Laurie Anderson

I'd put the Life On A String album up as exhibit number one of her worthiness of inclusion.  It's a little hoakey in parts, yet many brilliant and beautiful moments in it as well.

My favorite parts, the violn/cello/bass track Here With You that precedes Slip Away and of course Slip Away, itself:
" What's this? A little dust in my eye
Well I'm not the type to cry
It's four a.m. I'm standing by the bed where you lie
Sleeping the sleep of the newborn
I put [my] finger to your lips. Warm air.
Five a.m. You lift your hand and open it.
Then you slipped away. You slipped away.
Oh death, that creep, that crooked jerk...
He comes, he comes walking. He comes sneaking
Down that long irreversible hallway
Grabs you in your sleep

I walk outside to the parking lot.
Bright coins of water on the sidewalk.
Big white building where your body lies
Stands in the middle of the fields. Icy air.
And after all the shocks the way the heart unlocks
And ooo we slip away. We slip away.

I'm thinking about the way that lost things always come back
Looking like something else
A fishing pole, a shoe, an old shirt, a lucky day
Ooo then they slip away into the remains of the day
Ooo they slip away. They slip away.

I'm thinking how you taught me how to win
And how to loose
And how to fight the crippling blues that I was born with
Bad dreams and nightmares
Ooo they slip away. Ooo they slip away into the remains of the day.

I know that sometime I'll stop looking for you.
Stop seeing your face every day
Bad dreams and nightmares and big bad wolves

...

You told me you had no idea how to die but I saw
The way the light left your eyes
And after all the shocks the way the heart unlocks
And ooo then you slipped away. You slipped away."

The song Life On A String is interesting too:
".. Some people know exactly where they're going
The pilgrims to Mecca
The climbers to the mountaintop
But me, I'm just looking
For just a single moment
So I can slip through time..."

Edited by Slartibartfast - July 26 2008 at 01:44

Easy Money wrote: Slartibartfast wrote: "O lovely pussy! Pussy my love!<pre ="lyric">What a wonderful pussy you are."Laurie AndersonIt's really in the lyrics... Nice try Slarti, but my opinion is unchanged, ha ha. Didn't Laurie steal those lines from that Madonna sex book. Apparently Laurie tried to get Don Van Vleit (Beefheart) to guest on one of her records, but he turned her down saying something about beware of women with violins. I don't know what he meant, but I always thought it sounded funny.

I might be wrong, but I think Beautiful Pea Green Boat from Bright Red predated Madonna's book.  Never heard about the Beefheart thingy.  Was that before or after William Burroughs?

By the way fellow Anderson fans, if you look at the collage in my signature, towards the middle, at the top middle of  the shelving unit at the bottom, is my box set of United States Live!


Edited by Slartibartfast - July 26 2008 at 01:42

You have a point there Ivan.

ziggystardust360 wrote:   . She is quite experimental.

Ivan_Melgar_M wrote: As usual I'll be the devil's advocate.   I bought Live at Town Hall NYC with great expectations, and found nothing remootely related with Prog, yes she's far beyond most mainstream artists, yes her music is weird (Mostly because the strange arrangements) but I find a very basic and simple structure.   Later bought "Home of the Brave" and my impression was reinforced. simple music with weird ornaments, nothing else.   I believe it's a mistake to add every weird artist just because they are weird.   Iván

As usual I'll be the devil's advocate.

http://www.laurieanderson.com/library/  

I'll help

Great Idea,hopefully they put her in.

I'm not letting this go unnoticed,the lady belongs in PA,I've never seen anyone more experimental than Laurie Anderson.