Laura Phillips Anderson was born June 5, 1947, in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, United States. She attended Mills College in California, and eventually graduated from Barnard College magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, studying art history. In 1972, she obtained an MFA in sculpture from Columbia University.
She performed in New York through the 1970s. Two early pieces, "New York Social Life" and "Time to Go," were included in the 1977 compilation New Music for Electronic and Recorded Media, along with works by Pauline Oliveros and others.
She became more widely known in 1982 with the single "O Superman," originally released in a limited quantity by One Ten Records; a sudden influx of orders from the U.K. (prompted by British DJ John Peel playing the record) led to Anderson signing with the Warner Brothers label, which re-released the single. "O Superman" reached number two on the national pop charts in Britain.
"O Superman" was part of a larger stage work entitled United States and was included on her following album, Big Science. Her more recent stage work includes a multimedia presentation inspired by Moby Dick. She starred in and directed the 1986 concert film, Home of the Brave, and also composed the soundtracks for the Spalding Gray films Swimming to Cambodia and Monster in a Box. All of Anderson's albums from the 1980s sold very well despite being labeled "avant garde". Her varied career has even included voice-acting in the animated film The Rugrats Movie. In 1994 she created a CD-ROM entitled Puppet Motel.
She wrote a supplemental article on the cultural character of New York City for the Encyclopædia Britannica and in the late 1980s hosted the PBS series, Alive from Off Center, for which she produced the short film, What You Mean We?.
One of the central themes in Anderson's work is exploring the effects of technology on human interrelationships and communication.
Anderson has collaborated with William Burroughs, Mitchell Froom, Arto Lindsay, Peter Gabriel, Perry Hoberman, David Sylvian, Jean Michel Jarre, Hector Zazou, Nona Hendryx, David Van Tieghem, and husband Lou Reed. She also worked with comedian Andy Kaufman in the late 1970s (with a romantic involvement hinted at in some of her spoken word performances about him).
Anderson, who rarely revisits older work (though themes and lyrics occasionally reappear) went on tour performing a selection of her best-known musical pieces in 2001. One of these performances was recorded in New York City only a week after the September 11, 2001 attacks, and included a performance of "O Superman". This concert was released in early 2002 as the double CD, Live in New York, which remains her most recent album release.
In 2003, Anderson became NASA's first and so far only artist-in-residence, which inspired her most recent performance piece, The End of the Moon.
Rumors emerged of a possible new album release in the fall of 2004, but this turned out to be false as Anderson seems too busy mounting a succession of themed shows, as well as composing a piece for Expo 2005 in Japan.
In February 2010, Laurie Anderson premiered a new theatrical work, entitled Delusion, at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games. This piece was commissioned by the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad and the Barbican Centre, London.
In May/June 2010, Anderson curated the Vivid Sydney festival in Sydney, Australia together with Lou Reed
In late June 2010, with the production assistance of husband Lou Reed, as well as Roma Baran. Laurie Anderson released her first full length studio album in near a decade with that of: "Homeland" on Nonesuch Records. Receiving much critical acclaim, "Homeland" has been lauded by many as Anderson's crowning auditory achievement. A conglomerated assimilation of her many persona's, characters and decades work exploring and experimenting in a multitude of artistic mediums.
Also featured on the "Homeland" album are a number of famed collaborators, including John Zorn (saxophone on tracks 8 & 11), Kieran Hebden of "Four Tet" fame (keyboards on track 5), Antony Hegarty (vocals on track 4), Husband Lou Reed himself on some guitar, and Tuvan throat singers. At 66 minutes, it is also Anderson's longest studio album.
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Poison
Laurie Anderson Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
D on the light. you left our bed. then you moved downstairs to live with her instead. yeah just one floor and a shout away, I guess I should have moved but I decided to stay. did I drink some po
That I don't remember now? and every night I open all the windows I let a cold dark wind blow through. I play loud organ music and I talk to myself and dream of you. uh oh! I hear voices coming
Rough the pipes through all the springs in my bed and up through the lights the volume goes up then it drops back down I can hear the two of you playing records moving furniture and fooling arou
Id I drink some poison that I don't remember now? is there blood on my hands/ no, my hands are clean. did I do something in another lifetime that was really really mean? yeah, I'm hearing voices
I losing my mind? think I'm g
Oing craz, I gotta get out. I run into the street and I start to shout get ou of my way! get out! get out! did I drink some poison that I don't remember now? is there blood on my hands? did I do
Thing in another lifetime that was really really mean? a small bullet, a piece of glass and your heart just grows around it.
The lyrics to Laurie Anderson's song Poison depict a jarring and confusing state of mind. The singer describes a night where everything seems wrong - the moon is gone, the air is thin, and a fight with a loved one leads to abandonment. The singer mentions feeling like they may have consumed poison, though they cannot recall doing so. They describe engaging in strange behaviors such as opening all the windows, playing loud organ music, and talking to themselves while dreaming of their lost love. Eventually, the confusion crescendos as the voices of the partner and their new lover can be heard through the pipes, culminating in the singer shouting in the street.
The lyrics are hauntingly ambiguous, leaving the listener uncertain about what exactly is happening. It's possible that the singer is experiencing psychosis, consumed by the loss of their partner and the feeling that they've done something wrong. Alternatively, the mention of poison, blood on hands, and wrongdoing in another lifetime could hint at something supernatural or karmic. Regardless of the interpretation, the lyrics paint a bleak and disorienting picture.
Line by Line Meaning
It was one of those black cat nights the moon had gone out and the air was thin it was the kind of night that the cat would drag in.
The singer describes a dark and gloomy night that breeds trouble.
I'll never forget it, we had a fight. then you turned around D on the light. you left our bed. then you moved downstairs to live with her instead. yeah just one floor and a shout away, I guess I should have moved but I decided to stay.
The singer recalls a fight they had with their partner who ultimately left them to live with someone else, yet the singer chose to stay in the same place.
did I drink some po That I don't remember now? and every night I open all the windows I let a cold dark wind blow through. I play loud organ music and I talk to myself and dream of you.
The singer questions whether they consumed poison, and describes their nightly habits of opening windows and listening to music while reminiscing about their lost partner.
uh oh! I hear voices coming Rough the pipes through all the springs in my bed and up through the lights the volume goes up then it drops back down I can hear the two of you playing records moving furniture and fooling arou
The artist hears sounds that they believe are their partner and their new lover fooling around, even though it's only in their head.
Id I drink some poison that I don't remember now? is there blood on my hands/ no, my hands are clean. did I do something in another lifetime that was really really mean? yeah, I'm hearing voices
The artist continues to wonder if they drank poison and ponders if they are responsible for wrongdoings. They also express their fear of losing their sanity.
I losing my mind? think I'm g Oing craz, I gotta get out. I run into the street and I start to shout get ou of my way! get out! get out! did I drink some poison that I don't remember now? is there blood on my hands? did I do
The singer questions their own sanity again and feels they need to escape their current situation, leading them to run out into the street and shout.
Thing in another lifetime that was really really mean? a small bullet, a piece of glass and your heart just grows around it.
The singer ponders if their past life has caused them to deserve this suffering, referencing a metaphorical wound that has grown inside their heart.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: Brian Peter George Eno, Laurie Anderson, Brian Eno
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind