Big Science

Tracks:

From The Air n

Big Science

Sweaters

Walking And Falling

Born, Never Asked

O Superman

Example 22

Let X = X

It Tango

From The Air

I think that the music for this song is perfect for it's mood. Once I tried to get my friend to make me a mix of this song and Nitzer Ebb's "Join in the Chant." He wouldn't do it. JimDavies

Welcome to the Loving Arms of the Apocalypse, my friend.... Nothing left but us cockroaches! You'll find this theme runs rampant pretty much all throughout Big Science, most notably present in the title song, and "From the Air". All surrounded, of course, by wiseass snide remarks about the nature of human beings and loads of innuendo about modern culture. :) John Nolt eclogue@qnet.com

I feel that a number of the songs are concerned with consciousness and memory. 'From the Air' seems to me to describe consciousness's passage through life inside the body. The plane represents the body (cf. juxtaposition of 'this is the hand' and 'here come the planes' in 'O Superman') and the consciousness of the individual is the passenger. We are on autopilot ('there is no pilot') - the captain's instructions are reflexes or unconscious actions ('put you hands on your head', etc) However consciousness is collective, or mirrored in others ('you are not alone', 'I've seen this all before', 'I'm a caveman') This mirroring also turns up in '2 Jims' and the women 'all called Betty'. We define ourselves and are defined by others ('you are not alone') Consciousness can be born from within the coccooning womb of the body/plane ('jump out of the plane') geraint@hades.business.co.uk (Geraint Jennings)

I think this describes an evolution of consciousness as Geraint explains, but I also see it more specifically about free will. First the pilot is the father figure in whose hands the life of the protagonist rests, but he seems either to have an inappropriately sick sense of humor, or else is losing his marbles (the "Simon Says" bit). In verse two, this paternal voice becomes megalomaniac: "Cause I'm a caveman" - I've been here since before Man; "Cause I've got eyes in the back of my head" - I see everything, everywhere; "It's the heat" - a banality but also a patronizing non-answer to the question, as if to say "You'll never understand Me".... this is a pilot with a God complex! But verse 3 (which is *not* spoken by the Captain) turns it all around: stop looking here for the answer, jump out of this plane because it's not in control & doesn't control you; there is no pilot/god/parent; we are all our own pilots/gods/parents. The crashing plane is like crashing faith (or dogma, or superstition) - when you realize the "pilot" you've been listening to is going to crash you into the ground, you jump out and find out that contrary to what you feared, "you are not alone" in taking responsibility for your own life. Also, it's important that The Captain does *not* speak this last verse (it's always specified in 1 & 2). The Captain wanted you to go down with the plane. I think the voice of this verse is your own voice, and you're finally listening to it. -- "D" of mukamuk@pacbell.net

You state that "This is a joke on the Simon Says game." That's certainly valid. But what's more shocking is that the Captain would play such a game (or just joke around even if s/he's not referring to Simon Says) while the plane is going down. (papierman@yahoo.com)

Good evening. This is your Captain.

We are about to attempt a crash landing.

Please extinuish all cigarettes.

Place your tray tables in their

upright, locked position.

Your Captain says: Put your head on your knees.

Your Captain says: Put your head on your hands.

Captain says: Put your hands on your head.

Put your hands on your hips. Heh heh.

This is a joke on the Simon Says game. JimDavies

This is your Captain-and we are going down.

We are all going down, together.

And I said: Uh oh. This is gonna be some day.

Standby. This is the time.

And this is the record of the time.

This is the time. And this is the record of the time.

Use of a stereotypical phrase in a context which charges it with associated meaning-- Laurie Anderson's favorite tactic. In this case, we could say that this song, the cataclysmic fall in the arms of a technology-driven society that cannot take care of us but won't leave us alone, is "the record of the time", this time, our time. ux954@freenet.victoria.bc.ca (Laura Miller)

This sequence makes me think of the "black box" flight recorder -- In the midst of whatever is going wrong, the clock is still ticking and the recorder is still recording. wharris@mail.airmail.net (Billy Harris)

Her line" this is the time. this is the record of the time" may be suggesting a comment about the nature of poetry in the tradition of English Poetry. Marvell - To his coy mistress - discusses the possibilities of future time. "Had we but World enough, and Time This coyness Lady were no crime." T S Eliot - "Love song of J Alfred Prufrock" responded to Marvell with his line "And indeed there will be time". Quite ironic from a procrastinating protagonist. Both poets indicate a romantic future in a despairing present. Both narrators of the poems discuss the essence of humans to think of themselves in some other way; a crucial capacity for a nation - such as the USA - that has a tradition of manifest destiny. Thus the idea of using language to represent ourselves as others in all social aspects is fundamental for we beings as humans. Laurie now takes that idea of the romantic other/dimension and suggests that our immediate response to the above poems cannot be similar - one written in the seventeenth century - the latter written last century. Now as post modernists we cannot relate to previous words or ideas and our romance has changed from the future modal of "will" to the present intransitive "is". In an ahistoric moment, Laurie has summed up our future as present time that crashes and reduces our romantic human endeavours to the mere puppetry of social role models. Hence the postmodern paradox of shunning the past but acknowledging the necessity to understand and use the history language to continue as human beings.
sincerely
tom lane

Uh-this is your Captain again.

You know, I've got a funny feeling I've seen this all

before.

Why? Cause I'm a caveman.

Why? Cause I've got eyes in the back of my head.

Why? It's the heat. Standby.

It's the heat and eyes in the back.. Are both idioms that we use in english. Laurie is forcing us to look at them critically by putting them in this context. JimDavies

This is the time. And this is the record of the time.

This is the time. And this is the record of the time.

Put your hands over your eyes. Jump out of the plane.

There is no pilot. You are not alone. Standby.

This is the time. And this is the record of the time.

This is the time. And this is the record of the time.

Seems as though something like this actually happened to Laurie, which explains the common airplane theme in her work. There is a detailed story of it in US live, most of which I believe to be true. JimDavies

Big Science

Does anyone agree that Big Science is the most **stunning, atmospheric** song ever penned by Laurie A? Whenever I listen to it, and it is often :) The vison she conjures up of that lonely *sunset time* road with vast lots of empty spaces and big billboards and useless buildings... just gets me every time. "Such a vision of the street as the street never had..." Anyone that has ever visited a newly developed suburb or "new Town" knows that hollow feeling only too well. Of course being an architect I guess it has to ;) It is such a sad melancholy expression. Somehow it also reminds me of those old westerns where the guy gets off the stage coach and steps into the dust and the locals kind of "scurry away" and he's left alone with the swirling bits of trash and dust devils... And lastly, but not least.... TS Eliot's Preludes : "... The worlds revolve like ancient women, Gathering fuel in vacant lots." Cheers, Anton antonij@asiaonline.net

'Big Science' has a strong resonance for me. Once again consciousness is coccooned inside the womb ('it's cold outside'), but in being born it moves from familiarity to unfamiliarity. I think the instructions according what is going to happen are partly a reflection of people telling you what life is going to be like *for you* i.e. your life defined by others. It is also partly an ironic comment on the way people's mental maps take on a reality of their own. People arrange to meet outside a shop that is no longer there, but they still use the name as it was. People remember things the way they used to be, and they live more and more in the past, with the present becoming more and more like the future. Eventually, you become a stranger in the place you grew up: the place you grew up in is no longer there ('everywhere he goes, he stays a stranger'). This change in perception is predetermined by the impermanence of a building-site culture. Like the plane, the modern urban environment is a strangely alienating vessel for the consciousness. Impermanence is permanent. The fixed points of our life are always rushing past us,, leaving only an illusion of reality, like the frames of a cinema film creating an illusion of a fixed and coherent scene *because* their speed deceives the eye ('let's roll the film') geraint@hades.business.co.uk (Geraint Jennings)

Coo coo it's cold outside. Coo coo it's cold outside.

Ooo coo coo. Don't forget your mittens.

Hey Pal! How do I get to town from here?

And he said: Well just take a right where

they're going to build that new shopping mall,

go straight past where they're going to put in the freeway,

take a left at what's going to be the new sports center,

and keep going until you hit the place where

they're thinking of building that drive-in bank.

You can't miss it. And I said: This must be the place.

Ooo coo coo. Golden cities. Golden towns.

Golden cities. Golden towns.

And long cars in long lines and great big signs

and they all say: Hallelujah. Yodellayheehoo.

Every man for himself. Ooo coo coo.

Golden cities. Golden towns. Thanks for the ride.

Big Science. Hallelujah. Big Science. Yodellayheehoo.

This song is a comment on our modern civilization. Up until now she talks about the progress made and the development. Not only the development, but the plans for development-- in this way she gets across the feeling of constant progress through time. JimDavies

You know. I think we should put some mountains here.

At this point she reminds us that we can't place natural things anywhere, even if we decided to. JimDavies

Actually, it makes me think of designing worlds for role-playing games. I love her suggestion "and what about stairs?" - in real life, building an artificial mountain is much harder than building a flight of stairs, but in D&D they both take the same amount of effort.wharris@mail.airmail.net (Billy Harris)

IMO, this isn't about the impossibility of changing nature but the very frightening fact that we actually can. I'm thinking of the Marina here in San Francisco, which shouldn't exist, but someone decided we needed more land for a World Expo in the 1920's, so they manufactured the Marina out of thin air (well, actually, out of landfill :) So after remodeling the face of the planet with sports centers, shopping malls, and banks, why not move on to remodeling the planet itself? (shudder) To paraphrase the Clone, "Why do we climb mountains? Because they're there. Why do we build mountains? Because they were never there.-- "D" of mukamuk@pacbell.net

Otherwise, what are all the characters going to fall off of?

I think this is a reference to Roadrunner cartoons, where Wile E. Coyote is always falling off cliffs. JimDavies

And what about stairs? Yodellayheehoo. Ooo coo coo.

Here's a man who lives a life of danger.

Everywhere he goes he stays - a stranger.

The lines, "Here's a man who lives a life of danger. Everywhere he goes he stays - a stranger." from the song Big Science are quoted from the theme song for "Secret Agent", the Patrick McGoohan tv series which preceded The Prisoner.
Michael Norwitz blaklion@best.com

Howdy stranger. Mind if I smoke? And he said:

Every man, every man for himself.

Every man, every man for himself.

All in favor say aye.

say "I" if you are in favor of individualism. Charlie Campos

Big Science. Hallelujah. Big Science. Yodellayheehoo.

Hey Professor! Could you turn out the lights?

Let's roll the film.

Big Science. Hallelujah.

Every man, every man for himself.

Big Science. Hallelujah. Yodellayheehoo.

Sweaters

I believe this song is about getting sick of someone. JimDavies

'Sweaters' reflects an overwhelming familiarity with externals (mouth, eyes, colour of sweater, way of holding pen and pencil) but there is no connection with the other person. 'I no longer love it' not 'I no longer love *you*. geraint@hades.business.co.uk (Geraint Jennings)

When we are falling in love with somebody, little things inevitably endear us to them. The details that distinguish them from everyone else we know. An idiosyncratic expression, or a preference for certain clothes. And: when we are falling out of love with somebody, it is those same little things that just as inevitably are the first to signal a change in the weather. The song is not about someone who has become repellent, not yet. But the little things are no longer endearing, and the singer knows that the relationship's end is looming - thus the song is a dirge. I love the drums. Not confined to being a metronome with ornamentation, they are wonderfully expressive. For me they prophecy the violence and anger that the not-too-distant break-up will bring. I wish more music had drums like this. Brian Raiter brianr@connectsoft.com

I love the drums here too. There's a great wild section in "City Song" (US1-4) that starts out in time with the "dog" sample and then goes haywire. "Dr. Miller" (US) is a little different in that it's all in time with the 4/4 count, but still unpredictable. And then there's "Gravity's Angel" which I think has her most exciting percussion to date - I could listen to just the music forever...-- "D" of mukamuk@pacbell.net

As to Sweaters, the song can be about being sick of someone. Alternatively it can be sick about society and its self-imposed fashion. LA can be telling society that, for example, these sweaters you're selling me on all the malls, well, I no longer like them (if she ever did :) I no longer like the mouths of models society keeps pushing. LA could be attaching all the facets of the modern consumerist society to a person she doesn't like (or a person that represents all such society offers). Then again, I could be overthinking it ;^) (papierman@yahoo.com)

Hi I am a ten year old kid named GAVIN and I have lately been listing to Laurie.And I think that sweaters says I hate you.

I no longer love your mouth.

I no longer love your eyes.

I no longer love your eyes.

I no longer love the color of your sweaters.

I no longer love it.

I no longer love the color of your sweaters.

I no longer love the way you hold your pans

and pencils.

I no longer love it.

Your mouth. Your eyes.

The way you hold your pens and pencils.

I no longer love it. I no longer love it.

