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Laurie Anderson (born June 5, 1947) is an American experimental performance artist and musician.

Contents 1 Life and works 2 Discography 2.1 Albums 2.2 Singles 3 Music videos 4 Video release 5 Notes 6 External links 6.1 Listening

Life and works

Anderson was born in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. 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, becoming more popularly known in 1981 with the single "O Superman", which reached number two on the national pop charts in Britain. "O Superman" was part of a larger stage work entitled United States and included on the 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. Her varied career 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^[1] 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, Peter Gabriel, Perry Hoberman, David Sylvian, and long-term romantic partner 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 stirring performance of "O Superman", the lyrics of which poignantly relate to the attacks of 9/11. A number of other songs were similarly resonant (noting that the setlist was the same as before the attacks): "Statue of Liberty", "One Beautiful Evening," and "Love Among the Sailors". 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.

Discography

(with U.S. chart positions)

Albums

• Big Science (1982) #124
• Mister Heartbreak (1984) #60
• United States Live (box set) (1984) #192
• Home of the Brave (soundtrack album) (1986) #145
• Strange Angels (1989) #171
• Bright Red (1994) #195
• The Ugly One with the Jewels (spoken word) (1995)
• Talk Normal (greatest hits) (2000)
• Life on a String (2001)
• Live in New York (2002)

Singles

• "O Superman (For Massenet)" (1981)
• "Big Science" (1981)
• "Sharkey's Day" (1984)
• "Language is a Virus" (1986)
• "Strange Angels" (1989)
• "In Our Sleep" (1994)

Year	Title	Chart positions				Album
		US Hot 100	US Modern Rock	US Mainstream Rock	UK
1981	"O Superman (For Massenet)"	-	-	-	#2	Single
1989	"Babydoll"	-	#7	-	-	Strange Angels

Anderson also recorded a number of limited-release singles in the late 1970s (many issued from the Holly Soloman Gallery), songs from which were included on a number of compilations, including Giorno Poetry Systems' The Nova Convention and You're the Guy I Want to Spend My Money With. Over the years she has also performed on recordings by other musicians such as Peter Gabriel, Lou Reed and Jean-Michel Jarre. She also contributed lyrics to the Philip Glass album Songs for Liquid Days, portrayed Mary Todd Lincoln (wife of Abraham Lincoln) for a recording of an opera by Robert Wilson, and also contributed a spoken word piece to a tribute album in honor of John Cage.

Music videos

Formal music videos have been produced of:

• "O Superman"
• "Sharky's Day"
• "Language is a Virus" (from Home of the Brave)
• "Beautiful Red Dress"

In addition, in lieu of making another music video for her Strange Angels album, Anderson taped a series of 1-2 minute "Personal Service Announcements" in which she spoke about issues such as the U.S. national debt and the arts scene. Some of the music used in these productions came from her soundtrack to Swimming to Cambodia.

In 1990, Warner Reprise Video released Laurie Anderson: Collected Videos which contained her four music videos and several of the PSAs, plus excerpts from What You Mean We?, Home of the Brave, Empty Places, and her introductions to Alive from Off-Center.

Video release

• Laurie Anderson: Collected Videos (1990) compiles the four music videos Anderson had

Notes

• ^  "Encyclopaedia Anderson", The New Yorker, July 16, 2001

External links

• LaurieAnderson.com
• Laurie Anderson FAQ
• Discography to 2002
• IMDb
• Eclectic Laurie Anderson visits Ames
• Artist's page in Artfacts.Net Laurie Anderson in the contemporary art world.
• Sound Zero: Laurie Anderson
• The Mathematics of Longing A blog entry that features a detailed description/review of Laurie Anderson's The End of the Moon.
• Anderson in August: Shedding A Little Light On The Melancholy An academic digital presentation examining Laurie Anderson's 1974 Light In August.

Listening

• NewMusicJukeBox.org: Laurie Anderson

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