Laurie Anderson - Big Science

No. Laurie Anderson actually penned her apocalyptic political parable "O Superman" back in 1981. That an answering machine message inspired by 19th century French composer Jules Massenet's "O Souverain", Napoleon's Waterloo, and America's first Iran nightmare actually charted at #2 in the UK at the time is still astonishing.

A highlights package of her 270-minute performance-art pop opera, United States, Big Science remains a creepy, yet curiously consolatory critique of the socio-political paranoia lurking beneath the American Dream. Sure, the squirting saxophone and tribal percussion of "From the Air", and the absurdly funky techno-rock hybrid of "Example #22" channel the cyber electro Pop Art strategies of say, Brian Eno and Kraftwerk into disquieting future-ambient implosions.

Yet, like her heroes Yoko Ono and William Burroughs, Anderson also isn't averse to having a laugh – her stream of consciousness soundbites on "Walking & Falling" and "Let X=X" wear a cosmically blank shrug that's almost perversely funny.

To celebrate the album's 25th anniversary, a remastered version featuring brand new liner notes, a bonus track, "Walk the Dog" (the B-Side of the original "O Superman" single), as well as the "O Superman" video was released on 18 June 2007 by Nonesuch/Elektra Records.

 Watch "O Superman"



Science fact
The album peaked at # 29 on the UK Top 20 in 1982. And Stateside? 124.
Several undeground hip-hop artists have found Big Science a source of inspiration. Mr. Lif sampled "From the Air" in his post-9/11 song "Home of the Brave" off his Emergency Rations EP. Cannibal Ox's "Raspberry Fields" boosts a few beats from "Sweaters." cLOUDDEAD's "This about the City" contains a sample from the song "Big Science." And Cut Chemist sliced and diced some strings and things from "O Superman" into his song "Spat."
"Richard Pryor she ain't" was the 'Dean of Rock Critics', Robert Christgau's review summation.