OK. How many readers know of this artist? I’m thinking not many, which is almost too bad.
Me likey Laurie.
Besides, this is my blog. I’m issuing orders in here. No gardening today. Take a few and relax with this odd bird.
She’s still performing, actually. It turns out she was in Tel Aviv this past Summer, touring with Lou Reed. Laurie Anderson was the Underground’s Underground Queen during the 80’s and 90’s. Sometimes obscure, always challenging, she was a performance artist in New York City, operating very much in the background of popular music – a place she essentially stayed for, well, pretty much ever. But she has attracted a wide range of co-performers, from William Burroughs to David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush and Brian Eno.
I always saw a love of music and beauty in her work, intermixed with challenging modern images. She is lyrical as she can be, melodic to the max, with just a few bumps along the road. Unconventional, gorgeous to look at as a young artist with no cares and extremely talented, Laurie Anderson will delight and make you think at the same time.
When music all seems to be boxed up in prepared ways, it’s refreshing to see naked talent, playing around on the edges of propriety and convention. We need people like Laurie Anderson, whether we like it – or know it – or not. Here’s “Gravity’s Angel”:
Hey Steve, I’m a Laurie Anderson fan from way back, but haven’t kept up with what she’s been doing lately. Thanks for this update.
Pomona Belvedere´s last blog ..Brugmansia Miracle
Comment by Pomona Belvedere — December 29, 2009 @ 9:15 pm
You certainly are an eclectic one, Senore’ Steve!
Comment by Freddy — December 30, 2009 @ 2:07 pm
LOL, Freddy. Hey, it;s a big world out there. I try and see 10% of the good stuff, because I know there’s always more. With 50,000 unemployed musicians in Los Angeles, somebody’s going to try something new and different! I like “different”.
Pomona, thanks. Yeah, if you go to Youtube and look Laurie up, there is some footage of she and Reed in Tel Aviv. I haven’t watched yet.
Steve´s last blog ..Musical Interlude – Laurie Anderson
Comment by Steve — December 30, 2009 @ 7:32 pm
Cool! I’ve seen her a couple times over the years, once with her performing part of one of her big early-80s works, and the other a performance where she basically gave a hip performance-lecture of the sort some other performance artists were giving around that time. I loved her Oh Superman album, and of the big pile of vinyl I still own, that’s one of the few albums I’ll be holding on to when I get rid of the rest. I played it for a lot of people, but most seemed to find it a little too dark. But for me, I’ always drawn to things that balance the light and the dark, and she does it so well. Thanks for the walk down memory lane.
lostlandscape (James)´s last blog ..agave update
Comment by lostlandscape (James) — December 31, 2009 @ 7:54 pm
Yeah, she and I go back a ways. I saw her in Vancouver, BC once and she captivated me. I hate saying this but it was her looks, foremost, lol. God, I am a slave to hormones, what can I say?
Comment by Steve — December 31, 2009 @ 9:40 pm
Well… there you go! We have something else in common, an appreciation for Laurie Anderson. As apparently my other cohorts share, too, looking at the previous comments.
I was lucky enough to see Laurie ‘live’ before her audience became so large that she had to move to bigger venues.
Every once in a while I get in a mood, and listen to her early recordings for hours on end.
Cool link! xo
Alice
Alice Joyce´s last blog ..Blue… but not Sad – Hail to the Horticulturists!
Comment by Alice Joyce — January 6, 2010 @ 4:28 pm