Laura Phillips "Laurie" Anderson (b. June 5, 1947) is an American experimental performance artist and musician who plays violin and keyboards and sings in a variety of experimental music and art rock styles. Initially trained as a sculptor, Anderson did her first performance-art piece in the late 1960s. Throughout the 1970s, Anderson did a variety of different performance-art activities. She became widely known outside the art world in 1981 when her single "O Superman" reached number two on the UK pop charts. She also starred in and directed the 1986 concert film Home of the Brave.
Anderson has invented several devices that she has used in her recordings and performance art shows. 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. In the late 1990s, she developed a talking stick, a six-foot-long batonlike MIDI controller that can access and replicate different sounds.
On April 12, 2008, Anderson married longtime companion Lou Reed in a private ceremony in Boulder, Colorado.
***
Big Science is the 1982 debut album by avant-garde artist Laurie Anderson and the first of a 7-album deal she signed with Warner Bros. Records. It is best known for the 8-minute epic "O Superman", which reached #2 in the UK. The album is minimalist and monochrome in sound, and like a great deal of Anderson's work is based largely on spoken word. It is a selection of highlights from her eight-hour production, United States Live, which was itself released as a 4-LP box set and book in 1984. United States Live was originally a performance piece, in which music was only one element. After Big Science music played a larger role in Anderson's work.[1]
Although considered her debut album, Anderson had previously recorded one side of a 2-LP set titled You're the Guy I Want To Share My Money With, a collaboration released on Giorno Poetry Systems with William S. Burroughs and John Giorno. She had also contributed two pieces to a 1977 compilation of electronic music.
A newly remastered version of the album was released on June 18, 2007 by Nonesuch/Elektra Records with new liner notes, and, in the data portion of the CD, the bonus track "Walk the Dog" (B-Side of the original "O Superman" single) and the "O Superman" video.
The album has been sampled in a number of hip hop songs.
All tracks by Laurie Anderson.
"From the Air" – 4:29
"Big Science" – 6:14
"Sweaters" – 2:18
"Walking & Falling" – 2:10
"Born, Never Asked" – 4:56
"O Superman (For Massenet)" – 8:21
"Example #22" – 2:59
"Let X=X/It Tango" – 6:51 ("Let X=X" – 3:51; "It Tango" – 3:01)
[edit]Personnel
Laurie Anderson – vocals, vocoder, farfisa organ, percussion, Oberheim OB-Xa, sticks, violins, electronics, keyboards, handclaps, whistling, marimba
Roma Baran – farfisa bass, glass harmonica, sticks, handclaps, casiotone, accordion, whistling
Perry Hoberman – bottles and sticks, handclaps, flute, sax, piccolo, backing vocals
Bill Obrecht – alto sax
Peter Gordon – clarinet, tenor sax
David Van Tieghem – drums, rototoms, timpani, marimba, percussion
[edit]Additional personnel
Rufus Harley – bagpipes on 3
Chuck Fisher – alto sax on 7, tenor sax on 7
Richard Cohen – b-flat clarinet on 7, e-flat clarinet on 7, bass clarinet on 7, bassoon on 7, bari sax on 7
Leanne Ungar – backing vocals on 7
George Lewis – trombones
[8947 Santana / 8947 Laurie Anderson / 8947 John]