Walking & Falling

'Walking and Falling': I think the link between the two parts of the song rests on the potential ambiguity of 'falling'. 'I was looking for you, but I couldn't find you' is a search for a connection with the other person, and the 'walking' also represents the looking and the falling represents the connection, i.e. falling *in love*. This summons up an image for me of wandering around, trying to sort out your feelings for someone else. 'Looking for you' = falling for you. geraint@hades.business.co.uk (Geraint Jennings)

I was always intrigued by the intimacy of Walking and Falling to such an extent that I was trying to connect the two parts, which seemingly were unrelated. Then, one day, while I was skimming through my Bible, I stumbled on one of Solomon's Songs:

3:1 All night long on my bed
I longed for my beloved.
I longed for him but he never appeared.
3:2 "I will arise and look all around throughout the town,
and throughout the streets and squares;
I will search for my beloved."
I searched for him but I did not find him.

There's undeniably a connection between Laurie ANderson's poem and this particular Solomon's Song, in my opinion. I think the second part elaborates the awareness of her own physicality in connection with the inner turmoil she's in from looking for her lover ('you'.) This turmoil is experienced through the body. Greetings, Stefan Detrez

I wanted you. And I was looking for you.

But I couldn't find you.

Every time I hear this, I can't help but think that she included this so that she could put "Language Is a Virus" on a later (commercial) record. Brian Raiter brianr@connectsoft.com

I wanted you. And I was looking for you all day.

But I couldn't find you. I couldn't find you.

This song has two distinct parts, and I can't see any relationship between them, except that perhaps she was walking when she was looking for the person. JimDavies

You're walking. And you don't always realize it,

but you're always falling.

With each step you fall forward slightly.

And then catch yourself from falling.

Over and over, you're falling.

And then catching yourself from falling.

And this is how you can be walking and falling

at the same time.

Born, Never Asked

Child: "I never asked to be born!"
Parent: "GO TO YOUR ROOM!"
Charlie Campos

These lyrics make no sense to me, but I think the music is haunting and beautiful. JimDavies

'Born Never Asked' Like the 'film' in Big Science, the theatre is like a procession of images of our own lives viewed from a distance by our consciousness. The theatre here is also a vessel for our consciouness like the plane. Here it appears to be a collective consciousness. We are all wondering what life holds in store for us, what the play is going to be, 'what is behind the curtain'. Curtain up at the theatre is like a birth. The play starts, and the actors appear to be autonomous but are really acting out a script, almost as it were on 'autopilot'. Compare with 'From the Air': there appears to be a pilot, but there isn't. You just have to 'jump out of the plane'. The play is like the memory in advance in Big Science. It's already been remembered/memorized but we (the audience) have yet to experience it (cf. 'this is the time. And this is the record of the time') geraint@hades.business.co.uk (Geraint Jennings)

It was a large room. Full of people. All kinds.

And they had all arrived at the same buidling

at more or less the same time.

It has been pointed out to me, and I have to agree, that this is the maternity ward - the big room where they put all the newborns so that the new parents can watch them through the glass window. Brian Raiter brianr@connectsoft.com

And they were all free. And they were all

asking themselves the same question:

What is behind that curtain?

and the answer is - Laurie Anderson, about to begin the show.
(Maternity ward? Sheesh!) -- David Hodson -- davidh@kiss.com.au

You were born. And so you're free. So happy birthday.

O Superman

"O Superman" on _Big Science_ was written as a response to the failed US hostage rescue attempt in Iran in the late '70s. Thus the "are you coming home?," the "when justice is gone, there's always force," and the references shifting from "Mom" and the military, as the image of America shifts from a protective "mother" to a forceful military. I think the reference point of the lyrics are the military personnel who died as well as the hostages themselves, giving the whole song a very melancholy tone. Jay D. Anderson Jay.Anderson@hx.deere.com

'O Superman' is a *classic*. I used to have the answering machine bit on my answering machine but people got confused! 'Why', they asked me, ' do you have that message saying just start talking _at the sound of the tone_? You mean _after_ the tone, surely?' Oh well, I tried.... 'Neither snow nor rain....' comes originally from Herodotus, I believe, and gives the idea of inevitability, of automatism. 'You don't know me but I know you' is like the onlooker/participant idea of 'Born Never Asked' or the imperfect connection of 'Sweaters' or the familiarity/unfamiliarity in Big Science. geraint@hades.business.co.uk (Geraint Jennings)

The original text that O Superman is based on (from Massenet's Opera "La Cid", hence the (for Massenet) in the title of the song), and, I've also done a babelfish translation of it... Also, I've done "Is anybody Home?", and "Time to Go".

