonic piece of art to be experienced.

[@plasticsurgerydisaster6180]

This song is really something.

[@rayname908]

I saw Laurie Anderson & Lou Reed at a live show and Lou yelled at the waitress. Antony (Anoni) & the Johnsons were covering "Candy Says" (hoping for Lou to approve it for release, which he did not but they recorded a live version together) I don't know what Laurie saw in him. Her video "Language Is A Virus" should have need a hit. O Superman was a big hit single in England 🖐 hi mom

[@tonyetchells6051]

Please be the first to do her amazing track Blue Lagoon, it's so hypnotic and the lyrics are amazing!

[@duvadjidgo9625]

I am a music fan and i like so much weird stuff. I like this and, although I cannot say it this is my favourite, it is just so good. Maybe the best ever. Better than I can ever appreciate, though I do.....do you know what I mean, 'cause I don't

[@NicknLex]

Honestly… No idea!! 🤷 😂

[@johnmaynardable]

Love Laurie.

[@psprog]

I thought this was great - was quite a big hit here in the UK at the time. I remember listening to it on a walkman (orange sponge ear pads) my dad had when I was little. I've always loved unusual and electronic music like this..

[@BernardHodgson]

Always loved it, but it divided opinion in my family. Still does.

[@JohnGeorgeHill]

When you first hear something and it stops you in your tracks. You pull your car over and just listen and focus. At least that was my experience upon first hearing this.This eerily predated 9/11 with the phrase, "smoking or not smoking" planes. The song is so much more, but I will always recall that nightmare. Like she knew of our future inevitable demise.

[@rogerreed905]

Kraftwerk . . ." Autobahn " Hazel O'Connor . . . "Eighth Day . . . Toya Wilcox . "Its a Mystery " . . All worth checking out . .

[@group-music]

It's spelled Kraftwerk btw.

[@rogerreed905]

@group-music thanks . .il alter it . . Cheers 🍻

[@jamespasifull3424]

I can't listen to this for long because it makes me nauseated!! (but in a good way!!) It's an amazing piece of work, & I loved it from the first hearing, waaay back in the very early 80's, but I can only take it in short bursts, it affects me physically so much!!

[@richarddobson815]

This certainly is a one of a kind hit! I really like it but can only hear it once in a while. I get the Kraftwerk connection Nick, but even they are more accessible. It would be lovely to do the side long Autobahn track.

[@14gilbertst]

Check out the wonderful interviews of Lou and Laurie on Charlie Rose. There’s a bit of prophecy here. After 9-11, the voicemails….and Here Come the Planes!

[@14gilbertst]

Also, I swear, every time I hear this song, it sounds different or, sections seem new, like, I don’t remember this part!? lol

[@johnp.weiksnar6861]

Nick, you really have to react to Einstein on the Beach by Philip Glass. I initially got to know Laurie Anderson through her visual art, but then realized that she seems to have borrowed quite a bit from that opera. . . .

[@garybennett7835]

Dame where did I put this album ?

[@stephencaruso760]

I liked Kraftwerk in the 70's and I like new stuff- this was ok JK - -I usually love JK's requests but this one did not resonate so much but she did have talent and it is appreciated - the backing vocal sounded more like a busy signal to me

[@johngoodison3160]

Listen to some budgie a Welsh band

[@MrDiddyDee]

There are only a handful of songs I absolutely hate and have to turn off when they're on the radio and this is definitely top of my hate list. That monotonous pulsing backing is like having a migraine.

[@14gilbertst]

Mmmmm

[@pablomazzeo8540]

i respect Quincy Jones but i don t like much his music thats why i don t put a like

[@vmax4steve524]

The story of The Emperors New Clothes come to mind, bloody awful when Dave Lee Travis had it for his record of the week on radio 1 and it became a hit single in the UK and just as awful today, makes my teeth itch listening to it. The only thing this song lacks to make it the single most annoying noise ever recorded is backing vocals from Yoko Ono 😛

[@barriehull7076]

Retune or go for a walk, simples.

[@MarinaE-mo2wy]

Mom, is the American military complex. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Superman