Laurie Anderson is an experimental performance artist, visual artist and mu… Read Full Bio ↴Laurie Anderson is an experimental performance artist, visual artist and musician. Regardless of the medium, a common characteristic of all her work seems to be the act of storytelling.

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.

Sites: Wikipedia

The End Of The World
Laurie Anderson Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

I remember where I came from There were burning buildings and a fiery red sea I remember all my lovers I remember how they held me. World without end remember me. East. The edge of the world. West. Those who came before me. When my father died we put him in the ground. When my father died it was like a whole library Had burned down. World without end remember me.

Overall Meaning

Laurie Anderson's "World Without End" is a poignant exploration of the nature of memory, loss, and the transitory nature of existence. The lyrics speak of the singer looking back on her life, remembering where she came from, including the burning buildings and fiery sea of her past, and reflecting on the lovers who held her through it all. The refrain "World without end, remember me" is a plea to the universe, an acknowledgment of the ephemeral nature of life and the desire for some kind of permanence beyond it.

The song continues with a description of the world, both east and west, and those who came before. The mention of the father's death reflects the impact of loss on the singer's life, with the imagery of a library burning down serving as a metaphor for the wealth of knowledge, memories and experiences that a person carries with them, which is lost forever when they die.

Line by Line Meaning

I remember where I came from
I recall my place of origin

There were burning buildings and a fiery red sea
It was a place of turmoil and destruction

I remember all my lovers
I recall all my past romantic partners

I remember how they held me
I remember the way they embraced me

World without end remember me
May I be remembered for eternity

East. The edge of the world.
Referring to the farthest point to the east, at the edge of the world

West. Those who came before me.
Referring to the ancestors who came before her, in the west

When my father died we put him in the ground.
When my father passed away, we buried him in the soil

When my father died it was like a whole library had burned down.
My father's passing felt like a significant loss of knowledge and wisdom

World without end remember me.
May I be remembered for all time

Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: LAURIE ANDERSON

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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Most interesting comment from YouTube:

negresky

7y↑3

— Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome back to London Laurie Anderson.
Ooooaaaah!
Ooooaaaah!

Hi. This evening I’ll be reading from a book I just finished and since a lot of it is about the future, I’m going to start more or less on the last page, and tell you about my grandmother. Now she was a Southern Baptist Holy Roller and she had a very clear idea about the future, and of how the world would end.

— In fire.

In fire.

— Like in Revelations.

Like in Revelations.

And when I was ten my grandmother told me the world would end in a year. So I spent the whole year praying and reading the Bible and alienating all my friends and relatives. And finally the big day came. And absolutely nothing happened. Just another day.

Ooooaaaah!

Now my grandmother was a missionary and she had heard that the largest religion in the world was Buddhism. So she decided to go to Japan to convert Buddhists.

— And to inform them about the end of the world.

And to inform them about the end of the world.

And she didn’t speak Japanese. So she tried to convert them with a combination of hand gestures, sign language and hymns, in English.

Ooooaaaah!

The Japanese had absolutely no idea what she was trying to get at. And when she got back to the United States she was still talking about the end of the world. And I remember the day she died. She was very excited. She was like a small bird perched on the edge of her bed near the window in the hospital. Waiting to die. And she was wearing these pink nightgowns and combing her hair so she’d look pretty for the big moment when Christ came to get her.

Ooooaaaah!

And she wasn’t afraid but then, just at the very last minute something happened that changed everything. Because suddenly, at the very last minute she panicked. After a whole life of praying and predicting the end of the world, she panicked. And she panicked because she couldn’t decide whether or not to wear a hat.

Ooooaaaah!

And so when she died she went into the future in a panic with absolutely no idea of what would be next.