Original French:
Ah! tout est bien fini...
Mon beau reve de gloire,
Mes reves de bonheur
S'envolent a jamais!
Tu m'as pris mon amour...
Tu me prends la victoire... Seigneur, je me soumets!
O souverain, O juge, O pere,
Toujours voile, present toujours,
Je t'adorais au temps prospere
Et te benis aux sombres jours!
Je vais ou la loi me reclame
Libre de tous regrets humains!
O souverain, O juge, O pere, 

Translation (care of babelfish@altavista) Ah! all is well finished... My beautiful dream of glory, My dreams of happiness flies away forever! You took my love to me... You take the victory to me... Lord, I subject myself! O sovereign, O judge, O father, Always veiled, present always, I adored you at the times prosperous And you blessed at the dark days! I go where the law claims me Libre of all human regrets! O sovereign, o judge, o father,

O Superman. O judge. O Mom and Dad. Mom and Dad.

O Superman. O judge. O Mom and Dad. Mom and Dad.

Hi. I'm not home right now. But if you want to leave a

message, just start talking at the sound of the tone.

Hello? This is your Mother. Are you there? Are you

coming home?

She mentions something that we all know so well in a strange context, which makes it kind of funny. JimDavies

Hello? Is anybody home? Well, you don't know me,

but I know you.

In "O Superman," the message on the machine seems to say one thing, "This is your mother," and later, "Well you don't know me, but I know you."
I think that the first statement was not just an attempt to get the person to answer the phone (like some messages I have received from girlfriends in the past: I'm listening to the machine, wondering whether I should pick it up and she says: "this is an emergency!!!" The so-called "emergency" turns out to be a bruised thumbnail or something). Both statements are correct:
Mother = Mother country = the government = a government agent.
You don't know me but I know you = I know of you, I have received information of you from others.
In a large bureaucracy like our government, it is very common to have information about people you don't personally know and get messages from people you don't know. -Dwayne Kennemore

And I've got a message to give to you.

Here come the planes.

Knowing Laurie's fear of planes, this is probably describing a feeling of impending doom. JimDavies

So you better get ready. Ready to go. You can come

as you are, but pay as you go. Pay as you go.

And I said: OK. Who is this really? And the voice said:

This is the hand, the hand that takes. This is the

hand, the hand that takes.

This is the hand, the hand that takes.

Here come the planes.

They're American planes. Made in America.

Smoking or non-smoking?

The reference 'smoking or non-smoking' in 'O Superman' can refer to several things:
1 - The planes themselves may be smoking... hostage rescue isn't easy you know, they could be smoking if they got hit.
2 - This may be a reference to the American value of freedom of choice.
I personally find #2 more likely to be what LA had in mind. I really would like to ask her one of these days. Ah well, maybe I will in four or five years.
-Dwayne Kennemore
Dwayne_Kennemore_at_ASTENGFW@ccmailsmtp.ast.com

And the voice said: Neither snow nor rain nor gloom

of night shall stay these couriers from the swift

completion of their appointed rounds.

I thought this was weird and wonderful, and then I found out that it was the slogan of the post office.. Well, Laurie does get some credit for making us notice it, like an artistic photographer would. JimDavies

Bombers. Brian Raiter brianr@connectsoft.com

Something I read recently quoted "Neither snow nor rain ... appointed rounds" as something to do with the US Post Office, and I had a sudden realisation that the use in O Superman was even cleverer than I had originally thought - I had guessed (wrongly) that it was from Revelations. So I did an Altavista search for it, found it was inscribed on the Manhattan Post Office, and is a quote from Herodotus about Persian couriers. See

http://www.usps.gov/history/his8.htm

Then I added 'Laurie Anderson' to the search and landed on your site!

I have always assumed that 'O Superman' was about nuclear weapons and the cold efficiency of their delivery, and this seems to confirm it - the same beaurocratic efficiency of the Post Office applied to delivery of death. The voice on the answering machine is Death - "The Hand that Takes". "Smoking or non-smoking" is a superb juxtaposition of civil aviation trivialities with military aviation precision.Paul Clark prc@sysmag.com

'Cause when love is gone, there's always justice.

And when justive is gone, there's always force.

And when force is gone, there's always Mom. Hi Mom!

This reminds me of being a child when mom and dad were the finality of everything. Play fair, and it that doesn't work, threaten. If you still aren't getting anywhere, tell mom. JimDavies

"When love is gone..." is a paraphrasing of Lao Tsu, Chapter 38. My translation has it like this:

 "Therefore when Tao is lost, there is goodness
  When goodness is lost, there is kindness
  When kindness is lost, there is justice
  When justice is lost, there is ritual..."

