Laurie Anderson "Big Science" poll

I wasn't sure whether to combine the last two tracks or not. We can combine their totals if needed.

Voting "From the Air" for being really terrifying.

i finally started listening to this earlier this year and got into it in a big way. i had heard and appreciated o superman before, of course, but the title track was kind of the gateway drug to the rest of the album, so i voted for that.

Ooo coo coo. Golden cities. Golden towns.
Golden cities. Golden towns.
And long cars in long lines and great big signs
and they all say: Hallelujah. Yodellayheehoo.
Every man for himself. Ooo coo coo.
Golden cities. Golden towns. Thanks for the ride.

Big Science. Hallelujah.. Yodellayheehoo.

awesome, amazing album. can't see beyond o superman though

ooh, very very hard to choose

Don't forget your mittens

bear in mind that i hold o superman to be amongst the greatest pieces of music ever made

One of my favorite albums. I used to not like "Sweaters" but I can even get down with that one these days.

"From the Air" is one of the greatest opening songs ever.

If I had combined Let X=X and It Tango I probably would have had to vote for that.

Voted "Let X=X" but then remembered

Hey, Professor
Could you turn out the lights?
Let's roll the film

From The Air IS one of the greatest openers ever too, yeah, and the last two are sensational as well

The letter at the end of let x=x runs thru my head all the time

Like, I prefer "From the Air" to "O Superman."

Every track on this rules

well yeah

polling it is kinda harsh but any celebration rly

was sind paranormaler tonbandstimmen?

"Superman" still probly the finest but it's all the finest, might've voted for the last 2 if conjoined, tbh mostly i listen to United States Live now tho maybe the versions on Big Science are better but there is much more of USL to revel in

A while back someone posted a clip, now taken down I think, of some 80's public access music video show with these two teenagers who were SUPER EXCITED about playing "Let X=X," and it was one of the most adorable things I'd ever seen. So I'll vote for that.

i got this postcard
and it read
it said
dear amigo
dear partner
listen uh i just wanna say thanks
so thanks

"From the Air" is one of the greatest opening songs ever.

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, October 10, 2014 8:59 AM (1 hour ago)

If I had combined Let X=X and It Tango I probably would have had to vote for that.

Agreed! I voted the former anyway.

Is it just me or does anyone else get an elementary school teacher vibe from this album? Maybe it's just her voice or the storybook-like, matter-of-fact quality in many of the lyrics but I feel like it's a librarian singing to me or something.

my teachers used to love the way I held my pens and pencils

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

God I really couldn't choose a track. This album is perfect.
(cruel dad anecdote, I played my 8 and 12 year old daughters "From the Air" and made them listen to the lyrics. Wide eyed, mildly freaked out daughters.)

I grew up listening to this, even attended a concert in utero (thanks mom!), I think "From the Air" was my favorite song from age 8-12

... That being said, I just celebrated a birthday, so it's gotta be "Born Never Asked"

your eyes--
it's a day's work
to look into them.
your eyes--
it's a day's work
just
looking into them.

i guess "from the air" is scary, i guess plane crashes are scary, but i've always gotten zero badvibes from it (this is true for me of laurie in general even tho she is so frequently talking about dystopia and catastrophe). was standing once alone on a rainy seattle streetcorner at 4 AM waiting for a bus to catch a train and thinking about jumping off a bridge and this part (quoted above, extended here) cheered me up so much let's call it saving my life:

captain says: put your hands on your head
put your hands on your hips
(heh.)
this is your captain.
we are going down.
we are all going down
together.
and i said, uh-oh.
this is gonna be some day...
stand by.

think of the inflection of the last two words in basically every emergency now. anyway voted for title track.

That must've been a difficult listening hour.

so sit bolt upright in that straight-backed chair. button that top button. and get set for some difficult music.

Difficult listening hour is a Laurie Anderson song!

Xp that one

should have ballot polled this album

I would participate in a laurie anderson ballot poll

only got this, bright red and tightrope :(

latter two are cool but they're not monumental like this

where would one head from BS

uh, strange angels even. thought tightrope was the title track. or is it? idk

What's the name of the one with "Sharkey's Day"... Mr. Heartbreak, that's the one. Groovy stuff.

love sharkey's day/night and "blue lagoon" off mr. heartbreak. some great stories on the ugly one with the jewels, partic the title track and the live "same time tomorrow" closer, which reuses chunks from big red (when my father died they put him in the ground. when my father died it was like a whole library had burned down.) but ties them together into something more crushing imo. as a whole those albums are a lot harder to listen to than big science tho.

homeland is prob major. "only an expert" is way preach-laurie and iirc feat.s lou reed guitar squalls.

also united states live is a whole universe, big science is the prettier (better) sampler tray.

"only an expert" is great, I like how it starts off whimsical and gradually reveals its complete pissed-offness

my favourite track off homeland is "another day in america" which for some reason isn't on the spotify edition of the album

homeland also has

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

a tiny... clock.

xp!

xp was just about to say, imago you should absolutely listen to united states

haha ok we're on the same page

and you know the reason i really love the stars?
it's that we cannot hurt them.
we can't burn them, or melt them,
or make them oooooooooooooverflow.
we can't flood them
or burn them up
or turn them out.
but we are reaching for them.
we are reaching for them.

;_;

Also, you certainly might enjoy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osHBA6YAHAo

ok I'll give those three albums a spin over the next few days

speedballs, accidents and hesitations...

I chose the fucking hit.