So hold me, Mom, in your long arms. So hold me,

In O Superman, "In your long arms" may refer to the long-arm of the law... the control the government exercises over others by (1) the law, and (2) the force it has available to use if someone breaks the law or (as we have seen in the past) does something ELSE it doesn't like (hostage taking is one such example).
"Electronic arms" may refer to the Internet, or some other form of communication. Recall that the Internet was created by the government for the military. It's hard to get away with much on a large scale when CNN broadcasts everything you do!
"Petrochemical arms" may refer to the fuel for planes. Planes are used for air raids and hostage rescues (I don't think the military to send in the Love Boat to rescue the hostages!) I am unsure of this one, though.
From: Dwayne_Kennemore_at_ASTENGFW@ccmailsmtp.ast.com

Mom, in your long arms.

In your automatic arms. Your electronic arms.

In your arms.

So hold me, Mom, in your long arms.

Your petrochemical arms. Your military arms.

In your electronic arms.

So she is making an ananogy between mother and your mother country. And the meaning of "arms" changes from appendages to weapons. It's interesting to think that we are being "held" by the weapons of our country. JimDavies

Example 22

In Example 22, 'You talk as if you knew me' gives the same sense of familiarity/unfamiliarity. I also sometimes hear 'the birds are flying so low' as 'the birds are flying solo', which connects with the next line: 'Honey, you're my one and only'. In 'Let X=X' the image of the burning building is another vessel of consciousness, as, I think, is the 'cast'. The cast is a cocooning symbol, whereas the burning building is threatening. I make a link with the 'petrochemical arms' of 'O Superman'. 'I gotta go' = I've got to be born and get out of the burning building = womb. geraint@hades.business.co.uk (Geraint Jennings)

I can't completely explain why, but I love this weird and wonderful collage. It is almost my favorite track on the entire album. Her hoarse voice conjures up a victim of heartbreak, which make her demand, "pay me what you owe me," unexpectedly crass. And the final unleashed singing/screeching, wordless. contrasted with the operatic soprano singing backup, is so bare and honest. Truly beautiful. Brian Raiter brianr@connectsoft.com

I was given BIG SCIENCE as a birthday present having only seen "Language Is A Virus" on MTV once or twice before. On the whole, my first take on the album was "What the hell is this?" But "Example #22" with its sheer otherwordly weirdness was the song that hooked me and kept me coming back for more, until I gradually realized Laurie was a genius and much more worth my consumer dollars and time than the Weird Al Yankovic and Cyndi Lauper I was listening to at the time. Thank you, Laurie! This song may still make no sense whatsoever, but it helped save a 14-year old from a musical fate worse than death!!-- "D" of mukamuk@pacbell.net

Beispiele paranormaler Tonbandstimmen.

Was sind paranormale Tonbandstimmen?

Es sind Stimmen unbekannte herkunft.

Es sind paranormaler Tonbandstimmen-

(Examples of paranormal voices on tape.

What are paranormal voices on tape?

They are voices of unknown origin.

They are paranormal voices on tape-)

Ihren Klang. Ich verstehe die Sprachen.

Ich verstehe die Sprachen nicht. Ich hore nur

Irhen Klang.

(Your sound. I understand the languages.

I don't understand the languages.

I hear only your sound.)

The sun is shining slowly

What a great statement! JimDavies

The birds are flying so low.

Honey you're my one and only,

So pay my what you owe me.

Lights are going down, slowly,

In the woods the animals are moving.

Another great line! JimDavies

In my dreams you're talking to me.

Your voice is moving through me.

You talk as if you knew me.

So pay me what you owe me.

Beispiel Nummer zweiundzwanzig.

(Example 22.)

The sun is shining slowly

The birds are flying so low.

Honey you're my one and only

So pay me what you owe me.

Let X=X

It's brilliant. In math one is always substituting for x. You will always hear a math student say "let x=b squared or pi or something. But LA takes the phrase to its only rightful and natural conclusion. She simply lets x remain wholly itself. She does not try to change it or replace it, but lets it exist as it was meant to. There are more analogies you could take this to, but my fingers are really tired and you've probably heard enough of my rattling for the moment. Laura Plummer

A very profound statment -- a perfectly legal BASIC statment that defines X to be whatever X is. By the way, in C++ you can 'overload' the assignment operator; if a novice tries this, then X = X will very likely trigger a bug. Billy Harris wharris@mail.airmail.net

I met this guy - and he looked like might have

been a hat check clerk at an ice rink.

Which, in fact, he turned out to be. And I said:

Oh boy. Right again.

Let X=X. You know, it could be you.

It's a sky-blue sky. Satellites are out tonight.

It says somewhere in SFTNB that Originally it was "many moons are out tonight." And someone Laurie works with suggested this instead. I like the change. It reminds me of that giant ring of reflective baloons that some people were thinking of putting into orbit.It would look like a ring of bright stars, about the size of a full moon. It never happened, obviously. Lots of people didn't like it because it would spoil the natural look of the heavens. Makes me think: Nature is beautiful, but so it art, and art is not natural (meaning it's artificial). I think it's rather revolutionary that people suggested somthing like this ring. I don't know what I think of it personally, but it certainly is thought provoking. Imagine what groups of people living in remote lands with no contact with scientific society would think if there were suddenly a ring of stars.. Instantly myths and legends would appear all over. It would make a fascinating study. JimDavies

Let X=X.

You know, I could write a book. And this book would

be think enough to stun an ox. Cause I can see the

future and it's a place - about 70 miles east of

here. Where it's lighter. Linger on over here.

Is some ways, the future is a place. Or at least, some places are so much like the past of other places that there seems to be a point in time related to the location. JimDavies

I think this line refers to our tendency to view the future as an actual destination. As somewhere we're actually 'heading' towards. As a goal we can eventually 'reach'. The fact that we, by and large, are hopeful of this desti- nation is also pointed to. Perhaps the seemingly contrary command to stay here instead of go 70 miles east, is a request to pay more attention to the here and now. The word linger has a connotation to travel in an easy-going, non-ambitious manner. And a positive, carefree ring to it. Leo_Horishny@pol.com (Leo Horishny)

Got the time? Let X=X.

I got this postcard. And it read, it said:

Dear Amigo - Dear Partner.

Listen, uh - I just want to say thanks. So...thanks.

Thanks for all the presents. Thanks for introducing

me to the Chief.

Thanks for putting on the feedbag. Thanks for going

all out.

Thanks for showing me your Swiss Army knife.

and uh -

Thanks for letting me autograph your cast.

Hug and kisses. XXXXOOOO.

Naturally the X's and O's are kisses and hugs, I'm not sure what it means in this context, but I think it's significant that she pronounces them "zero" rather than just "oh." JimDavies

With a passage that begins "Dear Partner, Dear Amigo" and ends "Hug & Kisses XXX000", the image the always come to mind as I listen is this: The writer & the reader were long time friends, who've recently had a falling out. The writer wants to apologize, but can't quite bring himself to, so he starts a meaningless conversation, just to get them talking, then keep straining to extend it, as he works up his nerve. He eventually starts to become comfortable, but still can't say the words, so he punts -- He ends it quickly, pretending nothing ever happened, and then runs off (the rather sudden "hug & kisses"). The problem I have with this interpretation, is that it only really works if the two people are meeting face to face, and the song says this passage comes from a postcard. On the other hand, clearly no one would write all those UHs in a postcard, so it seems LA is playing with the languages again -- putting a transcript of a spoken conversation in an inappropriate place -- on a postcard. James W. Curran

Oh yeah, P.S.

I - feel - feel like - I am - in a burning building - and I

gotta go.

Cause I - I feel - feel like - I am - in a burning

building - and I gotta go.

With the correct delivery, I sometimes get a laugh when I say this to people. JimDavies

It Tango

I remember seeing an early lithograph of LAs which included the lyrics to "It Tango". There is was subtitled (as best I can remember) "Duet for a man and woman who can't agree on exactly what 'it' is". Note that the subject of every sentence in the song is "it". So, I guess the title really should be rendered as " 'It' Tango". James W. Curran

IT (takes two to) TANGO. Referring to He and She, their interaction, and the words that are not said. Charlie Campos

Society has a collective idea of what it means to be a woman, which then gets fed to the next generation so that the women will learn how to act and the men will know what to expect from them. This song is comment on men's expectations of women ("Isn't it just like a woman" is, in its own subtle way, an extremely offensive remark), and how it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with reality ("It takes one to know one" is a beautiful reversal of what we normally think of as an insulting taunt). Brian Raiter brianr@connectsoft.com