I'll fucking hit you in a minute

not really

Meanie.

This record meant the world to me at 14 and still does at 46.

To this day, when I meet a German-speaker, I'm "oh, I know a little German... Beispiele paranormale Tonbandstimmen."

Almost impossible to choose. Sod it, Sweaters.

where would one head from BS

US Live
Mr. Heartbreak
Homeland
Ugly One
Bright Red

in that order imo

I'm a big fan of "Langue D'Amour" off Mr. Heartbreak.

And this is not a story my people tell.
It is something I know myself.
And when I do my job, I am thinking about these things.
Because when I do my job, that is what I think about.

As I think dlh was saying upthread, there's something tremendously comforting about listening to her, even when the subject matter is dark/unnerving/tragic. I don't think it's just the teacher-voice, it's something like: this person has put a lot of consideration into what she is doing, she is telling me these stories for a reason, and she has absolute faith that I will get something worthwhile out of them. There's this consistent feeling of having a really reliable and experienced person in your corner. I don't know, maybe this just means she's the platonic ideal of a teacher.

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

when I am feeling low I put on "It Was Up in the Mountains" from United States Live Part 3

I couldn't choose in this one. Same thing happened on the Remain in Light poll.

God I love how she takes you out of yourself, but so gently you don't realise how far out you go.

I'm already down for ballot polls on Bjork and Badu, otherwise I'd volunteer for a Laurie Anderson one.

No votes for "Walking And Falling"? Ah well, the US Live version is far superior anyway.

This is one of those albums that I keep meaning to eventually get around to listening to. 'O Superman' is brilliant, of course.

got the time?

it goes
that's the way it goes
it goes that way

i was living out in west hollywood
when the hollywood strangler was strangling women.
every night
there was a panel discussion on tv about the strangler:
speculations about his habits,
his motives,
his methods.
one thing was clear about him:
he only strangled women when they were alone.
(or with other women.)
and the panel members would always end the show by saying:
now for all you women.
listen.
don't go outside without a man.
don't walk out to your car.
don't even take the garbage out by yourself.
always go with a man.
then, one of the eyewitnesses
identified a policeman as one of the suspects.
the next night,
the chief of police was on the panel.
and he said:
now for all you women.
whatever happens,
do not stop for a police officer.
stay in your car.
if a police officer tries to stop you, do not stop.
keep driving.
and under no circumstances
should you get out of your car.
for a few weeks
half the traffic in l.a.
was doing twice
the speed limit.

comic timing = perfecto

modey kind of a guy

the canadians took this very seriously

banging those little... gavels they've all got

how would they be received?

first he tells you what will happen and then
it actually happens

you know,
to be really safe,
you should always carry a bomb
when you get on an airplane.
because the chances of there being a bomb on a plane
are pretty low.
but the chances of there being two bombs
are almost miniscule.

modey kind of a guy

so good

so this 1980 radio performance of united states that came out the other month

http://www.clear-spot.nl/item/420550/anderson_laurie_walk_the_dog_live.html

it's awesome

Track list: 1 . INTRO 2 . SAY HELLO 3 . WALK THE DOG 4 . VIOLIN SOLO 5 . CLOSED CIRCUITS 6 . FOR A LARGE & CHANGING ROOM 7 . THE LANGUAGE OF THE FUTURE 8. CARTOON SONG 9 . WE ARE TAPPING YOUR LINE 10 . SWEATERS 11 . IT WAS UP IN THE MOUNTAINS 12 . FRAMES FOR THE PICTURES 13 . BEGINNING ITALIAN 14 . UNTITLED INSTRUMENTAL 15 . DOG SHOW / LOOKING FOR YOU 16 . NINA SIMONE (?) 17 . DEMOCRATIC WAY 18 . THREE SONGS FOR PAPER, FILM & VIDEO 19 . I CAN DRAW YOU SO THAT YOU HAVE NO EARS 20. WALKING AND FALLING / ENGLISH 21 . I DREAMED I HAD TO TAKE A TEST 22. SAX SOLO 23. FOR A LARGE & CHANGING ROOM (REPRISE) 24. OUTRO

that was floating around as a torrent for a while, afaik it is the only other recording of the US Live show

i assume that's a "grey area" bootleg of some kind? looks goooood though.

Yeah I saw that pop up on Amazon the other day, it's def not sanctioned

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/18/movies/laurie-anderson-is-telling-stories-hers-and-ours.html?_r=0

Mr. Reed hovers in the background of the two works Ms. Anderson has brought to New York City this month: the film “Heart of a Dog,” opening Wednesday, Oct. 21, and an installation work, “Habeas Corpus,” at the Park Avenue Armory on Oct. 2-4. In “Heart of a Dog,” Ms. Anderson quotes David Foster Wallace: “Every love story is a ghost story.”

Along with her own work, she has a legacy to tend: 800 hours of Mr. Reed’s old recordings, which she wants to make available online, as well as unpublished plays and photographs.

(...also posted a few minutes ago in the Lou Reed thread, I see now.)

was sind paranormaler tonbandstimmen?

― lool at the herrlich (wins), Friday, 10 October 2014 17:10 (two years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Paranormal tape voices?

thx

Julia Heyward was better

One of the few polls I've seen on here where #1 and #2 seem pretty OTM.

ranking in general probably mirrors my own although I might have the title track higher

If I had to keep one Anderson track it might be "the dream before" from strange angels, the Benjamin paraphrase with the male vocal coming in is just... every time