It seems to me that this is a deaf dialogue, in the way that they are together physically, probably sitting somewhere, sharing a moment, there is a certain connection between them, but not in that moment, they are alone, they intent to fill the space, she does. he just response abstractly about her condition, categorizing her as just as a simple woman, nothing bad nothing good, he is really not saying anything. But then when the dialogue starts evoluting, we fall into reality that he is just in other frequency, repeating, reforcing, re evaluating his own statement, that docent evolute as hers. She keeps on going with her own conversation, abstracting as well, until she turns to the human relations conditions, theres no lie in it anyway. Finally she realices about the luck of connection, and she mention that as well, once again, no new response. the last two lines, propose a crossing to what has just happened to them, turning everything upside down, and re enforcing those lost human connections. its like 'i'm lost in your words'= im lost in your eyes. please, propose a feed back, at least of what you think about my words from 'far lands', Francisca Sofia, Santiago de Chile, South America. Francisca Lizana fran@infoera.cl

This may seem like a simplistic interpretation, but "It Tango" is one of my favorite pieces because it makes a great statement regarding the total miscommunication between the sexes. The one word ad d-on's suggest the stumbling blocks and misinterpretation that often result in a relationship (albe it a dysfunctional one). At first Laurie's comeback "It takes one to know one" is funny, but if exa mined more closely, I think what she is trying to say is that no man OR woman can really KNOW (bibl ically or otherwise) what it's like to be of another sex. And the final "He said it to no one" can also be interpreted as a double entendre on the word "know". Just my 2 cents. Bob Bob_Meg@msn.com

Here's my take on the song:

I don't see it as being femenist at all! On the contrary, I think that it's very sympathetic in its portrayal of the man. Here's how I read it:

A man and a woman are sitting on a bench, staring at a beautiful, cloudy sunset. The man has a slight crush on the woman, and so he uses a line to try and communicate this to her - "isn't it just like a woman?" He has a bit of a problem forcing this out, and stutters it a bit.The woman doesn't realize that she is the woman he's referring to, and doesn't know how to take it. She stutters back "it's just kind of hard to say." The man repeats himself, trying to make his message of love more clear. "Isn't it just like a woman." The woman again is not sure how to respond - "it just goes that way" - a very generic remark. The man repeats himself. She tries joking "it takes one to know one," still waiting for the man to give her some sighn of what he means. The man repeats himself again. The woman says something to no one, but something that she would say to the man if she only had a sign that he was interested - "Your eyes. It's a days work just looking in them."

Anyway, that's my take on the song. Sort of simplistic, but I think it better suits the beautiful and inspiring music. One of my favourite pieces ever.
Ben Greenstein, bgreenstein@nctimes.net

She said: It looks. Don't you think it looks a lot like rain?

He said: Isn't it. Isn't it just. Isn't it just like a woman?

She said: It's hard. It's just hard. It's just kind of hard

to say.

He said: Isn't it. Isn't it just. Isn't it just like a woman?

She said: It goes. That's the way it goes. It goes

that way.

He said: Isn't it. Isn't it just like a woman?

She said: It takes. It takes one. It takes one to. It takes

Interesting to note that it can sound like "takes 1, 2." JimDavies

one to know one.

He said: Isn't it just like a woman?

She said: She said it. She said it to no. She said it to

no one.

With this line there is the initial ambiguity--Is she saying "She said it to know?" or "She said it to no?" JimDavies

Perhaps she got sick of talking to this guy and his monotony and stopped talking to him. This song is making us look at what things we consider feminine things to say. JimDavies

It is possible that she stopped talking to this guy, but it IS also possible that she stopped considering him a person because of his chauvinist attitude.
So she DID say it, but what did she say it to? She said it to no one... some one she considers unimportant, worthless.
-Another fine interpretation by Dwayne Kennemore

Isn't it. Isn't it just? Isn't it just like a woman?

Your eyes. It's a day's work to look in to them.

Your eyes. It's a day's work just to look in to them.

Another great line. I'd love to have this on a T shirt or something. JimDavies

'It's a days work just to look into them' to look into = to investigate/to gaze into Investigating eyes, for me, links to the externals of 'Sweaters' geraint@hades.business.co.uk (Geraint Jennings)

"She" seems to come out on top of this argument, but I can also see it as a stalemate. In breaking down and insulting the man after several attempts to converse - "It takes one to know one" - she reduces herself to his level ("Isn't it just like a woman"). Realizing this, she "says it to know, she says it to no one: Isn't it just like a woman?" - a bitter recrimination of what she has just done. They both lose: he has no emotions, and her emotions get the better of her. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the last repetition said "Isn't it just like a human?" -- "D" of mukamuk@pacbell.net